Last month, I realized something… I failed as a chocoholic.
Yes, I ate a piece of dark chocolate after every meal (even breakfast!), I stored a secret stash of M&Ms in the pantry (in case of emergencies), and I only ordered chocolate desserts off of restaurant menus (except on my last birthday, but that’s a story for another time).
But I, a baking-obsessed food blogger, didn’t have my own chocolate brownie recipe.
I set to work that night, pulling out measuring cups and spoons, melting butter and chocolate, and mixing in the flour and cocoa powder with my fingers crossed. I know it’s better to let finished brownies cool and set for a few hours, but… My impatient side comes out around chocolate. So I cut out a square and ate it.
Then I snuck another sliver. And another. And another. Until I realized that if I wanted to share those Midnight Dark Chocolate Brownies with you, I needed to stop nibbling so I’d have some left to photograph!
But why stop at just one recipe?
With that first set of brownies under my belt, I began brainstorming ideas for another. While the Midnight Dark Chocolate Brownies were rich and decadent, I wanted the new batch to be moist, fudgy, and chocolaty. Something classic that anyone, even non-chocoholics, would love.
I tried adding in ingredients and swapping out others. I baked a pan at my parents’ place when I visited for Father’s Day, and another a week later at my own house (where I kind of ate 7 brownies in a single day). I missed up one final batch last night, just to be 110% positive that this recipe was the ONE.
And…
It is! These brownies are dense, chocolaty, and fudgy. The kind that make your eyes roll back in delight. Or pop out of your skull in surprise. Because you just couldn’t believe that healthy brownies could taste so GOOD.
But no need to take my word for it… Go ahead, try one yourself!
Just like their name, these brownies are ooey, gooey, and super fudgy!
- Preheat the oven to 300°, and lightly coat an 8”-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup, and level with a knife. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and dark chocolate chips. Mix in the sugar. Add in the egg whites, milk, yogurt, and vanilla, mixing thoroughly. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. (It’s okay to have small lumps in the batter!)
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake at 300° for 24-28 minutes (closer to 24 minutes for more ooey gooey parts; closer to 28 minutes for a completely fudgy texture). The center may not be set. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Let the brownies set for at least 2 hours once at room temperature before slicing into squares with a sharp knife.
Notes: I used regular unsweetened cocoa powder, instead of Hershey’s Special Dark like with these brownies to give them a slightly lighter flavor.
Use dark chocolate chips, not semi-sweet. The semi-sweet will make the brownies much milkier.
Do NOT substitute brown sugar for the granulated. This mutes the chocolate flavor of the brownies.
Regular plain nonfat yogurt can be substituted for the Greek yogurt.
Oh. MY. Gosh!! These are screaming my name!! YUM!!!
A fellow fudgy brownie lover?? SO happy to have you here — I’m already planning a fun new twist for these brownies! 🙂
YUUUUKK.. dry cake-like brownies – i hesitated to make them because the picture of the brownie in the foreground looked yummy and the one in the background of the pic looked dry as dirt – sure enough mine look like the ones in the back ground – don’t waste your time with these..
I’m sorry the brownies didn’t turn out for you; that must be very disappointing. The 2 main culprits for dry cakey brownies are over-baking and adding too much flour. Did you bake them for the time specified in the recipe, and did you use the spoon-and-level method to measure your flour?
mine too…they were so dry that we just tossed them in garbage…maybe will try one more time, but it was so much work….not sure if worth the trouble.
I’m really sorry yours were dry too Laura; that must have been a huge disappointment. Make sure that you’re measuring the flour correctly (for a quick refresher, check out my Baking Basics) and that you aren’t overbaking the brownies. They should still look underdone, but because they’ll continue to cook through in the pan as they cool, it’s really easy to dry them out if you bake them too long. I hope the next batch turns out better for you!
I don’t have any skim milk. Can I use whole milk instead? Also my daughter has a sugar sensitivity and she gets very sick from it. Do you have any recipes that don’t require sugar?
Yes! Any milk will work Debbie. You can find my sugar-free recipes here and my recipes sweetened with stevia here. If your daughter can have other forms of sweeter (i.e. clean eating ones, such as maple syrup, agave, and honey), you can find those recipes here. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of any recipes that you and your daughter try!
Hi Amy,
I was excited to try these as I have been unable to find a brownie recipe that is healthy and actually works. Unfortunately the same thing that has happened with all the brownie recipes happened with these ones as well – they are about a 1/4 inch think 🙁 Any ideas as to why? I followed the recipe word for word with all the directions on the measurements and methods and even baked them for the lowest amount of time being careful not to over mix them.
Thanks!
I really appreciate your interest in my brownie recipe Elisabeth! We’ll work together to figure out what’s going on. 🙂 What size pan did you use? Was it a 9″-square baking pan, by chance? This recipe was specifically designed for an 8″-square pan, so using a 9″-square pan instead would make your brownies turn out much thinner than the ones in my photos. Also, when was the last time you bought fresh baking powder?
I did use an 8×8 pan however I have not bought new baking powder in awhile. Could that really make that much of a difference?
Does your baking powder still work well in things like muffins? And did your 8″-square pan have sharp or rounded corners?