Fudgy Chocolate Brownies Without Cocoa Powder
Chocolate brownies without cocoa powder are dense, fudgy squares made with real melted chocolate instead, and that’s exactly why they taste so deeply chocolatey, not sugary. This easy, homemade brownie recipe comes together in one saucepan. All you need is a fork or whisk and a spatula or spoon.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
You definitely do not need cocoa powder to make great tasting brownies! These brownies are perfect for when you need to bring a plate to share, for dinner parties, kids parties, and even birthday parties. Really, they are my go-to, quick, everybody-loves-them recipe 🙂
Chocolate Brownies without Cocoa Powder Quick Look
Prep 15 min, bake 18-23 min, 8×8 inch square or round pan, 16 servings.
- An easy brownie recipe without cocoa powder.
- Not overly sugary – you get real chocolate flavor from real melted chocolate bars or chips.
- Moist and fudgy
- One saucepan, one baking dish.
- Optional – Scatter 1/4 to 1/3 cup of nuts, extra chocolate, or chopped candy over the top before baking and press or stir it in lightly.
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
My Family’s Favorite Brownie Recipe
I have been making this simple chocolate brownie without cocoa powder recipe for the past 30 years, and my whole family loves it. Yes, it’s a little bit special, because you are using a fair bit of chocolate, but if you are looking for a quick and easy homemade brownie recipe with real chocolate flavor, this recipe is for you 🙂
Unlike many of my recipes that came to me via my Latvian mother and grandmother or my French mother-in-law, this one I randomly found and wrote down in my recipe journal over 30 years ago. I have made a few adjustments to it over the years – mostly cutting down the extra sugar, adding some extra vanilla and some extra chocolate chunks to the top, but the essence is the same. So thank you, kind person, whoever you are, for this most wonderful recipe
Why do we love this recipe? This brownie is fudgy and full of chocolate flavor. And yes, it’s sweet but it’s not overpowered by sugar.
The other thing worth knowing is that the same batter works in more than one pan. Bake it in an 8×8 dish for everyday squares, in a cast-iron skillet for the ultimate easy clean up, or in a round cake pan if you want something for special occasions like a birthday. No frosting needed either way, because the brownie is already rich enough on its own.
Ingredients and Notes
- All-purpose flour – a small amount on purpose. More flour pushes this toward cake instead of fudge.
- White sugar – a scant 1/2 cup. Most of the sweetness already comes from the chocolate, so this stays light by design. If you think you won’t eat the whole thing in a day or two, swap half the white sugar for packed brown sugar. The top won’t be as shiny, and you’ll pick up a faint caramel note alongside the chocolate, but the texture turns softer and holds onto moisture better over a few days.
- Butter – just 2 tablespoons, melted with the sugar and water rather than creamed. You don’t need more because there is fat in the chocolate.
- Water – melted in with the butter and sugar. It helps the sugar fully dissolve, which is part of what gives the top its crackly top if you whisk the eggs in well.
- Chocolate – Chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate bar. For the best flavor, use whatever chocolate you actually love eating. Belgian chocolate is lovely here, and Lindt 70% works well if you want something more intense. You can also mix in some dark, white or milk chocolate chunks or chips at the end. Personally, I usually use either Cadbury 45% dark chocolate or toll house chocolate chips. Wondering about baking chocolate blocks instead? See the FAQ below, as it depends on what’s actually in the one you’ve got.
- Eggs – best at room temperature.
- Vanilla – I love vanilla! It rounds out the flavor.
- Espresso powder or cinnamon – totally optional, but I find one or the other (not both) brings out the chocolate flavor. Espresso powder works almost like a secret weapon for chocolate desserts, it deepens the flavor without making anything taste like coffee.
- Baking soda and salt – just enough to balance the sweetness and keep the crumb from tasting flat.
Substitutions and Add-Ins
- Stir chopped nuts, a chopped candy bar, white chocolate chunks, or M&M’s into the batter, or skip stirring them in and scatter 1/4 to 1/3 cup of any of these over the top of the batter instead, pressing in lightly before baking. Walnuts and pecans are both good choices, and dark, milk, or white chocolate all work well scattered on top.
- A quarter teaspoon of instant espresso powder or cinnamon added with the vanilla won’t taste like coffee or cinnamon, it just deepens the chocolate flavor.
