I first shared this brownies recipe with the (very tiny) world of the HilahCooking newsletter, gosh, probably two years ago. That’s hard to believe. Then I put it into the Learn to Cook book since it’s easy as hell and perfect for beginners. Once, right after we released the book last year, I was so excited because a lady wrote about how she was so glad the brownies recipe was in the book because she’d tried it from the newsletter and loved them, but then deleted the email and thought it was lost forever. But now it’s back! For everyone to share! I’m sorry; that story was probably super-duper boring to you. Thanks for indulging me, or at least glazing over this part and on to the brownie picture below.
What is the gol-dang big ol’ deal about these brownies, goshdangit, though?! In my brownie-world, these are the king. They are super-dense and fudge-y and chewy. If there’s one thing I hate it’s a brownie that thinks it’s a cake. Ugh. Get over yourself, fluffy brownies! I also love that this recipe uses cocoa powder rather than chocolate squares which may seem like a bunch horse-shit to some people, but I never keep baking chocolate around the house so this works out well for me and my impromptu cravings for brownies.
- ½ cup (4 ounces) butter, soft
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- Optional: ½ cup chopped nuts
- Set the oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8×8″ or 7×11″ pan.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- Stir in flour and cocoa. The mixture will be very thick and stiff. Add nuts if you want them.
- Spread it into the greased pan as evenly as possible.
- Bake 25 minutes in a 7×11″ pan, or 30 minutes in a 8×8″ pan.
- Cool and cut into 12 squares.
The LEARN TO COOK Book is Here!
By popular demand, Learn to Cook is now available in print! Over 300 pages of knowledge between two soft covers.
Learn To Cook is designed to get you cooking for yourself like a civilized human being! Drawing from a lifetime of cooking and over two years experience making instructional cooking videos, author Hilah Johnson has produced a beginners’ cookbook for today’s young adults. The casual, straightforward style will appeal to anyone with a sense of humor and the focus on fresh, simple recipes will appeal to anyone who loves to eat. The book includes chapters on menu planning, knife skills, grocery shopping and more, plus a comprehensive spice chart and over 150 recipes from breakfast to dinner to snacks in between.
I create short-form, educational, and occasionally hilarious cooking videos geared towards beginner and intermediate cooks, as well as people who are just looking for simple, low-cost recipes. Everything is made from scratch, people!
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
My sister has been making ‘medicinal’ brownies with kief butter and all her friends rave about them. I’d love to rave about them too, and all their healthing mediciny qualities, but she won’t make me any. I feel to pout.
On the other hand, I make mine with a nice shot of bourbon. They don’t behave cakishly at all!
Ooh, you put bourbon in before baking? That does sound nice, ME! And, uh, the other thing too.
If your going to put bourbon in before, try finishing them with boubon right out of the oven- .5 cup poured over the top, .5 hr in fridge to set up, Bam! Boozy deliciousness! If you really want your brownies to be eaten in one sitting, also add crispy bacon bits… They’ll be gone before you finish making dinner.
Yum! Kinda like my grandma would pour bourbon over fruit cakes… Thanks so much!
I will~ sounds like a great idea!
Cake brownies are snake brownies.
They’re like raisin cookies masquerading as chocolate chip.
And they need to be eliminated.
Amen, my brother. Nothing worse than an unexpected raisin cookie.
And I thought I was one of the few people who detested cake brownies. If I want cake, I’ll eat cake, dammit!.
I like to make my brownies in a pie. seriously. You should try it with a flaky bottom pie crust. Blind baked and then pour the lovely goo in and finish it off. Adding bourbon out of the oven is one I must do! It makes more sense to do it after baking than before baking. After all, if you’re going to be decadent, you might as well really fall off the wagon.
I have heard tell of this “brownie pie” and it does sound lovely.
A friend of mine is a big time brownie lover. I’m going make your recipe for him as a little surprise gift. He likes them dense, so it was cool to hear that they are.
The heat is on now! Hope he likes them.
The heat was on me. Making brownies wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse. I tossed in a some of pecans and it was on, grinning friend and all. They were the perfect consistency. How did this American kid go through childhood without making brownies I’ll never know.?
I gotta call my mom and explain how she failed me…
Its my birthday today so I’ll make this since luckily I have all the ingredients.
Happy birthday, Merline!
I took out the vanilla and added tangerine zest, tangerine juice, and, because I had some left over, raspberry extract. I highly recommend it!
Oh, yummy! Raspberry would be so good with the tangerine and chocolate. Thanks for sharing, Robert!
My sister and I tried this recipe, only we replaced the butter with an equal amount of pumpkin puree–we were trying to replicate the Pinterest two-ingredient pumpkin brownie recipe. Supposedly it cuts in half the amount of fat that’s in the brownies (and pumpkin puree just makes it richer-tasting). SO GOOD! Loved the intense chocolate flavor and richness that the pumpkin adds. Bookmarked this post and it’s now my go-to brownie recipe!
