The Best Homemade Brownie Mix
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Once in awhile I get this chocolate craving. And on those days the only thing that curbs my craving is a brownie. A rich, fudgy, chocolate brownie.
Usually those are the days I reach for a box brownie mix, because it’s so quick to just whip up, bake, and dig in. However, lately I’ve found that I like my homemade brownies better than a box mix. Enter: homemade brownie mix. Keep it in your pantry and make a batch of brownies whenever you want – no box needed!
I really hope I make sense while I write this. I’m kind of drugged up at the moment.
Have you ever taken Dramamine? The kind that’s not non-drowsy? The kind that makes your head feel like it’s on tracers? Well, it turns out that I have vertigo. It’s not horrible vertigo, which is why I’ve had it on and off for a year without knowing what it was. Now I know, and I have a fancy OTC drug that’s supposed to help it, a drug that’s like that regular dramamine. I just took my first dose about an hour ago and I feel a little…spacey.
Is there irony in the fact that the treatment for vertigo pretty much feels like vertigo itself?
Anyway, the story I was going to tell left my brain along with sense and reason, so now I’m going to talk about brownie mix. Should I related it to unicorn glitter or would that be too much?
You guys all know how much I love me some brownies. I have over 25 recipes for them! It all started when I created a recipe that was better than from a box. I gave that recipe frosting, mixed it with nuts and caramel, and topped it with peanut butter.
Then, I created a one bowl brownie recipe. I loved it because it only used cocoa, which made it one less step. I’ve been making that recipe for awhile now and every time I pull out the cocoa powder I groan.
Raise you hand if you hate scooping cocoa powder as much as I do? I mean, I like mixing it into my brownies but 9 times out of 10 I end up snorting it up my nose.
So I decided it was time to come up with a recipe for a brownie mix, one that I could keep in the cabinet and just scoop out when I needed it. It took me a few tries to get it perfect, but here it is: The Best Homemade Brownie Mix!
All you have to do is whisk all the ingredients and store the mixture in a canister or ziploc bag until you’re ready to use it. Then you add egg, water, butter or oil, and vanilla. The brownies themselves come together in just a few minutes. It’s like pulling a box from the cabinet…without all the preservatives and box things so many people like to avoid.
There are a couple things I really love about this homemade brownie mix:
- You can use melted butter, vegetable oil, or liquid coconut oil to make them. They turn out the same every time – perfectly fudgy and rich as you can see in the photos. I tested with all three, and I’m sure canola oil or olive oil, or your favorite oil in general, would work too. {Please. Don’t sub margarine. Or low-fat butter spread. Well, you can, but I can guarantee your results won’t be the same.}
- You can make a small batch, a medium batch, or a large batch all with just a few adjustments. I left recipes for all thee in the box below.
A small batch is made with 1 cup of mix and baked in a bread pan. Perfect for when you know you’re going to eat a whole pan of brownies. Think of it as portion control.
The medium batch is baked in a 9×9 pan, using 2 cups of mix. I usually prefer 9×9 pan recipes because there are only 3 people in my family.
The large batch is baked in a 9×13 pan, using 3 cups of mix. I didn’t test this one, but it follows that it will work.
Genius, isn’t it?
Make your own brownie mix at home and have brownies whenever you want! This would also be the perfect gift for that someone who needs a little help with homemade. 🙂
Homemade Brownie Mix is better than a box mix! It’s easy to make and a great gift in a jar too!
Did all that make sense? I hope so. 🙂
Enjoy!
The Best Brownie Mix
Ingredients
For the Mix:
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup cocoa
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the prepared Brownies:
- See directions for amounts — depending on pan size:
- Unsalted butter — melted, vegetable oil, OR liquid coconut oil
- Eggs
- Water
- Vanilla Extract
Instructions
To Make the Mix:
- Whisk together all mix ingredients in a large bowl. Place in an airtight container or gallon size ziploc bag. Store until ready to make brownies.
- Note: you can also gift this brownie mix in a large jar. Just attach directions as written below!
To Make a 9x9” Pan of Brownies:
- Mix 2 cups of Brownie Mix with 1/2 cup melted butter (or you can use vegetable oil, or liquid coconut oil), 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon water. (If desired, add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips!)
- Spread in a 9x9” pan that’s been lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350°F for about 20-24 minutes, until a toothpick comes out 1” from the edge of the pan with only a few crumbs. Cool before slicing into squares.