- Brown sugar – keeps the brownies moister over several days, but top not as shiny and crackly.
- For gluten-free, a 1:1 gluten-free baking blend should work given how little flour is in this recipe, though I haven’t tested it myself.
- For dairy-free, swap in a dairy-free butter and chocolate.
Equipment
- Saucepan – Any kind will do, but I use a cast iron skillet
- Whisk or fork
- Rubber spatula – to fold in the flour and chocolate
- 8×8 pan, a cast iron skillet, or a round cake pan
How to Make Chocolate Brownies without Cocoa Powder
Get all your ingredients ready before you start so you can mix it all in quickly.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line an 8×8 pan with parchment, or grease your skillet or cake pan.
- Melt the butter, water, and sugar together in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar mostly dissolves. If you’re baking in an oven-safe skillet, melt everything directly in it first, one less dish to wash.
- Take it off the heat and stir in one half of the chocolate right away, stirring quickly until smooth. I like to use a fork 🙂
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing fully and quickly after each one. Let the mixture cool for a minute or two until it’s warm, not hot. Adding eggs to a hot mixture cooks them into little flecks instead of mixing in smooth.
- Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon or espresso powder if using. Mix just until combined.
- Add the vanilla. If you want chocolate chunks on top, set aside 2 to 3 tablespoons from the second half now, then add the rest of that half to the batter. If you’d rather mix it all in, just add the whole second half.
- Mix until smooth. I use a rubber spatula to get all the bits in, but you can also just use a spoon. Don’t overmix, once it’s smooth, you’re done.
- Pour the batter into your pan. If you set any chocolate aside in step 7, scatter it over the top now, along with any nuts or candy, and press in lightly so it sits into the surface rather than loose on top.
Bake Time and Texture: How Fudgy Do You Want It
These are baking times for a metal 8×8 square pan. Adjust times for glass or larger pans.
For a VERY fudgy brownie: 18-19 minutes
The toothpick will still come out with some batter clinging to it, not just crumbs, almost wet-looking. The brownie keeps cooking from residual heat once it’s out of the pan, so it firms up further as it sits.
For a NORMAL fudgy brownie: 22 minutes
Still fudgy, just slightly more set than the 18 to 19 minute version, and a little easier to slice.
Past 23 minutes, the toothpick starts coming out dry, and that’s the point where the brownie itself turns dry too, not just the toothpick. If you’ve gone too far, it’s not a wasted batch, serve it with a spoonful of cream or a scoop of ice cream and the extra moisture covers for it nicely.
A note on serving warm versus cooled: cooling fully gives you the cleanest slices, especially with the very fudgy version, which is genuinely soft right out of the oven. If you want to eat one warm, that’s completely fine, just lift it out with a spatula rather than your fingers, it holds together but it’s more fragile straight from the pan than it is once cooled.
Tips for the Best Chocolate Brownies without Cocoa Powder
- The center may look slightly puffy right out of the oven. Don’t stress, it’ll settle back down flat as it cools. Don’t mistake that puffiness for underdone.
- Use real chocolate with cocoa butter in it, not compound or coating chocolate. It melts better and tastes better.
- Pull the pan while the center still looks underdone. That’s the difference between fudgy brownies and dry brownies.
- Wipe your knife under warm water between cuts for clean squares instead of a smeared mess.
- Get all your ingredients out and ready before you start so you can work quickly.
What to Serve It With
- A plain square of brownie with coffee or tea – yum!
- Serve as a birthday cake with a light dusting of powdered sugar
- Or you can serve with a scoop of ice cream melting into a warm square if you’re serving it straight from the oven.
For you fellow chocolate lovers out there…
I have some other great dessert recipes with chocolate. As with this brownie recipe, I tend to use less sugar than other recipes on the internet as I follow a European style of baking. Less sugar, more flavor. You can check out some of my French recipes and Baltic recipes which include other lower sugar/higher flavor desserts.
- Homemade chocolate brownies with a tangy cream cheese frosting – the brownie recipe is slightly less fudgy so it can hold the frosting.
- A very chocolatey Belgian Chocolate Cake with Ganache – goes really well with these brownies if you love chocolate!
- A chewy double chocolate chip cookie bar – great for school lunch boxes or if you need to bring a plate to share.
- And if you are short on brown sugar, but still want an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, try my simple oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe without brown sugar.
