The Secret to Honest-To-Goodness Fudgy Brownies

Fudgy, dense brownies is the ultimate goal when we look at a brownie recipe. We want the almost creamy-like, underdone texture with nuggets of melted chocolate throughout the brownie squares.

But the real secret to fudgy brownies is really the chocolate. Melted dark chocolate to be exact. It not only contributes to the overall flavor of the brownies, it’s what makes brownies fudgy. This is why:

The big difference between cakey brownies and fudgy brownies is the texture, so the amount of flour and fat (this is the butter, melted chocolate, and egg yolks) is where the ingredients change from recipe to recipe. Cakey brownie recipes will have more flour but less fat in it compared to fudgy brownies. Fudgy brownies will have more fat but less flour in it, so the amount of fat you add is key.

While adding more butter can result in an oily, overly buttery brownie and adding more eggs than the recipe recommends can change the structure of the brownie itself, the chocolate is where you can begin to tweak a recipe.

That’s because chocolate when melted is basically a liquid fat. The more you use, the better the texture of the final brownie. If you used cocoa powder, it’s a dry ingredient like flour and not a fat and as such, it will lead to drier, cakey brownies. The only reason you may use cocoa powder is because Dutch-processed cocoa powder gives brownies a more beautiful chocolate color.

So the next time you look at a recipe, you’ll know just by looking at the ingredients list whether it will be a cakey brownie or a fudgy brownie and how to tweak a recipe if necessary to get the fudgy brownie you want.

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