This copycat recipe for Starbucks Double Fudge Brownies is EASILY my all-time favorite. I am notoriously fickle about brownies and these are the perfect blend of cakey and fudgey. They are rich, loaded with chocolate, and have just a hint of coffee. You’ll love ’em.
UPDATE January 2018. This brownie recipe has remained one of my favorites since I wrote it waaaay back in August 2012. It has remained one of your favorites, too! With the actual recipe I haven’t changed a thing, but it was definitely time to update my hilariously bad photos so that maybe you guys can take me a little bit seriously. Thanks for reading here and loving me even when the pictures didn’t reflect the quality of the recipe! If you’d like to see one of said terrible photos, just scroll on down past the recipe card. I saved you one.
What had happened was…
I have this friend Michelle at I’m Not Hungry, I’m Addicted who lives out all her sugar cravings vicariously through this blog. If I’m being realistic here, there are probably other blogs, but!! They don’t take requests. So Michelle was in desperate need of a brownie, but not just any brownie. She wanted a Starbucks Double Fudge Brownie duplicate.
I am ashamed to admit that I had never ever had a Starbucks brownie. [Update: I have now ABSOLUTELY had a Starbucks Double Fudge Brownie. They ARE amazing. But these are better.]
They have seduced me with Reduced Fat Blueberry Coffee Cake and Pumpkin Cream Cheese loaves to my heart’s content, but typically when I make it to Starbucks I just consume an absurd amount of liquid calories. Hellooo Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino and Gingerbread Latte. But I take this kind of research seriously. Chad and I made our way to happy coffee mecca and I was totally prepared to order a very small (tall?) light mocha coconut thing with a side of 400 calorie brownie. You know, for educational purposes.
Except my Starbucks does not serve brownies.
Because they are mean focusing on sandwiches and banana bread for the drive-thru interstate traffic. Gah.
Just for that I ordered the biggest, full-fattiest, frozen coffee concoction I could think of. With whipped cream. Which may or may not have been a really great idea right before a beach trip.
I proceeded to read a bunch of substandard copycat recipes, look at a billion Starbucks Double Fudge Brownie photos, and read the ingredients provided on their website. Then I winged it.
FORTUNATELY, my momma’s birthday that fell near the beginning of our beach trip provided me with a lovely excuse to bake brownies and not eat the whole pan.
But I could have eaten the whole pan.
Because these brownies are insanely awesome.
Which is an important quality, especially when the brownie needs to be worthy of my insanely awesome mom.
My mom still makes Easter baskets for all five of us kids. She still throws a family party for every one of our birthdays. She stuffs our stockings on Christmas and still hangs the ornaments we made in pre-school on the Christmas tree. She is thoughtful and adorable and so much fun. My mom stayed up late at night to help with school projects, played with us every summer in the pool, always made our Halloween costumes, and still worked more hours outside the home than anyone I have ever met in my entire life.
If I could be even a fraction of the mom that she is, I would consider that a complete success.
You can see why I needed these brownies to be phenomenal and amazing, right? Right.
Since I was unable to locate an ACTUAL Starbucks Double Fudge Brownie, this recipe is my guesstimation of what all the descriptions said it should be — the perfect hybrid of fudgey and cake-like, moist, rich, dense, loaded with dark chocolate and just a hint of espresso flavor.
Amazing. Momma’s-birthday-worthy. Brownies.
Totally worthy of Starbucks, too.
Starbucks Double Fudge Brownie
This copycat recipe for Starbucks Double Fudge Brownies is the perfect blend between cakey and fudgey. These brownies are dense and rich and have just a hint of coffee. You'll love 'em.
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder OR instant coffee granules
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350. Butter a 9 X 13 baking dish, line it with parchment paper, and butter the parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add in the chopped chocolate, remove the pan from the heat, and stir frequently, until melted. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until frothy. Add the vanilla and espresso powder.
- Pour in the chocolate a little at a time. This will help to temper the eggs.
- When the chocolate is completely incorporated, dump in the flour mixture. Mix completely.
- Stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes; a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.
- Let the brownies cool before cutting.
