8 tbsp. butter (1 stick)
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. (260g) sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. (64g) cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup (106g) flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

  • melt butter, then remove from heat and stir in sugar
  • return to the heat briefly and stir to dissolve the sugar, the mixture will be very thick
  • remove from heat and stir in cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla
  • whisk in eggs, one at a time
  • stir in flour then add chocolate chips (if using)
  • pour into greased or foil-lined 8x8” pan
  • bake at 350°F for 28-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean

source: King Arthur, the Essential Cookie Companion, p. 127.

04/21/2024: the original recipe made enough for a 9x13” pan, which is more brownies than i want, esp. while i’m trying out a new recipe. so i halved this for an 8x8” pan.

05/09/2024: finally got around to making this (added gram measurements because the volume measures are all fiddly), and the results were very good. i did not include chocolate chips (which would probably make this even better) and used hershey’s cocoa instead of dutch. and my gram measurements differ substantially from the original recipe.

anyway, these produced exactly the kind of brownies i like: moist and rich, not too fudgey and gooey and not too dry and cakey.