Buttermilk Brownies – Rich, fudgy, decadent and pure chocolate bliss. There is no doubt in my mind, these are the best brownies ever!!
Love buttermilk desserts? This decadent Kentucky Butter Cake is amazing, with it’s delicious glaze!
Why this Recipe Works
When I say Buttermilk Brownies are the best, you better believe me. Because I’m picky about my brownies!
Don’t put a piece of dense chocolate cake on my plate and call it a brownie. I love Chocolate Cake but brownies are a completely different animal. I need them to be fudgey, thick and ultra moist without being totally gooey.
Then, there’s frosting. I know people have different opinions on whether or not brownies need frosting. I’m firmly in the pro frosted brownies group.
Brownies might not NEED frosting to taste good. But if you CAN put frosting on a dessert, why wouldn’t you?
These are thick and decadent, but they don’t fall apart when you pick them up. And the ratio of brownie to frosting is SPOT ON. These are definitely going to be my new “go to” brownie recipe.
How to make Brownies
With both chocolate chips and dark chocolate cocoa powder in the brownie batter, these are a chocolate lover’s dream.
To make the brownies:
Combine butter, cocoa powder and oil in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and remove from the stove.
In a large mixing bowl, combine granulated sugar, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Slowly whisk in the butter mixture. Add in flour, baking soda and kosher salt, and stir just until combined.
Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into a 13×9-inch baking dish lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool. While the brownies are cooling, make the frosting.
Frosted Brownies
To make the frosting: In a small saucepan, combine butter, buttermilk and cocoa powder. Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat.
Next, combine powdered sugar with the butter mixture in a mixing bowl. Beat for several minutes until smooth. Pour over brownies and sprinkle immediately with chocolate chips.
Refrigerate for two hours, until set. Cut and enjoy!
Tips and Tricks
- Can you use buttermilk substitute? For the buttermilk, you can use store bought from a carton or made from buttermilk powdered. You can also make a buttermilk substitute using my recipe!
- How to store: I store these in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I find them to taste best chilled. The frosting stays set in place and won’t run all over your hands!
- Cutting brownies: Make sure the brownies are completely cooled and set before you slice them into bars. Do NOT skip the chilling step or they will fall apart and be gooey. ALWAYS use a plastic knife.
- Decorating: To add some color to your brownies, decorate with sprinkles along with or instead of the chocolate chips on top. Sprinkles make anything more festive!
Freezing Brownies
These brownies will keep well in the fridge for about a week. For longer storage, store them in the freezer.
To keep the frosting in place and prevent it from turning runny when it thaws, I put a piece of wax paper over the top of the brownies first.
Then transfer them to a freezer safe container and freeze flat. Once frozen, transfer to a ziploc bag if you prefer to save space!
More Brownie Recipes
These are all but guaranteed to become your new favorite rich chocolate brownies! But there’s room in our lives for more than ONE amazing brownie recipe, right?
Try these Bakery Style Brownies that perfectly replicate the bakery brownies I love with the crinkly top and fudgey interior.
For all you peanut butter fans out there, these Buckeye Brownies are guaranteed to make you happy.
Did you know you can make brownies in the instant pot too? When the oven goes out, Instant Pot Brownies Recipe to the rescue.
More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Grinch Brownies
- Wacky Cake
- Monkey Bread
- Lofthouse Cookies
- Chocolate Dipped Potato Chip Cookies
- More BROWNIES
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Buttermilk Brownies
Ingredients
For the Brownies:
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
For the Frosting:
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 cup powdered sugar
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Line a 13×9-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.
- For the brownies, in a small saucepan over medium high heat, combine butter, cocoa powder and oil. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine granulated sugar, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Slowly whisk in the butter mixture. Add in flour, baking soda and salt, and stir just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Pour into prepared baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
- While brownies are cooling, begin frosting. In a small saucepan, combine butter, buttermilk and cocoa powder. Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to boil. Remove.
- In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar with butter mixtures. Beat for several minutes until smooth. Pour over brownies (they don’t need to be completely cooled. Sprinkle immediately with chocolate chips.
- Refrigerate for two hours, until set. Cut and enjoy. I store these in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I find them to taste best chilled.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
Make a batch of these decadent, thick, oh-so-rich buttermilk brownies for dessert tonight! Don’t forget a cup of coffee or a glass of milk to go with them.
I made this recipe to use up some buttermilk and we did not put frosting on. However, I am above altitude and had to add 15 minutes and it was still a little bit soft in the middle. They tested OK. Not sure if I would make them again.
These brownies definitely taste better WITH the frosting, like a texas sheet cake. If you’re looking for a plain brownie, check out my bakery style brownies. Thick and fudgy and delicious!
I was in need of a recipe to use up my buttermilk since it was expiring soon. I have made cupcakes before, so I thought I couldn’t mess up brownies too badly, right? Weeeeelll.
I’ll give a short review first:
I enjoy these brownies and so do my friends. I personally don’t like brownies much because of the amount of chocolate, but this was good! It’s sweet, but not too sweet to the point of hurting (if you have sensitive teeth like I do then you know what I mean). If I ever need to use up buttermilk, I would like to make this again, maybe a smaller amount this time or when I have people over so they can eat it!