To Make a Loaf Pan of Brownies:
- Mix 1 cup of Brownie Mix with 1/4 cup melted butter (or you can use vegetable oil, or liquid coconut oil), 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 teaspoons water. (If desired, add 1/4 cup of chopped nuts or mini chocolate chips!)
Spread in a loaf pan (4x8 or 9x5) that’s been lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350°F for about 12-15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out 1” from the edge of the pan with only a few crumbs. Cool before slicing into squares.
To make a 9x13-in pan:
Mix 3 cups mix, 3/4 cup vegetable oil liquid coconut oil, or melted butter, 3 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons water. Spread in a 9x13-in pan that’s been lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350°F for about 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out 1” from the edge of the pan with only a few crumbs. Cool before slicing into squares.
You can use this brownie mix to make so many brownie mix recipes! Like…
Reese’s Brownies with Oreo Crust
Cookies ‘n Cream Brownie Bites
Nutter Butter Truffle Brownies
Sweets from friends:
Homemade Yellow Cake Mix by i am baker
Chocolate Mousse Brownies by Love and Olive Oil
Browned Butter Brownies by Something Swanky
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I Love the brownie mix so do my family. The 9×13 directions were great!!!!!!
That’s so great to know Tina! Yay!
I love the idea of the peanut butter brownie batter dip using your brownie mix recipe. We are always cautioned about eating the uncooked cookie or brownie batter because of the raw eggs. When making the brownie batter dip, since it won’t be baked anyway, shouldn’t we just leave out the eggs? Just curious about the safety factor. (I think we ate raw batter for years before these warnings started without ill effects, but better safe than sorry. Right?) Love your recipes! Thank you! FDW
When you make my peanut butter brownie batter dip (if that’s what you’re referring to), you just use the brownie mix. You don’t make the brownie batter – just use the powder. Then there are no eggs!
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I have now made three batches of these brownies and I absolutely agree, it is wonderful!! My first batch was an 8×8 glass dish, and the cook time was much longer. I think almost 35 min. Today, I made a 9x13x1 pan in my trusty pan that I always used for brownies, and they came out delicious. My cook time was only about 22 min at 350′ and I am in Texas, for reference. The top is a slight crust and the middle is rich, just perfect, fudgy brownie. Also, I have subbed coconut oil with delicious results. I also used Nativa Naturals raw cacao powder because I already had it in the pantry. Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Yay! I’m so glad to know that Clara!! Thanks for the baking times. I think I under bake my brownies without knowing it (I’d almost rather eat the batter!)
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Ok so i just now made these. And something went terribly wrong. Do when you buy cocoa it comes in an 8oz container. First I poured it into the measuring cup to measure one cup. I thought it was odd that the container said 8oz but when you measure about half that it comes to b one cup. I poured the whole container in assuming the package measurement had to better than mine. That is probably where I went wrong. My brownies are crumbly and bitter. Can my mistake be fixed? Do I have to throw out all these ingredients?
Katie you posted this nearly three months ago so I don’t know if you’ll see this but I saw that your question wasn’t answered. I just checked and for DRY ingredients like the cocoa, a cup equals 4 ounces. 🙂 It’s actually slightly different for different dry ingredients. Here’s a link to the chart I found:
http://www.thekitchn.com/weight-conversions-for-flour-sugar-and-other-common-baking-ingredients-171316
I wonder if the cocoa you used is already sweetened. I have a raw cocoa in my cupboard.. do I need to add more sugar?
I used Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa. You can also use the special dark, or dutch process!
Dad and I ran out of brownie mix but found ourselves hankering for a chocolate morsel like nobody’s business. I’m so glad I found you recipe on Pinterest. I added some caramels to the batter and it’s finishing in the oven right now – our house smells heavenly! I can’t wait to try them – thanks again for sharing!
Oh yes. Caramel would be fabulous!! Enjoy!
love this!! What kind of cocoa do you use??
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I made the 9×13 version, baking for about 27 minutes, and they came out great! These are very dangerous to be home alone with…
Hi Dorothy!
I am about to prepare a batch of this mix as a gift for a friend.
I am writing out the instructions first, and as I was printing out the instructions for the small batch (1 cup, baked in a bread pan) I noticed that you don’t mention the quatities for the added wet ingredients for any of the three batch sizes (bread pan, 9×9, 9×13).
