The BEST Fudgy Brownie Recipe

[0:00]Hey, I'm John Canal and today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some rich, fudgy, incredibly delicious brownies. So let's get started. First off, set your oven to 350 so it's nice and hot and now, in a large bowl, I'm going to cube one cup or 226 grams of butter. This is going to get melted and once it's nice and hot, we're going to bloom our cocoa powder in here so it is super fudgy and chocolatey. These brownies are so delicious and they're one of my most popular recipes. This batch is going to disappear in a flash, they're just going to be gone. This is ready to go into the oven, microwave in 20-second bursts, you could use like 60% power until it's nice and melty. Stir in between. My butter is all melted and just by the way, I used European style butter because there's less water in it and there's less chance of it exploding in the microwave. Right now, we're going to add three-quarters of a cup or 75 grams of Dutch processed cocoa powder. You can use any cocoa powder you'd like, but this dark Dutch processed one is going to give you a really fudgy, chocolatey. If you're using natural cocoa powder, it'll still be delicious, it'll just be a little bit less chocolatey and a little bit less fudgy. I'm also using a sifter just in case it's extra lumpy, which happens 50% of the time. I'm also adding two cups or 400 grams of granulated sugar. This is going to sweeten things up and give you a lovely soft fudgy texture along with that butter. This is totally optional, but if you want to amp up the chocolate flavor, which I always do, I'm going to add one teaspoon of instant espresso. This is not going to give you a coffee flavor at all, it's just going to amp up the chocolate flavor and if you're really concerned about caffeine, which I understand, you could use a decaf version. My scale is done. I'm going to sift this out. Cocoa powder everywhere. There's a bunch of rocks in here by the way, which is why it's always a good idea just to sift it out. Mm, someone spilled cocoa powder all over the place. I don't know who that could have been. Whisk vigorously right now and here's the deal. You could just whisk this like this, like slow and steady, I don't care, I just want to combine the ingredients. But a lot of us want that signature brownie look with that super smooth crackly top and I get a ton of questions on like how do you get that look and the secret is whisking the sugar a lot. You want to dissolve the sugar and that way, you're going to have that slick top. If you don't, it'll be like a regular kind of cakey top. So, I'm going to whisk my little heart out for a minute and then once the eggs are in, I'm going to whisk again. And you can mix, mix, mix all you want until the flour goes in. We're only going to use a little bit of flour for this recipe, but once it's there, you don't want to develop the protein or gluten in it and give anything less than a fudgy melting your mouth consistency. Thoroughly whisk, right now it's time to add three large room temperature eggs. And you can add them in all together, it's not like making a cake batter where you have to do one at a time. For added depth of flavor, one tablespoon of vanilla, that's 15 mils. And honestly, these brownies would not taste very good if there was not one full teaspoon of salt. I like to use the sea salt because it's nice and gentle. If you use an iodized table salt, it'll be a little bit harsher, but you need the salt to taste the chocolate, otherwise you're just tasting a really flat, dull, sweet note, it doesn't taste great. By the way, if you're at all concerned about shells, you can break your eggs into a separate bowl and then transfer them into your batter. Now, we're going to whisk again. This time, it'll be easier because of all the liquid we added, but here the sugar will dissolve with added mixing and that's going to give you that signature crackly top that really makes them look appealing. Look at that, it's kind of like a black velvety solution. It's so great. This recipe mixes up in absolutely no time and it's always a favorite. Depending on how you bake it, you could go a little bit under on the time and get a melty lava cake texture of like just pure hot fudge. Or, you could keep baking them more and they're a bit more set up and still really like dense and fudgy. It's really great. Come take a look at this texture, it's totally changed. And yes, you could definitely use a hand mixer for this if you want. A little bit of mixing later and if I put my finger in and feel it, it's almost not gritty anymore. Yes, you feel a little bit of sugar, but the granules are super tiny and that's great. This can get set aside and now we're going to talk about the chocolate for just a second. These brownies have one star ingredient and that's the chocolate in two forms. Yes, the cocoa powder mattered a lot, we bloomed it in that hot butter and that really amplified the chocolate flavor, but the chocolate we add matters too. You could use chocolate chips, that'll work great. I've made this recipe many times with chocolate chips and it's absolutely delicious. Or, you can grab a really beautiful block of semi-sweet or even bitter-sweet chocolate. I want 270 grams, that's one and a half cups, so let's measure this out, way more than we need. Perfect. Give this a chop. It doesn't have to be super tiny pieces, you could have lovely, gooey, melted pieces of chocolate in here too. This is optional, but I love to save a handful of chopped chocolate just to sprinkle on top along with some flaked sea salt. It gives you some visual interest and a nice introduction to the brownie. Any mixings you love will work well here. If you want to add walnuts, pecans, toffee, anything like delicious and small, add it in right now, it's going to be great. Go for one cup. My chocolate's all chopped and just to reiterate, these are your brownies. So if you like things a little bit less sweet, use a bitter-sweet chocolate. If you like milk chocolate, use milk chocolate, it's totally up to you. Semi-sweet is a really safe way to go though. Okay. Set your chocolate aside, grab your bowl again. To hold everything together, we need a scant one cup of all-purpose flour, that's 120 grams. Using a scale here really helps, you do not want to add too much flour because you lose that fudgy consistency that we all love in brownies. If you don't have a scale, just fluff your flour up and sprinkle it into your measuring cup, level it off and you'll be good to go. I'm going to reserve just like a handful of this chopped chocolate and add the rest in right now. To bring it all together, I'm going to fold this gently with a spatula just until the flour disappears. You just don't want to overmix at this point because that delicate texture will be lost. As you mix, go ahead and scrape the bowl down so you don't have any unmixed nonsense at the bottom. You shouldn't eat this right now, but if you did, I tell you it would be delicious. Lovely. Oh my gosh. Now, you're going to fold and cut a piece of parchment paper so it fits perfectly inside and that will be your key to removing these brownies and nothing sticking. Just a little bit of butter on the side will help hold your parchment in place while you pour. Transfer your delicious batter into your prepared pan. Smooth your batter out into an even layer. Optional, but you can finish these off with a sprinkle of chocolate and flaked sea salt. My brownies are ready to go into the oven, 350 for 35 to 40-ish minutes. It depends if you want a really fudgy brownie or a cakey brownie. A skewer inserted in the center should come out with a few crumbs for a cakey brownie and with a lot of crumbs for a fudgy brownie. In you go. Out of the oven and cooled completely, these brownies have a beautiful top. Oh, love that release. Give them a cut and they're ready to enjoy. This is a chocolate lover's dream. Look at that gooey chocolate inside, it's perfection. It's like completely molten on the inside, it's perfectly fudgy, gooey, chocolate, amazingness. I hope you get a chance to make this recipe and if you like this video, check out my chocolate playlist.