The best—and easiest—brownies you'll ever make. This recipe belongs in your repertoire. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.
Recipe information
Yield
Makes 16 Servings
Ingredients
1
1
3
1
1
2
1
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 325°. Line an 8x8x2 inches glass baking dish with foil, pressing firmly into pan and leaving a 2 inches overhang. Coat foil with nonstick spray; set baking dish aside.
Step 2
Melt butter in a small sauce-pan over medium heat. Let cool slightly. Whisk sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl to combine. Pour butter in a steady stream into dry ingredients, whisking constantly to blend. Whisk in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating vigorously to blend after each addition. Add flour and stir until just combined (do not overmix). Scrape batter into prepared pan; smooth top.
Step 3
Bake until top begins to crack and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 25-30 minutes.
Step 4
Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool completely in pan. Using foil overhang, lift brownie out of pan; transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 16 squares.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Reviews (1001)
Back to TopI was craving brownies and had all of the ingredients on hand so I decided to give this recipe a shot despite the mixed reviews. I was short a little bit of butter so the only 2 minor modifications I made were to 1) melt the butter I had (which came out to about 1/3 cup) and then make up the difference by adding some avocado oil to make the combined total of 1/2 cup and 2) sub Valrhona cocoa powder. The brownies turned out amazing, possibly some of the best brownies I've had, and for only a little more work than a boxed mix! They were chewy on the edges, fudgy in the center, and had a shiny (somewhat crackly) top. (Noting that it did not look anything like the recipe photos - mine resembled the color of coal.) I prefer a slightly more bittersweet brownie so I'll definitely reduce the amount to 1 cup like the other reviewers mentioned but otherwise I think this is near perfect and would highly recommend!
J
San Francisco
6/21/2024
Like many others, my husband is extremely allergic to soy sauce. It's hard enough to make sure there's nothing in the various packaged goods where it unexpectedly shows up, but putting it into something like this is extremely dangerous unless the baker is there to tell everyone who may eat it.
Anonymous
Los Angeles CA
4/1/2024
I’m a pretty good baker, and have no problem following a recipe. So what happened with this one? The recipe calls for 1/3 c of AP flour, which doesn’t sound like enough to me. But, I went ahead and measured and mixed it in, and dumped it into a prepared 8x8 glass pan lined with foil. Into the oven at 325 degrees for 30 minutes and it was still very liquid. I cooked it another 30 minutes, and it still wasn’t fully cooked. So I took it out anyway, and hoped it would firm up as it cooled. It did, but not very much. It was very sticky and the foil ripped into shreds when I tried to remove it. The brownies tasted very good, but I wouldn’t serve them to guests. They didn’t hold their shape, and were broken and sticky. So if anyone can explain what happened, I’d like to try them again. BTW, the oven temp was accurate.
Anonymous
Terre Haute, IN
10/25/2023
These brownies will make everyone think you’re a better baker than you are.
Anonymous
11/7/2022
I found this recipe by searching for "never fail brownie" and this was a great choice! I am a good baker, but brownies have always been my Achilles heel. Something about this recipe just worked perfectly for me! I made several batches for a church dinner, and I even forgot to set the timer for one batch. All came out fudgy and delicious. This will be my go-to brownie recipe from now on
PennieS
Arlington, TX
9/21/2022
Why hide mediocre recipes behind a paywall?
Disappointed with BA
NY
4/8/2022
Like a few people below, I was directed here from a BA article suggesting substituting soy sauce for kosher salt in dessert - particularly chocolate dessert - recipes. So, I have copied and pasted this recipe to my collection, adding, in the ingredient list, "1/2 tsp kosher salt or 1 tsp soy sauce".
Dan W
CT
3/28/2022