One Bowl Cocoa Brownies
My husband really likes a brownie every now and then, and who can blame him? It’s good to have a recipe that makes a small batch that will satisfy that craving. This recipe does that and has two other things going for it. It calls for natural cocoa instead of chocolate which makes it a bit more economical, and it only requires one bowl!
My first taste of these was while they were still warm. They are fine that way, but the texture improves once they’ve cooled completely. I used up the nuts I had on hand and was a little short. You can omit them completely if you prefer. You can also sub Dutch processed cocoa for the natural cocoa. Natural cocoa is much easier to find where I live and it’s much less expensive.
The recipe originally came from here, but since I made some changes to it I’ll type it up the way I made it.
One Bowl Cocoa Brownies
10 T. butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. plus 2 T. natural cocoa powder
1/8 t. salt
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. (slightly rounded) espresso powder
2 cold large eggs
1/2 c. all purpose flour
2/3 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat the oven 325 degrees. Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with parchment paper leaving ‘handles’ on two sides to facilitate removing the brownies from the pan.
Melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the cocoa, sugar, and salt and reheat in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir the mixture and let it cool slightly. Stir in the vanilla and the espresso powder.
Beat in the eggs one at a time. Thorougly mixing each one. Stir in the flour until it’s completely mixed in and then beat the mixture for 40 strokes. Stir in the nuts.
Spread the dough evenly in the pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick. There should be a few moist battery crumbs on the toothpick. Cool the brownies completely on a wire rack. Transfer the brownies to a cutting board and cut into serving size portions.
Basically Baked 
May 13, 2009 at 11:45 am |
Yum! And love that it only uses one bowl. The only problem with baking is all the cleanup!
May 13, 2009 at 3:52 pm |
Yes! One bowl cleanup is definitely a plus!
May 13, 2009 at 2:18 pm |
What clean up? You use one bowl, so that easy. You use one spoon, so that’s easy too. If you use the parchment paper, clean up isn’t difficult, but if you use an aluminum foil pan, just toss it when the brownies are done. Okay, I forgot about the measuring spoons… 🙂
Sounds yummy, but not on my meal plans for the next 7 weeks… ;-(
May 13, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
There really is very little clean up! Another bonus!
May 14, 2009 at 5:43 pm |
This is my favorite go-to brownies.
My son’s preschool class assigns the kids to bring snack once a month. It is encouraged to be healthy and I’ve always done pretty healthy things (that are fun, too!) I splurged today since it’s my last time doing snack this year! The teachers don’t really care and think all my fun creations are pretty cool.
May 22, 2009 at 3:53 am |
I’ve never had any luck with brownies but these look pretty foolproof. I’ve bookmarked the recipe to try out once I’ve moved house (and got my baking gear out of boxes!). They look just right.
May 22, 2009 at 7:05 am |
Hi Linds!
Good luck with your move! Moving is stressful even if it’s good stress! These brownies are pretty foolproof. I hope you like them.
June 17, 2009 at 1:09 pm |
Hiya Sue!
As promised I made these brownies and they were absolutely delicious. A big hit with my family too. I may have slightly underbaked them but the recipe as a whole is great.
I’m in the process of blogging about them but need to get the pictures off the camera and various other bits and pieces so feel free to check the blog in the next few days.
June 17, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I’ll stop by and check out your comments!
Sue