Perfect Crisp and Fudgy Nutella Brownies

When I envision the perfect brownie, two things come to mind: crisp, crackly top and a rich, gooey, fudgy center. Brownies are the ultimate chocolate dessert, when done right. They are made with pantry staples and come together very quickly with very few ingredients. But despite all of that simplicity, they can still be a little maddening.

I’ve made an unfathomable amount of brownies in my quest to get the recipe just right! My house has been teeming with brownies for days. I’ve taken brownies to work. My husband has been taking brownies to work. I gave brownies as Christmas gifts this year. I been living with constant smears of chocolate on my clothes and arms! (I don’t even want to think about how my brownies I have eaten in the past week.) But! I now have what I believe to be the most perfect recipe for rich, chocolatey, crackly, decadent brownies!

Here’s what you need:

The two factors that most influence the texture of a brownie are the ratio of the dry ingredients to wet ingredients, as well as the timing. I will get into that more as I walk through each step.

Have your pan ready to go.

My brownies always turn out best if they go into the oven while the batter is still hot, so time is of the essence. Having your pan sprayed and lined before preparing the batter will save you a minute or two later on.

As always in baking, have your ingredients measured and ready to go.

There are four groups in this recipe. First, sift together the dry ingredients (the flour, cocoa powder and salt) in a large bowl. Next, whisk together the sugars. I like using both brown and white granulated sugars. The molasses in the brown sugar gives the batter elasticity that helps in creating that gooeyness that is so important in a brownie.

The third ingredient group contains the two butters. I love Nutella. The creamy, luscious spread is perfect in these brownies and makes them super over-the-top decadent. And finally, the last ingredient group is the eggs and vanilla. I add the egg mixture to the melted butters and sugars and beat the heck out of it to create that crackly, meringue-like top.

Start by heating the 2 butters.

Melt the Nutella and unsalted butter over medium-high flame. Stir constantly to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn. Once it begins to simmer, remove from the heat.

Immediately pour the hot butter mixture into the sugars.

Whisk for a full minute. The mixture becoming very elastic and fudgy.

After about a minute of hard whisking, add the eggs and keep whisking, like you mean it. Switch arms if you want to try to get an equal workout on both. A little preemptive calorie burning. Just keep on whisking for 2 minutes. You will feel the burn but whipping the eggs will give your brownies a gorgeous, shiny and crackly top.

Finally add the gooey mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to incorporate.

Pour the still-warm batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Wait for the brownies to cool before cutting into them. It’s so hard, but if you take them out when they are hot, they will completely fall apart. Once cooled, Use a big spatula to hoist the whole thing out of the pan and onto the cutting board.

Cut into bars and dig in! Keep stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple days, then refrigerate or freeze your brownies after that (if they last that long!)

Other recipes to try:

• Chewy Peanut Butter Blondies
• Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies