Brownie breakdown: What's the best brownie recipe for you?
Fudgy, cakey, chewy …
Like the perfect pair of jeans, it can be hard to find the best brownie recipe for you. But brownies pose a particularly unique problem: All brownie recipes kind of look the same at first glance. So how do you know what a brownie’s flavor and texture will be like?
To choose the right brownie recipe for you, first you need to understand its ingredients and how they work.
Understanding the primary ingredients in brownies
True, most brownie recipes all basically have the same ingredient list, but slight variations in the amount and proportions of each can affect the final outcome, leading to brownies that are chewy, fudgy, cakey, or gooey. Here is a breakdown of what each ingredient does in a brownie recipe:
Butter and/or oil: More fat will lead to richer brownies; less fat will promote a drier crumb. Because oil has a higher fat percentage than butter (and is liquid at room temperature), it makes brownies even more moist; butter, meanwhile, tastes better. Often, when butter is included in a brownie recipe, it’s melted to encourage fudginess.
Sugar: Sugar impacts sweetness, of course, but also affects texture: More sugar helps brownies retain moisture, making them softer. Sugar is also key to a crackly top; partially melting the sugar, as indicated in many brownie recipes, including this one, causes it to rise to the top of the batter and dry out while baking.
Cocoa powder and/or melted chocolate: These are the two ways to make brownies chocolatey. Because cocoa powder is thirsty for liquid due to its starch content, using it can lead to a drier brownie if there’s not enough fat in the recipe. Cocoa powder also has a stronger “chocolatey” flavor than melted chocolate, since it has a higher percentage of cocoa solids. A brownie made with just chocolate tends to be fudgier; some brownies call for unsweetened chocolate for more chocolate flavor, while others use semisweet or bittersweet for more balanced sweetness.
Baking powder: As a chemical leavener, baking powder helps brownies rise — more baking powder leads to fluffier, airier texture, while less baking powder — or omitting entirely — promotes a denser texture.
Eggs: Eggs provide liquid and protein (in the egg white) and fats and emulsifiers (in the egg yolk); as a result, eggs support structure and contribute to mouthfeel, moisture content, and much more. A higher ratio of eggs can lead to a brownie with cakier texture because of the structure they provide.
Water or coffee: Not all brownie recipes contain additional liquid, but adding it can promote a cakier texture, and using coffee instead of just water deepens the flavors and complements the chocolate in the brownie.
Flour: The more flour, the cakier a brownie will be; less flour leads to a fudgier brownie with a more compact crumb. (Because fudgy brownies typically don’t contain a lot of flour, they’re an excellent gluten-free bake — in fact, we often prefer them with gluten-free flour, no matter your diet.)
Examining brownie recipes using baker’s percentage
One helpful way to compare recipes is to look at them using baker’s percentages. This is a ratio that uses the total weight of flour as its centerpiece: Flour is always treated as 100%, and all other ingredients are measured against that flour weight to convert the recipe into percentages. To determine those percentages, you divide the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the flour, then multiply the result (which is in decimal form) by 100 to convert it to a percent. This chart (aka a brownie breakdown) shows the different formulas for some of the brownie recipes on our site:
| Butter/oil | Sugar | Cocoa | Chocolate | Eggs | Liquid | |
| Fudge Brownies | 126% | 248% | 59% | 189% | 111% | None |
| Quick and Easy Brownies | 136% | 289% | 53% | 142% | 125% | None |
| Deep-Dark Fudge Brownies | 83% | 296% | 48% | 142% | 125% | 23% |
| Cakey Brownies | 125% | 248% | 59% | 94% | 139% | 63% |
| Our Ultimate Chewy Brownies | 136% | 331% | 53% | None | 125% | None |
| Big Batch Brownies | 126% | 220% | 63% | 189% | 111% | None |
Breaking down each brownie recipe
For a classic fudgy brownie with a crackly top: Fudge Brownies
Texture: These brownies combine a fudge brownie's ultra-moist texture with a subtle cake-like rise (in part thanks to the inclusion of baking powder), for the best of both worlds
Method: Easy; made by melting the sugar and butter together before mixing the batter, which partially melts the sugar to promote a crackly top
Time: 40 minutes
Bake these brownies if: You want a classic fudgy brownie that still retains some structure and has a classic shiny, crackly top
For a super-fast, fudgy brownie: Quick and Easy Brownies
Texture: A moist, fudgy pan of brownies with some rise thanks to the small amount of baking powder; these don’t typically have a sugary top because the sugar isn’t melted in the batter, but including the optional chocolate chips helps
Method: Easiest; made by stirring all ingredients together in one bowl by hand
Time: 32 minutes
Bake these brownies if: You want a classic fudge brownie with a slight rise that takes as little effort as possible, and you don’t care about achieving a crackly top
For a thick, dense, dark chocolate brownie: Deep-Dark Fudgy Brownies
Texture: A super-dark, moist brownie thanks to the high sugar content and lower amount of cocoa powder; there is no leavener (such as baking powder) included, contributing to their dense texture. These don’t typically have a sugary top because the sugar isn’t melted in the batter, but including the optional chocolate chips helps
Method: Easiest; made by stirring all ingredients together in one bowl by hand
Time: 45 minutes
Bake these brownies if: You want a tall brownie with dense texture and deep chocolate flavor from the use of Dutch-process cocoa
For a fine-grained, moist brownie made in one bowl: Cakey Brownies
Texture: Similar to a dense, very moist, fine-grained chocolate cake, in part because of the amount of eggs and inclusion of baking powder and water
Method: Easiest; made by stirring all ingredients together in one bowl by hand
Time: 38 minutes
Bake these brownies if: You want a light, cakey texture but still a deep chocolatey flavor
For a dense brownie with a chewy crumb: Our Ultimate Chewy Brownies
Texture: Supremely chewy texture, which is due to the combination of melted butter and oil in the batter, the use of cocoa powder (and no chocolate chips), and the high ratio of sugar. There is no leavener, promoting an even denser texture
Method: Easiest; made by stirring all ingredients together in one bowl by hand
Time: 40 minutes
Bake these brownies if: You’re looking for a dense, chewy crumb that falls between fudgy and cakey, without a crackly, shiny top
For a classic fudgy brownie that serves a lot of people: Big Batch Brownies
Texture: Fudgy, moist, and nicely chewy with a little bit of rise from the baking powder — these are quite similar to our Fudge Brownies recipe, above (just baked in a larger pan!)
Method: Easy; made by melting the sugar and butter together before mixing the batter, which partially melts the sugar to promote a crackly top
Time: 50 minutes
Bake these brownies if: You need to feed a crowd and want a classic fudgy brownie recipe with a crackly top
Speaking of crackly topped brownies, here’s a baker’s tip: If you want your brownies to have that tissue-thin layer on top, partially melting the sugar is a key step, but we’ve also found that including chocolate chips is important too. Many of the recipes above list chocolate chips as an optional ingredient — to ensure a shiny crust, make sure to include them! Learn more about how to achieve that satiny sheen in our post: How to make brownies with a shiny crust.
Cover photo and food styling by Liz Neily.
Recipes in this post
