Brown Butter Brownies

Looking to elevate your brownie experience? Look no further than these brown butter brownies! They are chewy and fudgy and have a hint of a nutty flavor from the beurre noisette!

Sometimes, the best takes a little work! These brownies have a few more steps than our easy one bowl brownies, but I promise they will be worth it! Browning the butter adds a wonderful nutty flavor that enhances but doesn’t overpower. The whole-egg mixing method is a foolproof pastry technique for rich, fudgy brownies.

If you prefer a brownie with a different flavor profile, my caramel brownie recipe or these milk chocolate brownies are worth bookmarking.

Ingredients & Substitutions

• All-Purpose Flour
• Cocoa Powder: I like to use Dutch-processed cocoa powder in these and my banana brownies to add a more robust and round chocolate flavor. Natural cocoa will work in a pinch, but the flavor will be slightly sharper and less rounded.
• Chopped Chocolate: Melted into the batter, chopped chocolate adds richness and a fudgy structure that cocoa alone cannot achieve. Use a good-quality bar chocolate with at least 54% cacao, which is what I always use for the most pronounced chocolate flavor, just like with this fudgy brownie recipe!
• Unsalted Butter
• Sugar and Light Brown Sugar: Using both granulated and brown sugar gives the brownies a balanced sweetness with a faint molasses undertone from the brown sugar. The sugar is here for sweetness, but the sugar ratio is also essential for texture and that signature crinkly top.
• Kosher Salt
• Eggs: Three cold eggs provide structure and richness. Cold eggs specifically help the batter emulsify properly and contribute to a denser, more fudgy result rather than a puffed, cakey one.
• Vanilla Extract

Variations on These Brown Butter Brownies

• Did anyone say SWIRL? Try adding salted caramel sauce, Nutella, or a jam of your choosing. You could also make my peanut butter brownies(coming soon!). Pipe or dollop them onto your brownie batter and swirl them in with a toothpick or butter knife.
• Any mix-ins or toppings you want. We have made these brownies with M&M’s, additional chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, chopped Reese’s, Reese’s pieces, walnuts, and pecans. You can add them to the batter before baking or sprinkle them over the top!
• Top with frosting! The frosting pairings are endless. I suggest this cream cheese buttercream frosting or this chocolate buttercream frosting recipe.
• Make it a S’more! Make a no-bake graham cracker crust, put it on the bottom of your baking dish, pour the batter over, and add more on top with mini marshmallows!

Professional Tips

• Brown the butter past the point of comfort. Most home cooks pull the butter off the heat too early. You want deep amber milk solids stuck to the bottom of the pan and a smell firmly in toasted-hazelnut territory, not just lightly golden.
• Check the chocolate mixture temperature before adding eggs. The brown butter and chocolate mixture should feel close to body temperature before you pour it into the whipped eggs. If it is too hot, it will scramble the eggs and deflate the ribbon stage you worked to build.
• Use parchment in a cross pattern. Two pieces of parchment laid perpendicular to each other, extending to all four sides, means you can lift the entire slab cleanly out of the pan and cut it on a flat surface rather than score inside the dish.

How to Make Brown Butter Brownies

Start by making the brown butter and chocolate base first, since it needs a few minutes to cool before you add it to the eggs.

Brown the butter

Step 1: Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to a saucepot over medium heat. Smaller pieces mean more surface area and a faster, more even melt. As it melts, the butter will turn from opaque to translucent, then begin to foam. That foam is actually a good sign: it means the water is evaporating and the milk solids are beginning to toast. Keep a rubber spatula in hand and scrape the bottom of the pot frequently. You are done when the butter smells distinctly nutty, and the color has shifted to light golden brown.

Do not walk away during this step. The butter can go from perfectly browned to burnt in under a minute, and there is no saving it once it crosses that line.

