The BEST Brownie Recipe

Hey, I'm John Kanell. And today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some fudgy, gooey, delicious brownies. So let's get started. First off, set your oven to 350 so it's nice and hot. And you're gonna wanna grab a big bowl and melt one cup of unsalted butter in there. That's 226 grams. 20 second intervals, stir in between until all the butter's melted. To that butter, we're gonna add 3 quarters of a cup or 75 grams of unsweetened cocoa powder. This is super important because the warm butter and the cocoa powder will meld together and release tons of chocolate flavor. Normally I would sift cocoa powder, but because it's going directly into a liquid, doesn't matter. Perfect. We also want two cups or 400 grams of granulated sugar here. This recipe's basically a big chocolate bar that we're popping into the oven with a little bit of eggs and a little bit of flour to hold it together. These brownies will not last long, but if you're rationing them out, they'll last three to four days in an airtight container on the counter, two days longer if they're refrigerated, or wrap in plastic, wrap in aluminum, and freeze them for up to three months. Grab a whisk. Scale is done. And we're gonna give this a nice mix. You wanna give this a really good whisk here. But let me tell you why. If you just mix this up and stop once everything's dissolved, you'll have a delicious brownie. But we have all this sugar in here and you can see how grainy it is. What you want is to dissolve the sugar so that once your brownies bake, you get a beautiful, shiny, crackly top. That's what everybody wants to see in a brownie. And you only get that if you mix this sugar up until it's dissolved. So you could even grab an electric mixer and go to town right now. I'm photographing these brownies, so I want them to look perfect. I'm gonna use the mixer. With some vigorous mixing, you can see that this looks a bit smoother and that makes a difference. I'm also gonna mix once the eggs go in. To this mixture, I want three large room temperature eggs. One, two, and three. And for some added flavor, a tablespoon of vanilla. For me, chocolate and salt go hand in hand, so I want one teaspoon of salt. If you're salt sensitive, reduce. But I think this is a nice addition. Give this a really good mix now. And by the way, if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button. There's two new recipes every single week and they're all delicious. What's that? I wanna go back to my electric mixer? You don't have to. You could do this all by hand. I just really want that beautiful, crackly top to be perfect for you and me. Finish mixing that by hand. Okay, and now you can see I have a beautiful, smooth, it doesn't even look grainy. It's still grainy because I added a lot of sugar in here, but it's so much smoother than before and you will notice the difference once this comes out of the oven. To hold everything together, I want one cup or 120 grams of flour. That's just enough to give it some structure. But I don't want it to interfere with the fudginess. You know, brownies come from America. They're an American invention. 1893, the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, the first brownies were recorded. And then from there, they gained popularity. Who doesn't like a fudgy, amazing, melt-in-your-mouth, decadent chocolate treat? We're using one and a half cups or 270 grams of chocolate chips. Sub out as much of that or all of it for other things like the chopped nuts. You could have some dried raisins. Can you imagine taking a bite of a beautiful brownie and it was full of raisins? Oh my God, I would be so angry. Oh, okay. 270 grams. Today we're just using chocolate chips. Dried cherries could be nice. My whisk is all done. We're gonna fold this together now. Gently. Vigorous mixing is all done. Once the flour goes in, mm-mm, just fold. Mix this together gently just until the flour disappears and your chocolate chips have been distributed evenly. Perfect. Now, let's grab our eight by eight inch baking tin and get to work. Today we're using an eight by eight inch. It's my favorite. But you could use a nine inch round cake tin. Same bake time. Or use a nine inch square, which will give you a thinner brownie and it'll bake five to 10 minutes faster. If you wanna make a big batch of brownies, use a nine by 13, double the recipe and increase the bake time five to 10 minutes. Give this a nice fold. Trim four of those exterior folds. The lightest spray just to act as glue. And now we can slide that in. This wasn't perfect, but it's okay. Transfer all of that delicious brownie batter right into your pan. Use an offset and just spread this out into a nice even layer. If you want, you can top with more chocolate chips, but I worked too hard to get a beautiful crackly top and I will not mar it with more chocolate. There we go. My brownie is ready to go into the oven, but what kind of brownie do you want? For me, I like a fudgy, dense, like molten brownie. Barely holds together. 35 minutes of bake time. If you want a little bit drier, still fudgy in the center, and a little bit taller, 45 minutes of bake time. And if you want it fully set and high as it could be, you'll get a 55 minute bake time. You're gonna really cook it through. Everyone's oven is slightly different, by the way, so one, I encourage you to get an oven thermometer. You'd be shocked how different it is from the number you read on the screen to what the actual internal temperature is. But know your oven and just move things around accordingly. We're gonna go for a fudgy, gooey brownie, so I'm gonna pop this in for 35 minutes. It'll be right back. In you go. Mixing that sugar really did the trick because look at that beautiful, crackly top. Cut this into whatever size pieces you like. This could be one personal size piece or it could be 12. I like nine. And look at that fudgy center. And just like that, they're ready to enjoy. That is a criminally decadent dessert. Oh my gosh. It's like a chocolate bomb that just explodes and melts on the tongue. So delicious, perfectly sweet, and it is a must make for all you chocolate lovers. I hope you get a chance to make this decadently delicious recipe. And if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button and check out my dessert bar playlist.