Ultimate Fudgy Slow Cooker Brownies: The Easiest Brown Sugar & Chocolate Recipe

Imagine biting into a brownie that’s perfectly gooey, intensely chocolatey, with those desirable crispy edges and that signature crackly top. Sound like a dream? What if we told you it’s not only possible but incredibly easy to achieve without even turning on your oven? Welcome to the world of **slow cooker brownies**, where perfection is practically guaranteed!

Oven-baked brownies can be notoriously tricky, often resulting in either too cakey or burnt edges. But with your trusty slow cooker, you can say goodbye to those worries. This recipe leverages the consistent, gentle heat of a crockpot to create the most decadent, fudgy brownies with moist crumbs that will leave everyone asking for more. Get ready to impress with minimal effort!

Essential Ingredients for Your Fudgy Slow Cooker Brownies

Creating these divine brownies requires just a few pantry staples, with a special emphasis on quality chocolate and the magic of brown sugar. A full, detailed list of ingredients with exact measurements can be found in the printable recipe card at the end of this blog post.

Choosing the Best Chocolate for Gooey Brownies

The type of chocolate you use significantly impacts the flavor and texture of your brownies. For truly intense chocolate flavor and a wonderfully gooey texture, we highly recommend using dark chocolate that contains over 70% cocoa. This higher cocoa content provides a deep, rich chocolate taste that isn’t overly sweet, balancing beautifully with the sugars in the recipe.

While dark chocolate chips work perfectly, you can also chop up a good quality dark chocolate bar for an even richer melt. If you prefer a slightly less intense chocolate experience, a semi-sweet chocolate with 60-70% cocoa can also be used, but avoid milk chocolate as it often leads to a much sweeter and less complex flavor profile. For an extra pop of chocolate, feel free to add a handful of chocolate chips (dark, milk, or white) into the batter before cooking.

The Magic of Brown Sugar in Brownies

Brown sugar isn’t just for sweetness; it plays a vital role in achieving the desired fudgy and chewy texture of these brownies. Dark brown sugar, in particular, contains molasses, which contributes several key qualities:

• Moisture: The molasses content adds extra moisture to the batter, resulting in a brownie that stays soft and fudgy longer.
• Chewiness: It helps create that delightful chewiness that distinguishes a great brownie from an average one.
• Caramel Notes: The subtle caramel flavor from the molasses complements the rich chocolate, adding another layer of complexity to the taste.

While you can substitute light brown sugar or even all white sugar, you might miss out on that specific depth of flavor and tender chewiness that dark brown sugar provides. Embrace the brown sugar for truly exceptional slow cooker brownies!

Preparation: Your Easy Slow Cooker Brownie Guide

Get ready for a super straightforward baking process that will yield incredible results. Below, you’ll find a detailed step-by-step guide, and remember, a printable recipe card is available at the bottom of this blog for your convenience.

Making slow cooker brownies is remarkably simple. The process begins by melting the chocolate, sugars, and butter together. This rich, melted base is then combined with eggs, flour, cocoa, and baking powder to form a smooth batter. Once your batter is ready, it’s poured into the slow cooker and gently cooked on a low setting for approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes, creating a perfect environment for fudgy brownies.

• Melting Chocolate (Au Bain-Marie Method): This gentle melting technique is key to preventing your chocolate and butter from burning, ensuring a smooth, glossy base for your brownies.
  1. Take a heatproof bowl and combine the chocolate, butter, and both white and brown sugars.
  2. Bring a pot with a shallow layer of water to a gentle boil.
  3. Carefully place the heatproof bowl over the simmering water, ensuring the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. The steam’s warmth will gradually melt the chocolate and butter.
  4. Stir occasionally with a spatula until everything is beautifully melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow this mixture to cool slightly to room temperature before adding the eggs.
• Sifting Dry Ingredients: To avoid lumps and ensure a smooth, even texture, it’s crucial to sift your dry ingredients. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a fine-mesh sieve and gently sift them directly over your wet batter. This step also incorporates air, contributing to a slightly lighter, yet still fudgy, brownie. A major advantage of this recipe is that you can achieve perfect results even without a stand mixer!
• Slow Cooking for Perfection: The slow cooker is your secret weapon for fudgy success.
  1. Prepare your slow cooker insert: Lightly grease the inner pot with baking spray, melted butter, or oil, then line the bottom with parchment paper for easy removal. This is essential for preventing sticking and effortlessly lifting out your finished brownies.
  2. Pour your completed batter evenly into the prepared slow cooker insert.
  3. Secure the lid on your crockpot and set the temperature to the lowest setting (LOW) for 3 hours and 30 minutes. The sustained, gentle heat and trapped steam will work wonders, creating incredibly moist and fudgy brownies.
  4. Important: Do not bake on the HIGH setting! High heat will cook the brownies too quickly and unevenly, leading to dry, overbaked results, much like an unforgiving oven. Patience is rewarded with perfection in slow cooking!

