Brownies Lab1,221 recipes

Brownies Lab

Brownies: what 1,221 recipes agree on

Fudgy to cakey: chocolate, butter, sugar and egg per gram of flour.

1221 recipes from 188 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical pan, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.

Recipes

1,221

from 188 sites

Typical flour

100 g

about 3/4 cup

Oven

350°F

175°C · median of 1080

Bake time

30 min

most 24 to 35 min

The typical pan of brownies

The median of all 1221 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 100 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Typical brownies recipe in grams, with the range most recipes use
IngredientGrams
FlourThe scale for everything else100 gabout 3/4 cup
ChocolateMost recipes use 75 to 235 g150 gabout 5 oz
Cocoa37% use none; the rest mostly 20 to 60 g18 gabout 3 1/2 tbsp
FatMost recipes use 90 to 180 g135 gabout 2/3 cup
SugarMost recipes use 160 to 305 g225 gabout 1 cups
EggMost recipes use 95 to 160 g125 gabout 2 1/2 large eggs
Leavening59% use none; the rest mostly 2 to 4.5 gnone
Salt32% use none; the rest mostly 1 to 3 g1 g

Bake350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, cocoa 85 g, a large egg 50 g.

Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient

Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.

  1. Chocolate

    median 150% · most 73 to 233%

    Melted chocolate brings cocoa butter as well as flavor, which is much of what makes a brownie fudgy rather than cakey.

    0%200%400%600%800%1000%
    Each dot is up to 23 recipes.

    range 0 to 800% · 16% use none

  2. Cocoa

    median 18% · 37% use none

    Cocoa powder gives intense chocolate flavor without extra fat and absorbs liquid, firming the crumb.

    0%100%200%300%
    Each dot is up to 56 recipes.

    range 0 to 238% · those that use some, mostly 20 to 59%

  3. Fat

    median 136% · most 91 to 182%

    More butter or oil relative to flour is the main lever toward fudgy; less gives a cakier square.

    0%200%400%600%
    Each dot is up to 18 recipes.

    range 0 to 500% · 2% use none

  4. Sugar

    median 224% · most 160 to 304%

    Dissolved sugar makes the shiny, crackly top and a moist, dense middle.

    0%250%500%750%1000%
    Each dot is up to 16 recipes.

    range 43 to 879%

  5. Egg

    median 125% · most 94 to 160%

    Eggs set the brownie; whipping them with sugar gives the crackly crust, extra yolk makes it chewier. Eggless recipes lean on condensed milk or extra flour instead.

    0%200%400%600%
    Each dot is up to 22 recipes.

    range 0 to 500% · 6% use none

  6. Leavening

    median 0% · 59% use none

    Most fudgy recipes use none. Baking powder lifts a cakey brownie.

    0%2.5%5%7.5%10%13%
    Each dot is up to 81 recipes.

    range 0 to 10% · those that use some, mostly 1.8 to 4.6%

  7. Salt

    median 1.2% · 32% use none

    Salt keeps a very sweet brownie from tasting flat.

    0%2%4%6%8%
    Each dot is up to 47 recipes.

    range 0 to 7.8% · those that use some, mostly 1.2 to 3.2%

Where recipes disagree

Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.

  • Cocoa. 37% of recipes use no cocoa, and the rest disagree too: the middle half of them add 20 to 59% of the flour weight.
  • Leavening. 59% of recipes use no leavening; those that do mostly add 1.8 to 4.6% of the flour weight.

Recipes agree most on egg and sugar: egg 94 to 160%, sugar 160 to 304% for the middle half.

Around the world

1,221 of the recipes come in 7 languages with enough of each to compare: English 746, French 110, Dutch 104, German 86, Portuguese 77, Spanish 50, Italian 48.

  • French recipes use 63% more chocolate than English ones (222% against 136% of the flour weight) and 33% more egg (160% against 120%); most use no cocoa (80%, against 25% of English recipes).
  • Portuguese recipes use 26% less fat than English ones (100% against 136% of the flour weight) and 19% less sugar (200% against 250%); most use no cocoa (72%, against 25% of English recipes).
Every language, ingredient by ingredient →

What the words in titles mean

English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.

