Triple Chocolate Brownie Recipe
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If you are looking for the ultimate triple chocolate brownie recipe, then these rich, indulgent and delicious brownies are the ones to bake. Packed with triple chocolate chunks, and with the perfect balance of chocolate throughout, these brownies have the delicious fudgy texture every baker is after.
Whether you are baking for birthdays, afternoon treats, a family gathering, or simply trying to satisfy a chocolate craving, this recipe is the one you will turn to again and again.
Note’s from The Patisserie
I have made these brownies well over five hundred times now, in this base form and with extra flavours throughout, so I feel like somewhat of an expert now. They are thick, fudgy and I have tested this recipe over and over to try and produce the best brownie ever…
- Deep chocolate flavour from a dark chocolate base
- Three chocolates folded through for extra indulgence
- Easy to follow method
- Perfect for freezing and making ahead
- Soft, gooey and fudgy texture all in one
- Great for bake sales, parties, and for use as a base brownie for other flavours
This recipe is part of a ‘back to basics’ series on my blog where I am trying to provide as much information on the basics of baking, to make you a better bake. I firmly believe that once you crack the basics, you can have a lot more fun with baking.
Ingredient notes + tips
The chocolate in the base
This recipe has the best flavour balance, but it does use dark chocolate in the base. This ingredient is particularly important for a few reasons. The higher cocoa solids (I would always recommend 70% dark chocolate or higher) helps create a rich chocolate flavour, but it also has naturally less sugar and milk in the chocolate.
Dark chocolate works best in the brownie base because it creates a richer chocolate flavour and helps achieve that classic fudgy texture. With a higher cocoa content and less added sugar than milk chocolate, it provides a deeper taste and balances the sweetness of the brownie mixture, and with the addition of the rest of the ingredients, provides the best base.
Personally, I would recommend using cooking chocolate such as this one, or using a basic chocolate from the shop. You do not need to use a fancy brand of chocolate for the base mixture.
The rest of the ingredients:
- Butter – I would recommend using block unsalted butter for the base of a brownie, or a baking spread. Generally, block butter may likely create a better set compared to a spread due to it’s less process nature.
- Sugar – You can use caster sugar, golden caster sugar, light brown soft sugar or even dark brown soft sugar. For a basic triple chocolate, I usually use white caster sugar.
- Eggs – to make it slightly easier, this recipe is formulated to use four medium eggs, or three large eggs.
- Flour – it’s important to use plain flour with no raising agent in it – if you use self raising flour, it will cause a cake texture. If you don’t have plain flour, it may also be known as all-purpose flour
- Cocoa – I would ALWAYS recommend using a good quality cocoa, with a high cocoa percentage. I would suggest not using a hot chocolate powder as they are mainly sugar and not cocoa.
Tops tips to making the best brownies
The method behind making these brownies, other than the importance of the chocolate base, is what makes these brownies brilliant and the wonderful texture that they have. Make sure to check out the full recipe and method in the recipe card
Whisking the eggs and the sugar
One of the most important steps in making perfect homemade brownies is whisking the eggs and sugar correctly. This stage creates a thick, mousse-like mixture that forms the foundation of the brownie texture.
You need to whisk the eggs and sugar for several minutes until the mixture becomes:
- Noticeably paler in colour
- Thick and mousse-like
- More than doubled in volume
Do not rush this step. A quick mix simply won’t create the same result, and skipping proper whisking can affect the final texture of your brownies. It’s easier to use a stand mixer or hand mixer because they are quickly, but you do not need to. You just need to whisk for quite a bit longer by hand to get the same texture
Folding the ingredients together
Once your egg mixture has reached the correct mousse-like consistency, gently fold in the melted chocolate and butter mixture, followed by the flour and cocoa powder. This stage should always be done by hand.
Mixing too aggressively can deflate the air you’ve created during whisking, leaving you with a thinner batter and affecting the final brownie texture. So, make sure to fold slowly and carefully in a figure of eight pattern, keep as much air in the mixture as possible, and avoid over mixing.
Using the correct tin and oven setting
As well as making sure to use the correct ingredients, following the top tips above, it is so important to use the correct size tin. I use a 9” square metal tin for my brownies, and for the best results, it’s important to use this too.
Using a smaller tin can cause problems with the bake as the volume difference is much larger than people may realise. An 8” square tin is roughly 25% smaller in volume, and a 7” square tin is 50% less. Also, using silicone or glass or ceramic instead of metal can cause a problem due to how they conduct heat in the oven.
I always bake brownies on the fan setting in my fan oven, so I bake at 160ºc. I bake them for 25 minutes on the dot as I know my oven well, and when the 25 minutes is up, there is a small wobble in the middle.
As ovens vary SO much, even if you think they are all set to ‘the same’ setting, there is a very high chance they are not. Timings can therefore vary, so keep an eye on them and adjust accordingly.
FAQs
Yes, you definitely can. The brownies will still be delicious without (might take a couple of minutes less time to bake)
This is likely due to the brownies being over baked, but they can also be over mixed.
Definitely! You can add in flavour extracts really easily when folding in the chocolate/butter mixture to the eggs and sugar. I would use 1-2 tsps of a strong extract such as vanilla, orange or mint.
Yes, but they won’t have set yet so if they are cut warm, they may still be very gooey. They are still fine to eat, but generally we recommend setting the brownies fully, and the warming a piece through in the microwave if you have one
Brownies do naturally sink slightly when cooling, but if they have sunk a lot it could be due to adding too much air into the eggs and sugar at the start, under baking the brownies, or opening the oven door too early to check on them.