Would you mind sharing what your wet quantities were for each batch size? That would be awesome, thanks!
The amounts are in the directions! Enjoy!
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I just whipped up a batch of the mix. Looking forward to making some brownie bites later this evening! Thank you for the inspiration!
Enjoy Jami!
Brownies are in the oven now–but I dowsed the comments and didn’t see anybody with the problem I had. I made the big batch–9×13″ pan–and carefully measured out the right amount of mix and put in exactly the amount of oil, eggs, and water called for–and the mix was WAY too dry, like really stiff bread dough! Had to add another quarter cup of water to get it to brownie batter consistency. I kind of had wondered because box mixes usually call for about a fourth cup of water. I’ll let you know how they come out. Theories?
I haven’t made the 9×13 pan size yet, but I have had a reader report that it worked for them using my estimated ingredients in the post (3 cups of brownie mix with 3/4 cup melted butter (or you can use vegetable oil, or liquid coconut oil), 3 eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 tablespoons water). That said, when I’ve made the 9×9 and the mini pan size, it’s always been moist. It could be a difference in altitude or weather, or there could have been too much flour used. How do you measure your flour (scooping or spooning?) Scooping can cause a packing of the flour, which can cause dryness. Also, did you use butter (not margarine?) or oil? Let me know how they turn out!
Just cut them and sampled, and they’re yummy–though a little more cake-like than I like. I do confess to scooping the flour (then leveling with a knife)–possibly that is the problem, though I wouldn’t have thought it would result in getting THAT much more flour. I used coconut oil. The flour was organic unbleached white flour, don’t know if that makes a difference. Re the cake-like vs. fudge-like, do you think it would work with two eggs? I questioned the third egg for that reason but figured I’d better go by the recipe first time out.
Anyway thanks, I LOVE now knowing how easy it is to make your own mix! I one day looked at the ingredients on my brownie mix box and was horrified to find trans fats in the mix. I then looked at all the other mixes on the shelf and could not find a SINGLE ONE without trans fats. Thus the desire to make my own. If I’d known it would be this simple I’d have done it a long time ago!
Definitely try and spoon the flour next time, that might work! My other brownie recipe (not a mix; it uses melted chocolate as well as cocoa) uses 3 eggs, so I don’t think it’s too many, but you could omit one next time and try it! Whenever I’ve made the 9×9 size, it’s always super fudgy! Maybe add a little more oil to compensate. And I’m glad you discovered making your own mix. SO easy and so much better for you!
I made the 9×13 (literally minutes ago) and waited for it to cool. I didn’t have quite enough of the 3 cups (I leveled out with a knife when making the mix, and I also previously made the peanut butter brownie dip from you). So I adjusted everything just a touch to match the kissing 1/2 cup. I only added 2 eggs because I thought the same thing. When I’m going to make a cake, I want it cakey. Wheni m going to make brownies I want them fudgey. I probably should’ve added just a touch more of oil or water because it was just a bit hard to mix, but instead I added some vanilla Greek yogurt, merely because I had it on hand. So…why not? And makes me feel even better eating these delish brownies
We LOVE this brownie mix. My husband knows a batch of it is waiting on him in the freezer. His hint to me….”Are you making brownies in there?” He loves the chewier texture of these better than a cake-like texture. I’ve had so many compliments on this recipe. I haven’t changed any of it. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t need any other brownie recipe.
Thank you SO much! I love hearing that. It makes my day!
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VERTIGO! Ughhhhh!!
UNTIL ‘one’s been there, done that’…. They would not even begin to imagine!!
I’ve SUFFERED (that IS the perfect word to describe it)…. For 6+ LONG years! I KEEP Meclizine & PHENERGAN in my purse… AT ALL TIMES!
The Lord has truly been my HELP & HEALER…..as I have not had an “episode” in nearly 8 months! PTL!!
I will certainly be praying for you!!
And in the meantime…. While making me up some of this ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS LOOKING BROWNIE MIX….
Trying to figure out a way….. Of HOW CHOCOLATE ….
Can take the place…. Of the “Mec & Phen” 😉
I KNOW this will be a TOUCHDOWN…. For our short Super Bowl get together …. This Sunday….after church!
(I really do HATE football…..OHHHHHH but the EATING/SNACKING IS….
AWESOME!!)
Thank you! It got much better once I started using a nasal spray. Now if I feel it coming on I start taking decongestant right away and it helps a lot!
Just made these brownies! Delish! Thank You
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!
Just a little story…my husband needed something to bring to a potluck and found himself at home with our baby while I was at the urgent care facility. I sent him this recipe, and said that he needed to make the mix, use three cups in a 9×13 pan, and then follow the directions.
He felt like he could handle that. When I got home, the brownies were in the oven! I asked what he had done with the rest of the mix…and of course he had no idea what I was talking about. Yep, he used the whole mix and then made it up according to your 9×13 instructions. Then I looked in the oven…he had used a 7×11 pan. So, we baked the brownies a lot longer than intended, and when it came time to cut them, they were well beyond moist. 😉 But there was no time to make changes, so he brought them as-is. Amazingly, they tasted great! Like a cross between brownies and fudge! Just thought you might like to know that even when you fail to follow the directions, they’re still pretty delicious!
That’s great to know! My husband has done that too, with frosting. I wondered why it was soupy and he just added ALL the milk at once! Ha!
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Oh!! What have you done to meeee??!! I made a small (thankfully) batch of your brownies using your brownie mix. So gooey and squidy. It would be fair to say: they are all gone!!
I’m so glad you like them Emma! Whenever I make them they’re gone in a flash too!
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Just made these with the 9×13 recipe. I added a tablespoon of water but they are now my favorite from scratch brownies. Blew my old recipe out of the water. 🙂 Next I’ll try adding walnuts! Thanks for sharing 🙂
These are honestly the worst brownies I’ve ever had. Boxed brownie mix from multiple companies is 10x better. Waste of time.
I apologize that you didn’t like them. Was it taste or texture? Or did they just not turn out? I’d love to troubleshoot with you if there was a baking issue. If it’s taste, well, I guess everyone likes different things. We love these, as do so many people who’ve tried them.
OMG! I made the brownies today they are heavenly! So so so much better than a box! Ty for the recipe! DELICIOUS!
Yay!! So glad you enjoyed them!!
So I just made these brownies today (actually made your peanut butter brownie batter dip…LOVE LOVE LOVE that stuff) but I baked for an extra ten minutes (loaf size) and they were almost soupy? How much baking powder do you think I could add to firm them up just a tad/raise them up a bit?
Also, these taste incredible! I never make box mixes but for homemade mix the taste is superior. Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad you like the taste! I never add baking powder or soda to my brownies – it keeps them thick and fudgy. I’m not sure what adding it will do to the mix, but if you want to try it I’d say 1/2 tsp for the 9×9 size pan.
Okay, so I tried these again using a 9×13 inch pan and they turned out just fine! More than fine, really…my husband devoured a good quarter of the pan already 🙂 I’m assuming I messed up the measurements the first time. Thanks again for the recipe!
I’m so glad they worked!
This recipe is amazing! It’s perfect for taking brownies to new neighbors! Also eating the whole pan by yourself. 😉 I’m linking it to a blog post I’m about to write!
I’m so glad you like them!! And thank you!
Hey there, thank you for this wonderful recipe! I made these brownies and they are absolutely amazing. I used regular cooking oil and it worked just fine and it didn’t affect the taste at all. This recipe is definitely a keeper and no more buying boxed brownies mix ever again! I also made a posting about this in my blog, which I shared with my friends and I directed a link right to your page.
Heeey, Dorothy! I’ve just found your page “Crazy for crust” and I can say it’s very very great! 🙂 And I want to ask you about your Homemade brownie mix. I want to make a Brownie pizza with this mix, but i don’t know what proportions to use. Maybe you know? 🙂 Thanks for your time, I’ll wait for the answer!
What size is your pizza pan? I would say to use the 3 cup recipe (in the notes). Enjoy!! Let me know how it turns out.
can i use canola oil for this recipe? will it affects the texture of the brownie? thank u
Yes! I sub canola and vegetable regularly.
Thanks for this great recipe! I sub cold coffee for the water and it brings out a deep chocolate flavor. Everyone who has tried one loves it. I am not able the way briwnies from a box mix, but these I can eat. Yay!!
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I have made these several times using the 9×13 directions and came back today to see those directions are no longer on the instructions portion. If I am missing it let me know!
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