Fudgy Cocoa Powder Brownies Recipe

How Chocolaty Is Your Chocolate?

When I want brownies, I want them now. But I also want real brownies. Boxes are for shoes, not for brownies. Or cakes. Or cookie mix. Shudder.

I knew I didn’t have enough unsweetened chocolate to make my Favorite Ever Brownie Recipe (thank you, kind folks at Cook’s Illustrated).

Since I didn’t have any unsweetened chocolate, I opted for cocoa powder brownies. And that’s what you should do, too.

Why not substitute semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate? I’ll tell you.

The more sugar in chocolate, the less chocolaty the chocolate is. That leads to boring brownies.

For those of you who scratch your head and say, “Come again?” think of it this way.

Each ounce of a chocolate bar is made up of a certain proportion of ingredients.

The more of one ingredient you squeeze into each ounce, the less of another.

In this instance, sugar squeezes out chocolate liquor. And that’s not good for anyone.

In order to make your semi-sweet-chocolate brownies be as chocolaty as the unsweetened-chocolate brownies, you’d have to either a)use more semisweet and reduce the other sugar by x (wherein x is Completely Unknown), or just add in x amount of cocoa powder (wherein x is also Completely Unknown). Unless you do math. Ew.

Cocoa Powder Brownies

Rather than do Math and Leave out Sugar and such, I decided to take the path of least resistance and go with cocoa powder brownies.

Cocoa powder, like unsweetened chocolate, doesn’t contain any sugar, so it’s mostly pure chocolate liquor that has been pressed then ground up into powder. And that means super chocolaty brownies.

And for these cocoa powder brownies, I turned to my dear-but-as-yet-unmet friend Alton Brown.

You can find his original recipe here, but I tweaked and messed with it to make them How I Wanted.

I mean, what’s the point in being able to make your own brownies if you can’t make them Exactly the Way you want?

How to Make Your Brownies Fudgy

Alton’s recipe calls for regular cocoa powder, and I wanted to use Dutch process. Why? Because I didn’t want to have to deal with balancing the pH by using baking soda.

I also wanted these guys to be rich, moist, and dark. And you can’t get that using regular cocoa powder.

Acidic batters, which is what you end up with when using regular cocoa powder, set up more firmly. And that would have given me Cakey Brownies. Or at least less fudgy brownies.

If I wanted that, I’d have just made Cake. Plus, regular cocoa powder tends to be a bit reddish in color, and I wanted Deep, Dark Brownies.

So, that’s why I went with Dutch Process Cocoa.

I also wanted a burnt sugar Edge to the brownies. Not edge as in Edge Pieces, but edge as in bite or flavor–just a little hint. Plus, I wanted to deepen the chocolate flavor by using coffee in a supporting role.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make my (now) favorite cocoa powder brownies. Feel free to tweak the amounts to make them your own!

• eggs: in this case, eggs function as leavener since you’re whipping a bunch of air into them. This will give the brownies a little lift in the oven. They also provide structure, emulsifiers, and fat to carry flavor and for richness
• espresso powder: just enough to underscore the chocolatiness. If you increase the espresso powder (or instant coffee) enough, you’ll have mocha brownies, which is never a bad thing.
• brown sugar: this provides the sweetness and lends to the tender, gooeyness of these cocoa powder brownies. You may also substitute a cup each of granulated sugar and packed brown sugar for the 2 cups of brown sugar called for
• molasses: adds to the richness and bittersweetness of these brownies. You can also use dark brown sugar rather than light brown and reduce the extra molasses or even leave it out altogether
• kosher salt: counteracts any bitterness from the cocoa and molasses and brings all the flavors into focus. You can substitute with fine salt, but reduce the amount by about 1/3.
• Dutch process cocoa powder: provides the deep, chocolatey flavor we want in a good brownie. You may also use American cocoa powder, but in that case, you may want to add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to counteract all the acidity
• melted butter: Often in making cakes, we cream the butter and sugar together (See: the creaming method). This provides some leavening. With melted butter, we won’t get any leavening. What we will get is lots of delicious fat to carry deep chocolate flavor. Creaming leads to cakey brownies, so using melted butter keeps things nice and gooey-fudgy, which is what we want
• vanilla extract: rounds out the chocolate flavor
• cake flour: provides a little bulk and adds to the structure while not being so much that your brownies lose their gooey lusciousness

Procedure

These brownies aren’t hard to make, but the procedure might be a little different than what you’re used to.

Read through the steps so you know what to expect:

1. Whip the eggs and espresso powder/instant coffee together until very light, thick, and fluffy.
2. While the eggs are whipping, which takes about 6-8 minutes, melt the butter and whisk in the cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla.
3. Add the brown sugar and molasses to the egg mixture and whip for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Add in the melted butter mixture and whip an additional couple of minutes, scraping the bowl as necessary.
5. With a large spatula, thoroughly fold in the sifted flour by hand.
6. Spread into your prepared pan and bake at 300F for about 45 minutes until nicely set.

Tips for Maximum Fudginess

In a nutshell:

• Use lots of butter and eggs for richness
• Don’t use any leavening like baking powder or soda
• Use unsweetened chocolate or cocoa powder–Dutch process
• Use a relatively small amount of flour.
• Deepen the flavor and chew with some molasses.
• Underscore the chocolate flavor with a hint of espresso.

Q & A

Craving More Chocolaty Goodness?

Try one of these recipes!

• Dark Chocolate Pound Cake my tweaks to my mom’s recipe. One of the best chocolate pound cakes in the world, if I do say so myself
• The Best Double Chocolate Cheesecake ridiculously chocolatey and smooth. Decadent.
• Bittersweet Chocolate Babka with Pecans a little less intensely chocolatey, but still full of bittersweet chocolate flavor and topped with two kinds of glaze
• Bittersweet Strawberry Swirl Brownies these brownies are the best. If you like strawberry and chocolate together, you won’t want to miss these brownies with a strawberry balsamic swirl
• Apricot Swirl Brownies Like a Sacher torte, but in brownie form, completely with bittersweet glaze. Nice!

A Note About Measurments

This recipe is mostly written by volume (cups), but the vast majority of my recipes are written by weight.

Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.

This is the scale I use, love, and recommend.

These cocoa powder brownies are amazing, rich, and fudgy.

Completely dark, completely moist, completely chocolate-y, bitter edge of burnt sugar. My Idea of Brownie Perfection. Enjoy!