Wonderful! That’s a great idea. Thanks so much for sharing it, AC!
Hey , wow… Thanks for the recipe. I tried Brownies with some other eggless recipes and cooked them in the microwave and it turned out to be good. Now I am going to try these. Just the fact I am scared of baking them in the oven as I have never tried one and the house I live in has got some old oven
but anyways thanks loads for the recipe ! Will try them out and will post the pics soon. It’s the festive season called Navarathiri meaning nine nights and thus can’t use eggs , so will have to wait till another 2 to 3 days 
As always love your videos … Keep rocking
Okay, let me know how it goes, Priya! And don’t be afraid of the oven. It’s probably just fine.
Hilahhhhhhh!!! Shut up!!! I just made these a dang!!! All I can
Say is YUMMMY!!:-) yet another home run for
Hilahhhhh!!:-) now get your butt to h- town yo!
Awesome! Thanks for the update! Hoping to get to H-town someday…
Hey Hilah,
I made this recipe a week or two ago and it was AMAZEBALLZ!!!! But just one question, i was wondering if i could pour cheesecake batter on top of this batter and bake it to make cheesecake brownies. I said i would ask because im not sure if the brownie batter would survive being in the oven for an hour. or would it be ok because it would be buried underneath the cheesecake???
Hi Shane!
That is an unusual question… if I tried that, I would reduce the oven temperature to 325º instead of 350. That should keep the brownie layer safe and that is also a better temperature for cheesecake. Let us know if you try it and how it works!
Oh god Hilah, you need to try this. It was AMAZING. I doubled the brownie recipe to fit my rectangular pan. Halved my cheesecake recipe. Baked for about 50 mins in a 350 oven. Let it chill overnight and am eating one right now. AMAZING. I’m spatchcock chicken tonight so i’ll have one for dessert
. Thanks alot Hilah, keep on keepin on 
<3 from Ireland.
Awesome! That is so great to hear! Such a marvelous idea, Shane. Thank you!
GASP. I emptied half a packet of Starbucks Via (instant coffee, ugh, stop judging) into the batter, which brought out the chocolate ten fold. It also gave it a slight coffee taste, which me totally gusta. I tried it again with dark brown sugar instead of regular white, which didn’t have much of an effect on the taste of consistency, but helped me use up that dark brown all quick like.
DEWD.
I don’t judge! Instant coffee is great for baking and that sounds delightful.
Just made these for my kiddos and actually got hugs for making them!!! Had all the ingredients on hand so I figured, why not? Thanks a bunch!
Thanks for the feedback! I’m happy y’all enjoyed them. I love this recipe because I seem to always have the ingredients on hand.
I just made this recipe and I’m so glad it wasn’t cakey like other recipes I’ve tried. THANKS SO MUCH! Will be making another batch of this soon for sure.
Thanks, Diyanah! I’m glad you liked it! They’re my fave.
Hey, haila i really love your cooking but what can i use to replace the egg, cuz my husband dont like eggs.
Hey Vicky! If he doesn’t like the taste of eggs, I don’t think that is a problem here and you could just use the egg and not tell him.
If he can’t eat eggs, you could try a 1/4 cup of applesauce or plum baby food (fruit puree) to replace it.
I’m going to have to try this, because I also don’t like cakey brownies, and the couple of recipes I’ve tried just isn’t dense enough. When I was a kid I loved to freeze brownies and pretend I was chewing a chunk of tobacco.
I just baked a batch of the Texas Chews recipe from your recent newsletter–although I guess I took the Texas out of them because I didn’t have pecans (I had almonds though) and I also wish I had coconut, but I didn’t, but I did have semi-sweet chocolate chips so I tossed some in there. They turned out really nice and chewy. I guess you can really make endless variations of this!
Let me know how you like them, Steven!
Almonds and chocolate sound great, even if not totally Texan. 
So happy to hear you tried the Texas Chews, too!
Okay, wow–these are the brownies for me! I tossed away the other brownie recipes I had tried before. I did not know you didn’t have to put in baking powder in brownies. No leavening = no cakey brownie! Awesome! And only needing cocoa powder rather than chocolate is definitely a plus.
Hurrah! That’s great, Steven!
I love this recipe so much. Glad you do, too.
These are excellent! I fell into the trap of making box brownies. These are only 30 seconds more work and taste way better. And no fake stuff! Hilah, you’re the greatest!
I completely agree! Boxed baking mixes have done a heckuva job marketing themselves as amazing timesavers, haven’t they?
I’m glad you found this recipe worth the extra bit of time, Helen!
hi hilah! thank you for sharing this recipe ^.^ baked a batch of this goodies and sold them in a bake sale..and it was a hit! ooyeah! they can’t get enough of this gooey scrumptious stuff (accdng. to my niece, she’s your 6 year old fan by the way, she says hi!)
Oh that is so sweet, Meg! Yay! I’m really happy to hear people still have bake sales. There is something so wholesome about baking things to share with people and raise money for a cause at the same time. Tell your niece I said “hi!”