Things I Took Out/Replaced:
-Chocolate chips (I HATE chocolate chips, so there was none)
-2 Cups of powdered sugar instead
-Regular chocolate (I HATE dark chocolate)
-Aluminum Foil with olive oil spray instead of parchment paper
-A pan instead of a saucepan (it still worked! The pan has long edges and we use it to fry stuff like chicken and boil eggs)
Now to the mistakes I made and the long review:
This was a struggle for me mainly because I didn’t use a long enough tin foil to pop out the brownie easier. I baked the brownies for an extended 2 minutes just in case. I couldn’t tell if it was cooked (I can never tell when ANYTHING is cooked so 😅) so I decided to use the cupcake method and poke it with a fork… big mistake. When I put the frosting on it was like a sinkhole and most of the frost (Btw, too much frosting, maybe my pan was too small, but it was definitely too much frosting to begin with) went inside the hole. The frosting took at least a whole day to solidify and even then it kinda doesn’t with touch. The edges looked to be hard but not burnt. When I cut into it, the frosting that had escaped inside the hole made it so that the inside was gooey. I mean that could be a good thing for some people so if you want that just poke a hole. I did pop this in the freezer to see if it would solidify but Idk if it did. Either way with all the struggles it still tasted good, so big props to the recipe 😂
I’m not sure why you would ever make brownies. You don’t “personally don’t like brownies much”. You don’t like chocolate chips. You don’t like dark chocolate. If I were you I just wouldn’t make brownies. They’re obviously not your thing.
Can I use regular unsweetened cocoa powder if that’s all I have?
Absolutely.
Aimee— do you have any advice on how to avoid the “high and dry “edges? My brownies are definitely lower and moisture in the middle but very high on the edges. Thanks for any suggestions.
The middle of my brownies did not cook. I followed the receipt to a T and have no idea what happened. They were inedible and a complete disappointment.
I would check the temperature of your oven, or just cook the brownies a tad longer (depending on the pan and oven temp some ovens cook differently).
Wonderful! Better than I hoped for. I used milk chocolate chips, but otherwise followed recipe as written and they turned out perfect. Yes, very sweet but I like sweet and the frosting is as thick as the brownie…DELICIOUS! Best served COLD
Note** I used a very good quality cocoa powered called Droste (imported from Holland) and Guittard brand chocolate chips (from local grocery store)
I love them cold too!
Omg! These are decadent and delicious! I didn’t notice the recipe said kosher salt, and I used table salt. Still, these brownies are amazing! Very fudgy! Perfect texture! I halfed the recipe. My husband and I do not need a whole pan of brownies! I am keeping this recipe! The brownies are very sweet as others have mentioned, but, unfortunately, I love sweet!! Also, I already had regular unsweetened cocoa, not dark chocolate because that is just what I had on hand. Thanks for sharing!!
Cut the frosting recipe in half and use milk instead of buttermilk in the frosting and it’s 5 stars!
These brownies are SOO sweet. Too sweet for me personally. Might make these again and skip the frosting. The frosting in this recipe tasted pretty overpowering, kind of felt like I was just eating frosting and no brownie.
I made the recipe exactly EXCEPT in the frosting I added a big blob of peanut butter and it was so so good. It set up perfectly. Now everyone wants me to make brownies.
The brownies were very rich and moist. I made one change. Instead of buttermilk, I used some farm fresh yogurt. They were wonderful!
I am at a lost with this recipe. The first time they were wonderful. Although I did make make some changes with the oil to Avacado oil and used regular unsweetened cocoa powder and used dark chocolate chips. The second time I made these they were dried out. I saw the jiggle in the pan, my mistake. Yesterday I made these and no one liked them. The above mentioned changes are the only changes. The brownies were too thin in a 9×13 baking pan? Was it simply due to me not spreading out the brownie mix in the pan because the sides of the pan the brownies were the highest and dry. My husband does not like frosting, so no frosting was on any of my attempts. HELP
These were not fudgy at all! Maybe because I used regular Hershey’s cocoa, not special dark? Also, the frosting was too thin!
Not my favorite brownies.
These were soooo good! Fudgy and rich…just like photos. I was a little nervous to make these since some of the reviews said the brownies burned at 400 degrees but I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out amazing!!!
So happy to hear it!!
These were soooo good! Fudgy and rich…just like photos. I was a little nervous to make these since some of the reviews said the brownies burned at 400 degrees but I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out amazing!!!
The brownie base was hard as a rock. These are not what we expected or soft as the pictures appear. Anyone else have that experience- what did I do wrong?
Hmmm, the brownies should definitely be soft. Not sure where you went wrong 🙁
Great instructions, except the plastic knife, that did not work for me. So sweet, really want a small piece. Would make again.
I baked for 20 minute but still too runny in the center
These turned out perfectly! The frosting is SO good! I added some chopped pecans and flaky sea salt. I ate two! The calories are worth every bite. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Happy to hear it 🙂
These are so heavenly yet sinfully rich! The frosting is A MUST! I chopped some pecans and sprinkled them on top with a little flaky sea salt. So good I ate TWO.
These are so easy to make and so good! Taste just like a brownie should taste. Mine were a little higher on the edges too, but who cares. You cut that off anyway on most brownies to make them nice and square. That’s what the baker gets to eat! And that frosting….fudgy and delicious!