18 Decadent Brownie Recipes

By Food & Wine
Updated December 03, 2018
© Con Poulos
Whether filled with salted caramel or topped with gooey s’mores, these luscious brownie recipes make perfect desserts.
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Salted Caramel-Filled Fudge Brownies

Credit: © Tara Fisher
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These incredible brownies are filled with a layer of gooey salted caramel which can be made two weeks in advance.

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Quadruple Chocolate Brownies

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By swirling chunks of white, milk and bittersweet chocolate into a batter made with unsweetened chocolate, then melting and drizzling more all over the top, San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti says this sweet has “all the chocolates I like in one brownie.”

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Salted Fudge Brownies

Credit: Tina Rupp
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F&W’s Kate Krader has been making these fudgy, sweet-salty brownies since she was 10 years old. As a kid she used regular table salt; now she recommends a flaky sea salt like Maldon, because the flavor is less harsh and it melts so nicely into the batter, accentuating the chocolaty sweetness.

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Hazelnut-Brown-Butter Brownies

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“In Japan I got into all different flours, like roasted soy flour,” says Stella Parks. “Then I thought, Why not use nut flour to make gluten-free brownies”

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Bacon-Bourbon Brownies with Pecans

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Kat Kinsman tops her rich brownies with bacon and pecans. To enhance the smoky flavor, she mixes some of the bacon fat into the batter.

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Jumbo Brownies

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“Like all great desserts,” says Anne Quatrano, “these brownies have only three pertinent flavors: chocolate, butter and walnuts.” Quatrano, an F&W Best New Chef 1995, is the chef of a small empire of restaurants in Atlanta.

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Praline Brownies


Credit: © John Kernick
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Pastry chef Kelly Fields of Willa Jean in New Orleans makes her delicious fudgy brownies with brown sugar, dark chocolate and cocoa powder, and studs them with crunchy bites of nutty pecan praline.

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Brownie Bites

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These wheat-free, butterless brownies are decadent and dense. “It’s really, really hard to make a good vegan brownie,” says chef Erin McKenna. Her first efforts using applesauce and vegetable oil were cakey or fluffy. It took her six months of making small adjustments to perfect them.

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Brownie Banana Splits

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Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink’s pastry chef, Hedy Goldsmith, created this stupendous dessert, in which fudgy peanut butter brownies get topped with bananas caramelized in dulce de leche and served with scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and her house-made peanut brittle.

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Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

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A few spoonfuls of applesauce adds moisture without extra fat.

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Coconut Brownie Bars

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Pastry chef Cheryl Burr loves candy, as is obvious from her homage to the Almond Joy. Her luxurious take consists of a supremely fudgy brownie topped with a layer of chewy, flaky, exceptionally tender coconut. She dots each bar with a crunchy roasted almond, then coats them in silky bittersweet-chocolate ganache.

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Gooey Walnut Brownies

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Andrew Zavala, 11, discovered the recipe for these gooey brownies in a kids’ cookbook by Pamela Gwyther called Let’s Cook! when he was seven years old. A self-professed kitchen scientist, he likes to revisit the recipe often, substituting ingredients and noting the results. “My favorite version uses two ounces each of dark, milk and white chocolate,” he says.

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Warm Double-Chocolate Brownie Cakes

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Brownie meets cake in this fun dessert from Emily Luchetti, a cookbook author and the executive pastry chef. She bakes the batter in muffin cups so the edges turn crispy and chewy like a brownie, but the inside becomes soft and fluffy like a cake.

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Espresso-Shortbread Brownie Bars

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Grace Parisi brings the beloved combination of coffee and chocolate together by using a pleasantly crumbly espresso-flavored shortbread as a crust for fudgy brownies.

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Chewy Black Licorice Chocolate Brownies


Credit: John Kernick
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This deeply dark-chocolaty brownie has a sophisticated touch of salt, plus notes of molasses and anise from black licorice, and the combo makes a brilliant treat that is irresistibly chewy and not too sweet.

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Mascarpone-Swirled Brownies with Nutty Caramel Corn

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These fudgy brownies are laced with mascarpone and served with sweet-salty clusters of peanuts and popcorn.

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S’mores Brownies

Credit: © SARAH BOLLA
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These fudgy, gluten-free brownies are baked in a graham cracker crust, then topped with marshmallows and broiled.

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Brownie Cake Sundaes with Pecan-Ice Cream Balls

Credit: © Con Poulos
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Instead of making his brownies in one big pan, Atlanta chef Ford Fry bakes them in muffin cups, so each one has the perfect ratio of crusty outside to moist, fudgy interior.

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