Yes! You can use all white chocolate, all milk chocolate, all dark chocolate or whatever mix you want folded into the brownie mix.
Triple Chocolate Brownie Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g dark chocolate (70%+ cocoa content)
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs (or 4 medium)
- 275 g caster sugar
- 100 g plain flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 100 g white chocolate (chips/chunks)
- 100 g milk chocolate (chips/chunks)
- 100 g dark chocolate (chips/chunks)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line a 9″ square baking tray with parchment paper.
- Melt together the unsalted butter and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water, on the microwave for 1-2 minutes until melted.
- Leave to the side to cool to room temperature for 5-10 minutes
- In a new bowl, whisk together the eggs & caster sugar for a few minutes until the colour has turned pale, is very mousse like, and is double the original volume
- You will know its done because when you lift the whisk up out of the mix it should leave a trail for a couple of seconds before disappearing
- When whisked, pour the cooled chocolate mix over eggs and fold together carefully.
- Once completely combined, add the cocoa powder and plain flour on top of the chocolate mix and then fold together again
- Once combined well, fold through the chocolate chips and pour into the prepared tin
- Bake in the oven for 25-30+ minutes until there is a small wobble in the middle.
- Once baked, leave to cool in the tin completely. The, set the the brownies in the fridge for 3+ hours for best results.
Notes
- These brownies will last for up to one week in the fridge or at room temperature on a cool day
- These brownies can freeze for 3+ months
- I use this 9″ square tin in this recipe
Storage and Freezing
These brownies are great as they do last really well. As well as being delicious on the day of baking, they also last for up to a week either at room temperature on a cooler day, but also in the fridge. I prefer mine in the fridge, as it keeps the fudge texture.
These brownies will also last for 3+ months, in the freezer. I would recommend letting the brownies bake and cool fully, and then portioning before freezing.
Making these now, they look delicious… I am a bit concerned though mine have been in 55 minutes and the skewer is still covered in chocolate, oven temperature is definitely correct. I’ll see how they turn out!
If you’re worried – set them in the fridge for a couple of hours before cutting!
I made these yesterday and they are incredible! Thanks for sharing your recipe. These are some of the best brownies I’ve had and I can’t believe I made them myself! Will definitely try some of your other recipes!
This recipe looks amazing. I’m struggling to get cocoa powder, is there a tweak to the recipe possible without it? If not I’ll just have to wait! 🙈
You can use 50g more flour in place, but obviously the flavour will be different and maybe the texture slightly!
hi! thank you for the recipe it looks fantastic, i cant get a hold of eggs at the moment do you have any suggestions?
Not for these, I’m afraid – I do have a vegan brownie recipe on my blog you can use though!
Thanks for that.. i actually tried it any way with bannana and oil.. comolete disaster lol
Tried it again with eggs and it was delicious,
Great recipe
This is a faultless recipe! I can never get the mix or bake right and these are bang on!
I made these the other day and they were fab. However, I think I overmixed the eggs and sugar as the brownie came out just under 2 inches in height and the texture was more like one of those melt in the middle choc puddings. Any advice on how long I should mix with an electric hand mixer would be great!
Ooh no! Usually I whisk for about 3 minutes or so to get it really thick! xx
Made these today – I’ve been a little under the weather the past couple of days, but these cheered me right up!
I wasn’t sure texturally how the aeration method would, but they’re the perfect balance bwtween slightly cakey, but nice and gooey!
I couldn’t get my hands on any decent quality white chocolate, so had to settle for milky bar… Will definitely use a better quality white choc next time, it just wasn’t up to the job!
Brilliant recipe though Jane!
Ahh I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! Theres definitely so many different method for brownies out there, but I do love this one!! x
Hi Jane, Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. I was wondering if I was baking this recipe in a 18×30 (cm) (foil tray bake) would the quantity be the same or would I have to adapt? Thank You xxx
Hiya – that should be roughly the same!
Mine tastes like a cake rather than a brownie. What did I do wrong?
Did you use plain flour or substitute for self raising? If not, sounds over baked is all!
Hey,
I’ve had this recipe saved for ages and I’m itching to make them today, however I can only find self raising flour. Would that work or would I need to alter the ingredients in any way?
Thanks x
Hey! So ideally you really do need to use plain flour – for the best brownie. There aren’t any changes you can make in regards to self raising unfortunately – you can use it, but it may cause them to rise and then fall after baking, and also have a smidge more of a cakey texture!
Hi Jane, I was going to make these Brownies again as they went down so well before but unfortunately still couldn’t get any regular plain flour, I managed to get the Doves Farm plain flour (free from) that I think you’ve used in other recipes. Would this work the same and would I need to alter anything like the amount of flour? Thanks!
It’s definitely a struggle for ingredients right now isn’t it! I would say it’s definitely worth a go, but they may be more squidgy! X
I’ve made these with gluten free plain flour and I think they actually taste even better than normal flour and I’ve made them at least 50 times
I really love the basics series of recipes as I’m new to this. This recipe was so easy to follow and tasted unreal! I actually couldn’t believe I had made them!
Could you replace the 300g of chocolate chips with smarties? Would this work?
Hey! Yes you can, but sometimes smarties lose their colour when baked! x
Absolutely love these brownies. I followed the recipe which was really easy and the came out fabulous. I made them for someone’s birthday and they loved them
Hi Jane, I’m going to make these using the 9 inch tin as I normally half the recipe but always seems to go flat when I do ! Just a quick one can you freeze these once cooked ? And also any ideas why it tends to go flat ? I use a 8inch tin when I half it
Hey – so half of this recipe is probably a 7×7″ tin, the 8″ is too big for half! And yes you can freeze them once baked!