Anne Cortz

Does brown sugar go well with brownies? My customers think so! These brownies received constant rave reviews. I’ve received requests for them years after I’ve stopped selling them. They have also been brought as gifts for overseas travel, in precious, hand-carry cargo. These fudgy brownies with brown sugar are special, and I’m sharing the recipe so you can have a go too!

This recipe is inspired by the brownies recipe in Candace Nelson’s Sprinkles Bake Book. She uses white sugar in the recipe. I found that I prefer this version using brown sugar and made tweaks until I arrived at this version.

Brown Sugar Fudgy Brownies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 170 grams European-style butter (If it says at least 82% fat content, that’s what you want!)
• 340 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs (or 228 grams)
• 450 grams soft brown sugar (or 315 grams for reduced sweetness)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 64 grams all-purpose/plain flour, sifted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Line a rectangular 8×12 pan with non-stickbaking paper. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, melt European-style butter in the microwave or stove over low heat.
3. Immediately put chopped dark chocolate into the hot butter. Let it sit for a minute or two until the chocolate also melts. Stir to combine. In case your chocolate has not fully melted, you may pop the bowl into the microwave for short, 15-second bursts until melted, stirring in between. You can also melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie setup (a bowl placed over a pot of simmering water).
4. Mix eggs in a stand mixer or by hand whisk, then add the chocolate-butter mixture.
5. Next, add soft brown sugar. Mix until combined.
6. Finally, mix in salt, all-purpose flour, and vanilla extract. Mix just until smooth.
7. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and bake in a 350F oven for 35 minutes or until middle is set. Toothpick inserted may not always come out clean since this is fudgy!

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Brown sugar vs white sugar

You will bake a delicious, fudgy brownie regardless of whether you use white or brown sugar with this recipe. In my opinion, however, brown sugar and chocolate are a match made in heaven.

Brown sugar adds that mild molasses flavor that goes so well with chocolate. Using brown sugar will also result in a slightly less sweet brownie than if made with white sugar. As an Asian, my Filipina mom would agree, the less sweet the better.

There are many different kinds of brown sugar, but luckily, this recipe is very forgiving and will churn out lovely, fudgy brownies regardless of which brown sugar you choose. However, if you want to do it like I did in my baking business, I used Honey Browns Soft Brown Sugar (Peotraco brand), which is a very fine, almost powdered brown sugar.

A special kind of butter helps make it fudgy, and tasty!

The recipe also uses European-style butter. Candace notes on her book to use butter like Plugra, an American brand of European-style butter. I use Flechard French Butter as it’s more accessible to me. The bottom line is that you want a high-fat content, at least 82%, which is characteristic of European-style butter.

With a lower-fat butter, you might have a slightly softer fudge to your brownies with its higher water content. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t sound bad. I’m thinking brownies, but so fudgy it has to be eaten with a spoon. Maybe that’s no longer a brownie and deserves a new blog post!

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Different Quantities – Brown Sugar Fudgy Brownies Recipe

Because I used this recipe for selling, I have computed different quantities of the recipe depending on the ordered amount and the bakeware I use.

8-inch square pan

This is slightly thinner brownies than the recipe above. Roughly closer to Candace’s original quantities. Bake this at 350F for 25mins.

• • 85g European-style butter
• • 170g dark chocolate, chopped
• • 2 large eggs (or 114g)
• • 225g soft brown sugar
• • 1/4 tsp salt
• • 32g all-purpose flour
• • 1 tsp vanilla extract

TWO 8×12 inch pans

• • 340g European-style butter
• • 680g dark chocolate, chopped
• • 8 large eggs (or 456g)
• • 900g soft brown sugar (or 630g for reduced sweetness)
• • 1 tsp salt
• • 128g all-purpose flour
• • 4 tsp vanilla extract

THREE 8×12 inch pans

• • 510g European-style butter
• • 1020g dark chocolate, chopped
• • 12 large eggs (or 684g)
• • 1350g soft brown sugar (or 945g for reduced sweetness)
• • 1.5 tsp salt
• • 192g all-purpose flour
• • 6 tsp vanilla extract

There you go! I hope you find these recipes useful. I would love to hear your thoughts. Did you try the recipe? How did it go?