Step 2: Pour the hot butter over the chocolate and salt. While the butter is browning, measure the chopped chocolate and kosher salt into a heatproof bowl and set it nearby. As soon as the butter is ready, pour it directly over the chocolate, scraping the bottom of the pot to get every last brown bit into the bowl, which is where most of the nutty flavor lives. Let it sit undisturbed for two to three minutes so the residual heat fully melts the chocolate before you touch it.

Step 3: Whisk the mixture and set it aside to cool. Once the chocolate has had time to soften, whisk the mixture together until it is smooth and uniform. It will emulsify into a glossy, fluid consistency, which is exactly what you want. If it looks slightly separated or streaky, that is fine: keep whisking and it will come together. Set the bowl aside at room temperature while you measure your remaining ingredients. It needs to cool to roughly body temperature before it touches the eggs.

Make the Brownie

Step 4: Preheat the oven and prepare your pan. Set the oven to 350°F conventional or 325°F convection. Line your 9×9 baking pan with two pieces of parchment paper criss-crossed so the overhang covers all four sides. This is my go-to move for brownies because it means you can lift the whole slab out cleanly once it has cooled, no digging required.

Step 5: Whip the eggs, vanilla, and sugar to ribbon stage. Add the cold eggs, vanilla extract, both sugars, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined, then increase to high and whip until the mixture reaches ribbon stage. This can take four to six minutes on high, and it is worth every second because this step is what creates that signature crinkled top.

At the ribbon stage, the batter will be pale, thick, and voluminous, and when you lift the whisk, it will fall back in a slow, wide ribbon that holds its shape on the surface for a moment before dissolving.

Step 6: Stream in the cooled chocolate mixture. With the mixer running on medium speed, slowly pour the chocolate mixture down the side of the bowl, not directly onto the whisk, which would send it flying in every direction. Once fully poured, let it mix until incorporated.

Check the temperature of your chocolate butter mixture before adding it. It should feel no warmer than the back of your hand. If it is still warm, set the bowl over a brief ice bath to bring it down. If your chocolate is too warm when it hits the eggs, it can deflate the foam you just built in the previous step. A few extra minutes of cooling is worth it.

Step 7: Fold in the flour and cocoa powder. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Use a rubber spatula to fold the batter a few times by hand, since the whisk often misses the very bottom of the bowl. Sift the cocoa powder and flour directly over the batter, then fold until no dry streaks remain.

Bake and Cool

Step 8: Pour and spread the batter into the prepared pan. Transfer the batter into your parchment-lined pan and use an offset spatula or rubber spatula to spread it into an even layer, pushing it into the corners. The batter is thick and will not self-level, so take an extra moment to get it truly flat. An even layer is what gives you uniform baking and those clean, level cuts later.

Step 9: Bake until the top is fully crackled. Bake at 325°F convection or 350°F conventional for about 20 minutes. The brownie is done when the crackled top has spread all the way to the center of the pan and the middle is fully puffed, not sunken or jiggly. The edges will look set, and the surface will have that signature shiny, cracked skin across the entire top. Start checking at 18 minutes, since ovens vary, and overbaked brownies lose the fudgy interior that makes this recipe worth making.

The center may look slightly underdone compared to the edges when you pull the pan, which is completely normal. Brownies continue to set as they cool, and a brownie that tests perfectly done in the oven will be overbaked by the time it reaches room temperature.

Step 10: Cool completely before cutting. Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a wire rack. Let the brownies cool fully before lifting them from the pan and slicing. Once cooled, use the parchment overhang to lift the entire slab onto a cutting board, then cut with a sharp knife, wiping the blade clean between cuts for the neatest edges. The wait is genuinely the hardest part, but cutting into a warm brownie will leave you with ragged edges and a smeared interior that does this recipe a disservice.

Tip: For the cleanest slices, refrigerate the fully cooled brownies for 20 to 30 minutes before cutting.

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

These brown butter brownies, with their crinkled tops, fudgy centers, and that deep nutty complexity from the browned butter, are the kind of thing worth bookmarking. If you want to keep exploring, browse all my brownies and bars, or dive right into this blondie recipe.