Storage and Make-ahead
- Best on day one or two
- Keeps three to four days at room temperature in an airtight container
- Up to a week in the fridge
- Up to three months in the freezer. Let it cool fully before sealing it up, or you’ll trap steam and end up with a soggy top. Want one warm again, a cooled square only needs about 10 seconds in the microwave.
Troubleshooting
- My batter has little cooked bits in it – The chocolate mixture was too hot when the eggs went in. Let it cool longer next time before adding them and quickly mix them in. But don’t stress about it. It won’t be very noticeable and it will still taste great!
- The top didn’t go shiny – Make sure the sugar is fully melted in the butter and also whisk the eggs in more thoroughly. The shine depends on how well the sugar dissolves into the brownie batter.
- They came out cakey instead of fudgy – Potentially overmixed once the flour went in, or baked a little long. Mix gently and pull the pan while the center still looks underdone.
- My brownies came out dark on top – Your oven may run a bit hot. Next time place some aluminum foil on top of the brownie midway.
Made this Chocolate Brownie without Cocoa Powder Recipe? Leave a rating below. It helps other home cooks find it. Every recipe on this blog is made and tested in my own kitchen. You can read more about how I develop and test recipes here. 🙂
FAQ
Yes! Using real chocolate, either a chocolate bar or chocolate chips, gives you a brownie that is fudgy with a melt in your mouth texture because it has cocoa butter from the chocolate.
Whatever you actually like eating. Belgian chocolate works beautifully, Lindt 70% gives something more intense, and chocolate chips are the fastest option if you’re short on time.
Yes, just use a 8 or 9 inch round pan. No frosting needed. Just sprinkle with a little powdered sugar if you want it to look extra pretty, but plain and simple is also nice. My kids love this for their birthday!
Depends what’s in it. Some baking or cooking chocolate blocks use vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter, those won’t melt the same way, so I would not use them here. If the label lists cocoa butter as the fat, you’re fine, treat it exactly like any other chocolate in this recipe. Unsweetened baking chocolate, the 100% cacao kind with no sugar at all, is a different case too, this recipe’s sugar amount is set up around chocolate that already has sugar in it, so swapping in a fully unsweetened block without adjusting the sugar will taste flat rather than fudgy.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We’ll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Fudgy chocolate brownies without cocoa powder
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup All-purpose flour (85 grams)
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup White sugar (90 grams) or 45 grams white sugar and 45 grams brown sugar
- 2 tbsp Butter (28 grams)
- 3 tbsp Water (45 ml)
- 13 ounces Dark or semisweet chocolate (360 grams chopped chocolate or 2 cups chocolate chips), divided into two equal halves
- 2 Large eggs room temperature, beaten
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract (15 ml)
- 1/8 tsp Espresso powder or cinnamon (optional) to bring out the chocolate flavor
- 1/3 cups Nuts or candy (optional) chopped for scattering over the batter before baking
Instructions
- Get all your ingredients ready before you start.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line an 8×8 pan with parchment, or grease your skillet or cake pan.
- Melt the butter, water, and sugar together in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar mostly dissolves.
- Take it off the heat and stir in one half of the chocolate right away, stirring quickly until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing fully and quickly after each one. Let the mixture cool for a minute or two until it’s warm, not hot. Adding eggs to a hot mixture cooks them into little flecks instead of mixing in smooth.
- Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt, and espresso or cinnamon powder if using. Mix just until combined.
- Add the vanilla. If you want chocolate chunks on top, set aside 2 to 3 tablespoons from the second half now, then add the rest of that half to the batter. If you'd rather mix it all in, just add the whole second half.
- Mix until smooth. I use a rubber spatula to get all the bits in, but you can also just use a spoon. Don’t overmix, once it’s smooth, you're done.
- Pour the batter into your pan. If you set any chocolate aside in step 7, scatter it over the top now, along with any nuts or candy, and press in lightly so it sits into the surface rather than loose on top.
- For a VERY fudgy brownie: Bake 18-19 minutes. The toothpick will still come out with some batter clinging to it, not just crumbs, almost wet-looking. The brownie keeps cooking from residual heat once it’s out of the pan, so it firms up further as it sits.
- For a NORMAL fudgy brownie: Bake 22 minutes. Toothpick comes out with some crumbs still attached.
