Easy Crinkle Top Brownies
Rich and decadent, these crinkle top brownies from scratch are the best. Everyone needs a good homemade brownie recipe up their sleeve. You’ll never buy a box mix again!
Reader Taalia says,” I just made these today! Have tried gazillions of recipes….but this is remarkable! It will be a house favorite!”
Why you will love this classic brownie recipe
- Fudgy texture and gorgeous crinkly tops. These brownies are dense with a rich chocolate taste. They have a great fudgy middle and a perfect shiny top.
- Simple ingredients – These fudgy brownies use pantry staples. They’re very chocolatey, with rich flavor. We are doubling up on chocolate flavor with both semi-sweet or dark chocolate and cocoa powder.
- You could make brown butter brownies, orange chocolate brownies or triple chocolate brownies to make them even more flavorful
- Leftover brownie pieces and be chopped and used in this black forest ice cream.
Equipment
You’ll need an 8×8-inch pan for these homemade brownies. I prefer a metal pan to bake these brownies. It cooks evenly and gives nice straight edges.
This recipe is written using grams as the primary measurement. US cup equivalents are also included if you don’t have a kitchen scale. I whisk the batter by hand, but you can use an electric hand mixer too.
The Ingredients
Find the ingredient amounts for this crinkly top brownie recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Unsalted butter or salted butter- Melted butter adds fat, chewiness, and taste to these brownies. The hot butter melts the sugar and helps create the shiny crinkle tops.
- Semi-sweet chocolate – Choose good quality chocolate with cocoa butter (don’t use compound chocolate, which uses vegetable oils.)
- Sugar – Both granulated white sugar and soft brown sugar are used – There’s a large amount of sugar in brownies because this helps to create a fudgy texture and helps create a crinkle top. Sweetness is also needed to help with the richness of the chocolate. Soft brown sugar gives extra moisture to the fudge brownies.
- Large eggs
- Salt – Salt enhances the flavor.
- Vanilla – Chocolate’s best friend. Choose a good quality vanilla extract or vanilla paste.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder – provides extra chocolate flavor!
- Flour – Only a small amount of all-purpose flour is used for stability, but not too much, so the brownie stays moist.
- Optional – Chocolate chips. Adding extra chocolate chips or chunks to the batter gives you double chocolate brownies.
Method
- Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C) and line an 8×8 inch pan or with parchment paper.
- In a saucepan or a microwavable bowl, melt butter and chopped chocolate. Heat it on low heat and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until it’s all melted and combined. Alternatively, place it in the microwave and melt it together in 20-second increments, stirring each time.
- Once it’s all melted, stir through the sugars while the mixture is still hot.
- Crack the eggs into a separate small mixing bowl first to avoid getting shells into the chocolate mixture. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, for around 1 minute until well combined, followed by the salt and vanilla extract.
- Sift cocoa powder and flour into the chocolate mixture and whisk it well to combine it into a glossy chocolate batter. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake the brownies for 28-32 minutes until a knife or skewer inserted into the pan comes out fairly clean with a few moist crumbs still sticking to it. There should be no wet batter left but the brownie should still be moist.
The baking time will depend on your oven or square baking pan used. Take care not to overcook them or the texture of the brownies won’t be fudgy.
Leave the brownies in the pan to cool down completely on a wire rack before lifting and slicing them from the pan. Store any leftover brownies, at room temperature or in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
Icing chocolate brownies
These brownies can be iced too with brownie icing, to make them even more of a treat.
Brownie FAQS
Mix the sugar into the melted butter and chocolate mixture while it is still warm. This helps the sugar dissolve. The next step is to whisk the eggs well, around a minute of hand whisking. The air incorporated into this mixture will help form the meringue-like surface that cracks during baking.
There is no raising agent added to these fudgy chocolate brownies. Some brownie recipes, especially recipes outside of the US do use baking powder or self-rising flour, however, this recipe does not. Removing rising agents from brownies keeps them chewy and fudgy and stops them from becoming like chocolate cake.
You can substitute dark chocolate to make milk chocolate brownies but it will change the brownie texture. Milk chocolate contains more sugar and fewer cocoa solids than dark chocolate.
If you want super clean lines and perfect brownies when cutting, chill them first in the fridge. This will stiffen them up considerably and allow for easier cutting.
Yes, brownies freeze very well! You can tightly wrap and freeze the whole slab of brownie or portion it up first. Let it thaw at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.
It sounds like you’ve over-baked them. Make sure to check your brownies regularly towards the end of the baking time. Brownies continue to cook slightly from residual heat after being removed from the oven. It’s best to pull them out when there’s still a bit of moist crumb clinging to a knife inserted in the middle.
Related recipesPeppermint Chocolate Marshmallows
If you loved these crinkle top brownies, you might like these chocolate recipes too!
- Coffee Chocolate Mousse
- Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Cookies
- Rich Double Chocolate Banana Bread
- Chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Crinkle Top Brownies
Ingredients
- 113 g butter, salted or unsalted
- 85 g semisweet chocolate
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 50 g soft brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract
- 2 large eggs
- 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 63 g all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease or line an 8×8 inch square pan with parchment paper.
- In a saucepan, combine the butter and the chocolate and heat it on low-medium heat until it's all melted and combined. Take the pan off the heat, then stir through the sugars while it's still hot.
- Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, for at least a minute, followed by the salt and vanilla extract.
- Sift in the cocoa and the flour and stir it well to combine it into a glossy chocolate batter. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
- Bake the brownies for around 28-32 minutes until a knife inserted into the pan comes out fairly clean with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. No wet batter should be left, but the brownie should still be moist. Take care not to overcook the brownies.
- Leave the brownies to cool down entirely before lifting and slicing them from the pan. Store any leftover brownies covered at room temperature for up to a week.
Hi, I was just curious, should I use light brown sugar, or dark brown sugar?
I use light brown sugar 🙂
I just made these today!
Have tried gazillions of recipes….but this is remarkable! It will be a house favorite!
Yay so happy to read this Taalia! Thank you!
Super easy, super fudgy, amazing brownies
Excellent recipe, will definitely make it a favorite. I was curious why no baking powder or soda? Thanks Ted
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Ted! I love the dense and fudginess of a brownie without raising agents
Should I make any adjustments for baking these at a high altitude?
Hey Emily i’m not sure sorry! I’ve not baked at high altitude
These were absolutely perfect! Just curious about the nutrition facts… serving size says 1gm, is that correct? When I added up the ingredients and divided by 12 brownies, I get around 50g each. Which based on the 1g svg size equals 12,350 calories per square (1/12). I feel like that can’t be correct, right?
Hey! So pleased you loved them! No that’s not correct, it should be 1 serving not 1 gram
But my nutrition calculator isnt showing that for some reason! I’ll have a look into it