Notes
I cooled these completely in the pan and then lifted the parchment paper out to cut the brownies into 15 pieces. I wrapped them individually and then put them in a freezer bag and froze them a week before we left for the beach. The day we made sundaes I just set the freezer bag out on the counter and by the afternoon they were perfect.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
15Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 455Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 130mgCarbohydrates: 55gFiber: 4gSugar: 40gProtein: 6g
THIS my version of how a brownie should be.
adapted from here, here, and here, but my FAVORITE source for this recipe is Joy the Baker’s Dark Chocolate Brownies found HERE.
Here we have one of the original images from my Starbucks Double Fudge Brownies post. I have not a clue in the world why I thought that not cropping out my toes was acceptable. Obviously feet and brownies don’t really go together.
I mean… every food blogger I know has set up on the floor for overhead shots of things. We are a weird breed. But food bloggers with experience typically know better than to include toes in photos, with or without a pedicure. In 2012 I didn’t have any experience. It’s ok. You can laugh at me.
Love Brownies?! You should also try…
Andrea
Saturday 9th of January 2021
I’m looking for a recipe for the low fat brownie starbucks had in the early 2000’s that was so dark and sweet and gooey. And had chocolate icing. Anyone remember these?
Heather Tullos
Tuesday 12th of January 2021
I have a similar recipe made with wine: https://www.sugardishme.com/pinot-noir-brownies/ If you don't wanna use wine you can use coffee!
Deborah Reese
Sunday 12th of April 2020
My husband could, seriously, eat a Starbucks Brownie (or two) every day of his life. He loves them! He is so picky about them, and nothing ever compares... until now. For him to say that this recipe produces a brownie that is better than Starbucks is the highest compliment ever! I followed it to a "T". Thank you!
Heather Tullos
Monday 13th of April 2020
Thank you so so much, Deborah! That is a high compliment! So glad you all enjoyed.
Josie
Tuesday 2nd of June 2015
I tried these and they are delicious, but I'm still looking for as an exact a copy of the Starbucks brownie as I can find, and these aren't it. The Starbucks one are far fudgy-er and... yeah, just different. I find it a bit weird you call them Starbucks brownies without ever having tasted a Starbucks brownie. <.<
But you really should because if you actually tasted one then - with your baking skills that I don't have and thus can't do myself - you could probably tweak this recipe so they were a perfect copy. In the meantime you should probably change the title of this recipe, but also you probably won't, because I'm sure it gets you hits.
Heather Tullos
Tuesday 2nd of June 2015
Hi Josie! Glad you liked these and sorry they weren't a match for you! In the post I state, " Since I was unable to locate an ACTUAL Starbucks Double Fudge Brownie, this recipe is my guesstimation of what all the descriptions said it should be — the perfect hybrid of fudgey and cake-like, moist, rich, dense, loaded with dark chocolate and just a hint of espresso flavor." Changing the title of the recipe would ding me in a negative way, unfortunately, but on your suggestion I will renew my brownie mission and work it out! I'm always up for brownies. I DO have several other brownie recipes posted if you'd like to try one of those! Let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.
pinar senol kursun
Thursday 2nd of April 2015
Dear Heather ,
Thanks a lot for this great recipe, now my husband has his best brownie ever cooked at home ! Lots of love from Istanbul -Turkey ....
Pinar
Heather Tullos
Thursday 2nd of April 2015
Hi Pinar! I'm so happy to hear that! Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. Happy baking!
Oksana
Monday 27th of January 2014
This is a great recipe. I tried 5 or 6 brownies recipes and they all didn't turn up right. I was ready to give up and said to myself I am going to give a chance just to one more recipe. I like Starbucks brownies a lot and this one turned up very very close.
I should say that I used only 1 cup of sugar and it was still very sweet, though not too much but I might try even less sugar next time. I only used dark chocolate chips and no coffee - instead, I put 1 tbsp of Hershey's dark cocoa. Don't overbake it, I took it off the oven in 30 minutes and it was pretty moist, just the way I like it, but it also has this delicious crust.
Thanks a lot for the recipe!
Heather
Monday 27th of January 2014
Thank you Oksana! So glad you enjoyed these! Definitely one of my favorite brownie recipes :)