Easy Cocoa Powder Brownies (No Chocolate Required!)

4.94 from 16 votes

Easy Cocoa Powder Brownies (No Chocolate Required!)

These super easy brownies are made with just 5 basic ingredients: butter, flour, cocoa powder, eggs and sugar. No chocolate needed. The result is utterly delicious – fudgy, squidgy, rich… and very moreish! Better still, the recipe is really easy to adapt to suit your personal tastes… and what you have available in your kitchen.

Course Dessert, Pudding, Snack

Cuisine American, British

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 20

Total Time 30

Servings brownies

Calories 189kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

150 g butter
150 g plain (all purpose) flour
60 g cocoa (see Note 1)
2 medium eggs
300 g soft brown sugar (light or dark – whichever you prefer – see Note 2)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. As soon as the butter is melted, take the pan off the heat and allow to cool – do not allow it to bubble.
Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F.
Grease and line a 23 x 23cm (9 x 9 inch) brownie pan. See tips in THIS POST for how to line a brownie pan.
Combine the flour and cocoa in a large bowl.
Crack the two eggs into a jug (or another bowl) and whisk lightly.
Add the sugar to the eggs, and whisk lightly to combine the eggs and the sugar.
Add the cooled melted butter to the egg and sugar mixture and whisk lightly to combine all the wet ingredients.
Pour the egg/sugar/butter mixture into the flour/cocoa mixture and gently stir together until just combined.
Tip the brownie batter into the prepared tray, spread the batter out to the corners and smooth the top.
Place in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes depending on how gooey you like your brownies in the middle. (Don’t test with a skewer because you want them to be a bit gooey inside!)
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin – until cool enough to handle – then lift out and chop into 16 squares.
Can be eaten hot or cold.

Notes

I suggest 60g cocoa, but if you prefer a more milk chocolate style brownie, cut down to 30g… or if you prefer a super-dark brownie, bump up to 90g cocoa. Anywhere between 30g and 90g works just fine in this recipe, with no need to adjust the other ingredients.
The type of sugar you use will affect the flavour of the brownies. Dark soft brown sugar will give you a richer flavour. If you prefer your brownies less rich, I recommend you use light brown sugar. (You can even use caster sugar, if you don’t have any brown sugar – but if you do the flavour will be even less rich, and slightly sweeter.)
Suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition