Brownie mix substitutes

A homemade dry blend in the same proportions a box mix uses, ready for the oil and eggs the box would have asked for.

Best for

brownies, brownie bars, cookie bars, brownie bottom desserts, trifle layers

This is the answer, and it is better than the box. Notice how much of it is sugar, roughly twice the flour by weight, which is exactly what makes brownies chewy and gives them that thin crackled top. Add 1/3 cup of melted butter or oil, 1 egg and a teaspoon of vanilla for the 8 by 8 version, then stir just until no dry flour remains. Compared to a box mix, the flavour is cleaner and more genuinely cocoa-forward, since there is no powdered fat or artificial flavouring in it, and the texture is nearly identical. Melted butter rather than oil gives more flavour and a slightly firmer chew.

Real brownies built on melted chocolate rather than cocoa powder, which is what most bakeries actually do.

Best for

brownies, brownie sundaes, gift baking, brownie bottom cheesecake

Better than any mix, and worth the extra pan to wash. Melt the chocolate and butter together, whisk in the sugar, then the eggs one at a time, then fold in flour and salt. Because the fat here is cocoa butter and butter rather than vegetable oil, the brownies are richer, fudgier and glossier, and the flavour has more depth and less of the flat, dusty note that cocoa-only brownies can have. Use unsweetened chocolate for an intense, adult result or bittersweet for something rounder. It is more temperature-sensitive than a mix, so pull them out while the centre still looks slightly underdone.

Using a cake mix as a brownie base by cutting the liquid right back and pushing the fat right up.

Best for

brownie bars, cookie bars, sheet desserts, brownie bottom desserts

Popular, easy, and it does produce a decent pan of chocolate bars. It will not produce brownies. Cake mix carries roughly three times the leavening a brownie mix does and much less sugar relative to flour, so however little liquid you use, the batter puffs and sets with an open, tender, cake-like crumb rather than a dense chew, and you almost never get the shiny crackled top. The high butter content does make it fudgier and heavier than a cake. Cut the batter thick, bake in an 8 by 8 rather than a 9 by 13, and underbake slightly. If you have cocoa powder in the house, the scratch mix above is a much closer result for the same effort.

A darker cake mix used the same way, which gets you closer on colour and depth.

Best for

brownie bars, cookie bars, sheet desserts, dump cakes

A slightly better bet than plain chocolate cake mix, because the Dutch-process cocoa in devils food gives a darker crumb and a mellower, deeper flavour that reads more like a brownie. The leavening problem is unchanged, so the texture is still cakier and lighter than a brownie should be. Adding an extra egg yolk, holding back the milk to 2 tablespoons and stirring in ½ cup of chocolate chips all push it toward density and help disguise the crumb. Bake until just set and no further.

A gluten-free version of the same thing, either boxed or built from the scratch blend.

Best for

gluten-free brownies, brownie bars, sheet desserts

Brownies are one of the easiest things to make gluten-free, because there is so little flour relative to sugar and fat that the missing gluten barely matters. Swap a measure-for-measure gluten-free blend into the scratch recipe and add a tablespoon of extra butter or oil, since rice-flour blends can taste slightly dry and sandy. Letting the batter rest ten minutes before baking hydrates the starches and removes most of that grittiness. The result is very close, marginally more fragile at the edges, so cool completely before cutting.

Sweetened drinking cocoa pressed into service, which mostly means sugar and milk powder standing in for sugar and cocoa.

Best for

emergency brownies, camping baking

Included because people ask, and it does work after a fashion. Hot cocoa mix is mainly sugar and dry milk with a modest amount of cocoa, so on its own it makes something pale, oddly milky and far too sweet, which is why the extra cocoa and flour are not optional. Even adjusted, the brownies taste distinctly of milk powder, brown at the edges faster because of the extra lactose, and are softer and more cakey than a proper brownie. Use it only if the alternative is no brownies at all.