Maeve’s Marvelous Fudge Brownies

I have a circle of friends here in town that are helping me clean up leftovers from the cookbook on a regular basis. The schedule works like this: I cook a ton of recipes throughout the week until my fridge is pretty much packed with random leftovers and recipes.  Then I call half a dozen people or so and usually get a few takers to come over and have a leftover smorgasbord.

A few weeks ago at one of these leftover dinners a good friend (Hi Maeve!) told me she was bringing brownies. This was exciting because, well, brownies.

Little did I know she was going to bring the kind of brownies that would leave us all in a serious food coma for the rest of the night. These fudge brownies from scratch were the brownies that, even after a very full meal, we just couldn’t stop eating them.

I think I had four. No regrets.

Maeve’s Fudge Brownies

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3.46 from 11 votes

Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 20 Brownies

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

The most perfect fudge brownies from scratch I’ve ever had. Thick, gooey, and chocolatey, these brownies have it all!

Equipment

• 1 9×13 baking dish

Ingredients 

• 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• Pinch of salt
• 8-10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl using a hand mixer or in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until it’s nice and light.
• Mix in eggs one at a time into the creamed butter and sugar. Then add vanilla and continue to mix.
• Add in cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Then add flour and mix until just combined. Try not to overmix the batter at this point.
• Scoop batter into a 9×13 baking dish and spread out evenly with a flat spatula. Sprinkle brownies very liberally with chocolate chips.
• Bake brownies at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until the center is not quite set, but almost. Don’t over-bake them!
• Let brownies cool for 15 minutes before slicing into them.
• Store leftovers at room temperature in an airtight container.

Nutrition

Serving: 1brownie | Calories: 328kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 17mg | Potassium: 160mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 408IU | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 2mg

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Fudge Brownies from Scratch

The Batter

The ingredients for these fudge brownies from scratch are nothing particularly complicated but there are a few important steps.

First, use butter. Not oil. No substitutions here. Just deal with it.

Second, there is no leavening ingredient in the brownies on purpose. That makes these super-dense and thick and gooey.

Third, as with any brownie, I consider it blasphemy to over-bake them. I always err on the side of gooey.

If you are cool with those simple rules, then you too can make these amazing suckers.

Start by just creaming together the butter and sugar until it’s nice and light. It should be an even consistency, almost light and fluffy.

Then add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Once those are added, go ahead and dump in the cocoa powder. This is a lot of cocoa powder, but just go with it.

Because there is so much cocoa powder in this recipe, try to use a reasonably nice cocoa powder if you can find one. I really like Ghirardelli’s cocoa powder.

Then stir in a nice pinch of salt and the flour. Once the flour is in, mix the batter until you can’t see any flour and then stop. Don’t overmix the batter!

It’ll be super-thick. Like almost cookie dough thick.

Spread this out in a large 9×13 baking dish. You’ll need a spatula to help with the spreading. This batter doesn’t pour like some wussy brownie recipes might. You’ll need to shove it into shape.

Then sprinkle on some semi-sweet chocolate chips. I didn’t quite use a full 12 ounce bag, but I guess you could. Use a liberal hand.

Baking and Eating

Bake this delicious pan at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. I would definitely check them at 25 minutes although mine needed a bit over 30 to be done. The center of the brownies should be still a bit jiggly when you pull them out. Some cracking on top is good, but try to avoid baking them until the entire pan is completely firm.

Then let the brownies cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving them. That will be the hardest part of the recipe!

Don’t worry. Even after 15-20 minutes they will still be very warm and gooey.

You can store leftovers at room temperature for a few days in an airtight container. To be honest, I almost like them better a day later.

These are my favorite brownies at the moment. Nice and simple, but they are addicting.

I suppose you could add some nuts to these if that’s your style, but honestly I think they are pretty much perfect as-is.

Change them at your own peril!