Once in a lifetime, you will encounter a brownie so decadent and delicious you won't know what to do with yourself. Ina Garten's Sheet Pan Brownies (aka Outrageous Brownies) are such a brownie. Ina adapted this recipe from a recipe for something called Chocolate Globs from the Soho Charcuterie Cookbook which seems like it was a thing in 1980s New York City. So thank you to both creators for this awesome recipe.
Why You Should Make These Brownies
First off: these are the brownies to end all brownies. If you are a lover of chocolate like me this will be the last brownie you ever make. You can opt for 20 large brownies or 30-40 smaller brownies. If this is for your family, you can freeze them and take them out as you crave them. This is the perfect brownie to wow a crowd with. Show up to a dinner party or BBQ with these and you will die a legend.
Chef Tips & Tricks for Ina Garten's Sheet Pan Brownies
- The recipe calls for a pound of unsalted butter. I've always used salted butter and they are still absolutely delicious. I don't think unsalted is necessary, but I'll leave that up to you.
- Ina uses instant coffee granules, but I haven't found a good quality brand at my grocery store. I've always used Delallo Instant Espresso Powder and it works great. Amazon is too expensive. It's $5-6 at the grocery store.
- I don't like walnuts in my brownies, but if you do, Ina's recipe calls for 3 cups. It's your choice.
- The sheet pan. I Googled the dimensions of the sheet pan size Ina recommends and I couldn't find it anywhere. Pictured below is the one I use. I got it at Target and it's $13.
- It's not necessary to cut the butter into chunks before melting it. No matter what you do it is going to take 25-30 minutes to melt the butter and chocolate. Why waste the time cutting it?
- Ina recommends letting these cool and refrigerate before cutting. This is extremely unrealistic. It's a mountain of chocolate and you will want to eat them as soon as humanly possible. You have permission to do so.
- The above being said, it is much easier to cut the brownies once they've cooled.
- For best results, if your brownies are chilled, microwave them for 10-15 seconds to warm them up. These taste best when warm.
- Set aside what you think you will eat and freeze the rest. I usually bundle in two-packs or four-packs (wrap in plastic). Then I put the packs in freezer slider bags and pull them out as needed.
- These brownies are EXPENSIVE to make, here's two small ways to save: only buy butter when it's on sale for $3.50 or $3.99 per pound (for Land O' Lakes which is a great butter). It's okay to use the store brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips for this. Nestle was $3.99 per 12 oz. bag and generic was $2.99 per bag. You need three bags total so you save $3 right there.
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Ina Garten's Sheet Pan Brownies (aka Outrageous Brownies)
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 20 large brownies 1x
Description
Ina Garten’s Sheet Pan Brownies (aka Outrageous Brownies) are the last brownie you will ever make. An absolute gourmet.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 4 sticks of unsalted or salted butter - 1 pound total (see tips and tricks)
- 1 pound plus 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (see note#1)
- 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
- 6 extra large eggs
- 3 tablespoons instant espresso powder OR instant coffee granules
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups sugar
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, divided
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups chopped walnuts (optional - I didn’t use)
For the buttered and floured sheet pan:
- 1 ¼ tablespoons of soft butter
- 1-2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Paper towel for spreading
Instructions
- You know your oven. Preheat to 350 degrees when the time is right.
- In a bowl, put one pound of chocolate chips, the unsweetened chocolate and 1 pound of butter (4 sticks). I didn’t cut the butter – just put the whole sticks in the bowl. NOTE: chocolate chips are typically sold in 12 ounce bags. So you’re adding one 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips to the bowl, PLUS 4 ounces. I didn’t bust out my scale – I guesstimated at about another heaping ½ cup of chocolate chips.
- On your stovetop should be a large pot with water filling about 3-4 inches on the bottom. Get that water hot and place the bowl with the butter and chocolate on top of it. My video shows this well. This is called a double boiler. The steam from the water will melt the butter and chocolate. This will take 25-30 minutes. I checked it at 10-minute intervals to stir and combine as it melted.
- Butter and flour a sheet pan (17.75 inch x 12.875 inch x 1 inch) or as close as you can get to this size. You can buy one cheap at Target for about $13. See tips and tricks section of blog post. I posted a picture of the sheet pan with the dimensions on it.
- In a large bowl add the eggs, instant espresso powder (or instant coffee granules), vanilla and sugar. Ina cautioned NOT to “beat” the mixture, but stir it together. Using a whisk was a good tool for this, but be gentle.
- After mixing the eggs, check on your melting chocolate and butter and give a stir and move things around a little. Then leave it and let it go back to melting on its own.
- Sift ONE CUP of all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. The other ¼ cup of flour is for something else.
- In a separate bowl, add a 12-ounce bag of semisweet chocolate chips and sift ¼ cup of all-purpose flour into the bowl. Toss the chocolate chips to coat in the flour. If you are using the chopped walnuts you should add them to the bowl with the chocolate chips and toss with flour.
- Do your second check on the chocolate and butter melting and give it all a good stir. Ten minutes later do your final check on the chocolate and butter and it should be completely melted and smooth. The mixtures isn’t hot, but it is warm. Remove from heat and carefully remove top bowl to let it cool down slightly - about 10 minutes.
- Now add the warm chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine completely and let cool to room temperature. This took maybe 15 minutes to cool down.
- Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.
- Add the chocolate chips and flour and mix to combine until you can see no more white flour anywhere.
- Pour the brownie batter onto your floured and buttered sheet pan and distribute evenly across the bottom and to all corners of the sheet pan.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then you must open the oven, and carefully (with potholders) rap the sheet pan onto the oven rack 1-2 two times so the air between the brownies and the pan will be released. Close the oven and cook another 15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Ina suggests letting the brownies cool completely, then refrigerate, and then cut them. This is your call. It’s hard to resist cutting into warm brownies so I will leave this at your discretion. I’ve done it both ways. I usually cut them when they are still warm, I must admit. But for this video I DID chill them and they were slightly easier to cut.
- If you are eating the brownies out of the refrigerator – microwave them for 10-15 seconds so they are warm. This is how they taste the best!!!
Notes
- Chocolate chips typically come in 12 ounce bags. In order to make this recipe you need to buy three 12 ounce bags. You’ll have leftover chocolate chips you can use for another recipe.
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