Recipes called “best” (31), “fudge” (26) or “homemade” (22) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.

“fudgy”

63 recipes vs 683

Recipes called “fudgy”: more egg (160% vs 120%); more fat (174% vs 136%).

“fudgy” (63)the rest (683)middle half of all

  • Eggrecipes called fudgy 160% vs the rest 120%

  • Fatrecipes called fudgy 174% vs the rest 136%

“zucchini”

20 recipes vs 726

Recipes with “zucchini” in the title: most add leavening (90% vs 38% use some); less egg (11% vs 120%); less sugar (127% vs 250%).

“zucchini” (20)the rest (726)middle half of all

  • Leavening · share using anyrecipes with zucchini in the title 90% vs the rest 38%

  • Eggrecipes with zucchini in the title 11% vs the rest 120%

  • Sugarrecipes with zucchini in the title 127% vs the rest 250%

All 8 words, and 23 that change nothing →

The most-reviewed recipes

173 brownie recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 1048, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:

On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.

50+ ratings (173)the rest (1048)middle half of all

  • Chocolatethe most-reviewed recipes 145% vs the rest 150%

  • Cocoathe most-reviewed recipes 20% vs the rest 17%

  • Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 135% vs the rest 136%

  • Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 214% vs the rest 225%

  • Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 110% vs the rest 126%

  • Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 0% vs the rest 0%

  • Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.2% vs the rest 1.2%

Most reviewed

  1. Best Homemade Brownies · loveandlemons.com4.8 from 8,216 ratings
  2. Eggless Rich Chocolate Brownies Recipe · archanaskitchen.com4.9 from 5,526 ratings
  3. Het ultieme brownie recept · rutgerbakt.nl · Dutch4.0 from 5,462 ratings
  4. Einfache Brownies · gutekueche.at · German4.5 from 4,142 ratings
  5. Brownies met pecannoten · 24kitchen.nl · Dutch3.0 from 3,449 ratings

Oven temperature and time

1080 of 1221 recipes state an oven temperature, and 81% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 141 do not say.

  • 350°F882 recipes
  • 325°F127 recipes
  • 375°F27 recipes
  • 400°F18 recipes
  • 300°F15 recipes
  • 320°F3 recipes

1164 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 30 minutes and the middle half bake 24 to 35 minutes.

Temperature and time together

The single most common pairing is 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, with 229 of the 1045 recipes that state both.

Rows: oven °F (°C in gray), every 25°F. Columns: minutes, 5 a column, from the start of each; the middle of a stated range counts. Darker: more recipes, up to 229 in one cell. Outlined: the median, 350°F for 30 minutes. 1045 recipes state both. The edge rows and columns also hold the few recipes beyond them.

Recipes to start with

Closest to the typical pan

Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.

Most chocolate

Least chocolate

All 1221 brownie recipes →

Go deeper

Top sources

  • 1212tomatoes.com
  • 1224kitchen.nl
  • 12backenmachtgluecklich.de
  • 12bakerbynature.com
  • 12baketotheroots.de
  • 12bbcgoodfood.com
  • 12bettybossi.ch
  • 12biggerbolderbaking.com
  • 12butternutbakeryblog.com
  • 12chefnini.com
  • 12chefsimon.com
  • 12comidaereceitas.com.br

In 7 languages: English 746, French 110, Dutch 104, German 86, Portuguese 77, Spanish 50, Italian 48. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 188 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.

How the numbers are made

Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.

96% of the 12,072 ingredient lines got a weight. 40% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.

A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 598 were left out: 174 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 122 over the 12-per-site cap, 102 made from a boxed mix, 92 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (sugar 47, leavening 20, chocolate 11, salt 6, cocoa 4, fat 2, egg 2), 40 with a title that names a different dish, 38 duplicates of other pages, 15 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 13 too many lines without an amount, and 2 a listing page, not a recipe page.

Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.