I made these brown butter brownies again this weekend and they turned out so good I thought I should give this recipe a bump and a new picture. I didn’t change anything with the recipe and they turned out better than ever. So read on and enjoy!
Originally posted on March 11th, 2011
It’s Friday, the weekend is here. I got a lovely dozen white roses yesterday from my husband to cheer me up after the past quite stressful and emotional two weeks. It worked, they look amazing. So, to do something equally nice I decided to make him brownies. I know they are his favorite and bring back memories of the very first thing I ever made for him. When we first moved in together 9 years ago, he was working nights and I knew when he got home in the early morning he would go to his computer to play a few turns on a game and stay up for a few hours. To surprise him, I made a batch of brownies and left them on his desk. According to him I “blew his mind” because they were from scratch. Until that day I had never made brownies from scratch before – they were always from a box mix. Since that day I refused to make brownies from a box ever again.
One recent day I went looking for a new brownie recipe. Usually my brownies had been lighter and more of a cake-like texture and I wanted something that had more of a tooth to it. After a bunch of trial and error I arrived at this final recipe. I had never made brownies using this technique but I am sure they will be received with just as much joy and welcome by your loved ones and friends as the first time I made my husband brownies.
Browning the butter adds a nutty toffee element to the final result and adding in the espresso powder just enhances the chocolate flavor. The crunchy top and fudge like center make this by far the best brownie recipe I have ever had in my life and that is not an exaggeration. My suggestion, make them when you will not be alone with them for hours. This recipe does require quite a bit of arm strength and at a few points things might not look right but trust me, in the end the work for these is worth it! Chocoholics beware. This will take a lot of will power to resist consuming the entire pan.
Brown Butter Brownies
Be ready to brawl with your family members as you try to devour these brownies alone. They’re truly addicting!
Yield: 12 brownies
Ingredients
- 10 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp espresso powder (Starbucks VIA Italian roast also works well)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp unbleached flour
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Using a Flour-based baking spray, lightly spray a 8x8x2 square pan. Set aside. In a small bowl combine, sugar, cocoa, salt, espresso powder and whisk to combine and set aside. In a small cup or bowl combine the eggs, water, and vanilla. Whisk together to combine and set egg mixture aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. When it starts to foam stir it. Stir slowly for 2-4 min until you see the little brown bits of butter forming in the bottom of the pan. Remove pan from heat.
- Add in the cocoa and sugar mixture and stir till combined, it will look and appear gritty, this is ok. Let mixture cool for 5 min.
- After you have let the mixture cool for the 5 min add in half of the egg mixture. Quickly mixing until well combined. Add in the remaining egg mixture and stir till well combined, it will get thick and may look a bit smoother now.
- Once the egg mixture is well combined add in the flour. Stir vigorously for 20 strokes, scraping down the sides of the pan after the 20 strokes to combine into the rest of the batter. The mixture will be thick and slowly become smoother. Stir vigorously for another 20 strokes, scraping down the sides of the pan after the 20 strokes to combine into the rest of the batter. You will see the mixture now become glossy and smooth. Stir vigorously for another 20 strokes, scraping down the sides of the pan again after the 20 strokes to combine into the rest of the batter. At this point you can stir in the nuts in no more then 5 strokes, or just turn the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 25-30 min until a toothpick inserted into center comes out nearly clean. It should still have some crumbs and look slightly like fudge, but it should not look runny like batter. If you see batter cook for 3 more min and test again.
- Cool completely before cutting/serving. Due to soft fudge nature of the cake it must cool completely. About 2-3 hours.
Note: For thicker brownies, double the batch and bake in a 10×10 inch pan.
Adapted from Bon Appetit
Thanks for the repost. Those look amazing!
looking great! brown butter brownies!…
Brownies is always my favorite cake. Can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing it :)
Wow! Brown butter and chocolate – what a great combo! Hope to try them soon.
Your pictures are amazing! The brownies look marvelous.
I am in love with your blog! All of your photography is gorgeous and the goodies that you make look delicious. Definitely going to have to add you to my blogroll!
Thank you! I am very honored!
Those brownies look gorgeous! Your photos are amazing! :D
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This sounds heavenly! Love the browned butter!
I bet these are incredibly moist and delicious!
I don’t know which I am more impressed by: the fact that you make all of these yummy things from scratch, or your skill as a photographer. This is beautiful. I’m not skilled enough for macaroons; I can’t imagine what mine would look like. But I’m thinking that the girls and I might tackle this brownie recipe this weekend. Thank you! I will be back for more of this.
I finally got around to making these today (omitting the espresso due to breastfeeding) and they are lovely. My family still has yet to taste them, but these could possibly be my go to brownie. :) thank you.
I must say these browned butter brownies were truly amazing!!! These brownies are now replaced with my favorite recipe on the 1st place in my list! I loved the taste of these, could have ate all of them! I can not wait to make them again. These were just so so so so sooooo good! Definitely 10/10!
Fantastic! These are great and glad more people know the awesomeness that these are.
Guess diet starts tomorrow-can’t wait to try!! If you double recipe how long should I cook? What is a floured cooking spray? i only use Pam. Do i spray and dust with flour? Thanks again.
Just use regular cooking spray, don’t use flour. Double the recipe depends on the size of the pan. How thick they will end up being.
Hello,
I just made these following your instructions exactly, but when I pulled my brownies out there was no crackly top in sight! Do you have any ideas why this happened? Yours look so beautiful…I’m sure they’ll still taste good because they smell wonderful…