Tips for Achieving Brownie Perfection

• Don’t Overmix: After adding the dry ingredients, mix just until combined. Overmixing can develop gluten, leading to a tougher, more cake-like brownie instead of fudgy.
• Cool Completely: Resist the urge to cut into your brownies immediately! Brownies continue to set as they cool. For the cleanest cuts and best texture, let them cool completely to room temperature, or even chill them in the refrigerator for an hour.
• Test for Doneness: While the slow cooker is forgiving, you can still check for doneness. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with moist crumbs attached, but not wet batter. If it comes out clean, your brownies might be slightly overdone for maximum fudginess.
• Parchment Paper is Your Friend: Lining your slow cooker insert with parchment paper not only prevents sticking but also makes it incredibly easy to lift the entire batch of brownies out for cooling and cutting.

Flavor Variations & Serving Suggestions

This slow cooker brownie recipe is a fantastic base for endless delicious variations:

• Nutty Brownies: Fold in ½ to 1 cup of chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds into the batter before cooking for added crunch and flavor.
• Extra Chocolate: Amp up the chocolate factor by adding an extra ½ cup of chocolate chips (dark, milk, or white) to the batter.
• Swirls & Toppings: After pouring the batter into the slow cooker, swirl in some peanut butter, Nutella, or caramel sauce for a delicious marbled effect. Once baked and cooled, you can also drizzle with a simple chocolate ganache or dust with powdered sugar.
• Mint or Orange: A few drops of food-grade peppermint extract or orange zest can transform these brownies into a festive treat.

Serve these warm, fudgy brownies with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, a dollop of fresh whipped cream, or alongside a bowl of fresh berries for a truly indulgent dessert experience. A sprinkle of sea salt on top before serving also enhances the chocolate flavor beautifully.

📖 Recipe

RECIPE CARD

brownie recipe with brown sugar (slow cooker)

Andréa

Deliciously gooey, fudgy, and super tasty brownies from the slow cooker, made with rich chocolate and cocoa. The slow cooker ensures that this recipe always works, delivering perfect brownies without any fuss!

5 of 3 votes

Print Recipe
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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 45 minutes mins

Course Sweets and Sweet Baking

Cuisine American

Servings 16 brownies

Calories 141 kcal

Equipment

• slow cooker (6-quart recommended)
• Silicon spatula
• Heatproof glass bowls
• Parchment paper

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• ▢ 4 tablespoons butter , unsalted
• ▢ ½ cup white sugar
• ▢ ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ▢ ½ cup chocolate chips, dark, 70%+ cocoa
• ▢ 2 tablespoons sugar syrup
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 eggs, size L
• ▢ ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1⅓ tablespoons Dutch unprocessed cocoa
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder

All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• ▢
  Coat the inner pot of your slow cooker with some baking spray, melted butter or oil.
• ▢
  Line the bottom of the inner pot with parchment paper.
• ▢
  Place the butter, brown and white sugar, chocolate, vanilla extract and syrup in a bowl.
  4 tablespoons butter, ½ cup white sugar, ½ cup dark brown sugar, ½ cup chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons sugar syrup, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢
  Hang the bowl above boiling water (au bain-Marie) and heat until the chocolate and butter are melted.
• ▢
  Mix everything well with a spatula.
• ▢
  Allow the chocolate butter mixture to cool to room temperature.
• ▢
  Beat the eggs until fluffy on high speed for 3 minutes.
  2 eggs
• ▢
  Mix the chocolate butter mixture and the eggs with a rubber spatula.
• ▢
  Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder over the batter and stir with a spatula.
  ¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1⅓ tablespoons Dutch unprocessed cocoa, 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢
  Pour the batter into the inner pot and place it in the slow cooker, put the lid on and set it on low.
• ▢
  Bake for 3½ hours.
• ▢
  Take off the lid and let it cool to room temperature.
• ▢
  Cut into nice cubes before serving.

Notes

1. Syrup –

Regular sugar syrup is fine. You can also replace it with honey, golden syrup or maple syrup, which will add their own distinct flavor notes.

2. Vanilla extract –

If you don’t have liquid vanilla extract, you can replace it with one teaspoon of vanilla sugar for a similar aromatic boost.


3. Dark brown sugar –

The molasses added to this sugar gives it a light caramel flavor and contributes significantly to the brownie’s fudginess and chewiness. You can replace this with the same amount of regular granulated sugar or light brown sugar, but you will miss that distinct caramel hint and possibly some moisture.


4. Baking powder –

Baking powder provides the airiness and lift in this recipe, contributing to the crackly top and tender crumb. You can substitute it with 1 teaspoon of tartaric baking powder. This cannot be replaced by baking soda alone (which requires an acid) or self-rising flour (as the latter typically has too little baking powder for the desired effect in this specific brownie recipe).



5. Store Brownies –



• Room Temperature – Store the cooled brownies in an airtight container (or wrap them tightly in plastic wrap) at room temperature. They will stay fresh and fudgy for up to 3 days.
• Frozen – For longer storage, freezing is an excellent option! Wrap individual brownie cubes tightly in plastic wrap, then place them in a freezer-safe bag or airtight container. You can keep them in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature or gently warm in the microwave for a few seconds.

6. Nutritional values –


This recipe yields 16 square brownies. The nutritional values provided are shown per individual brownie piece.

Nutrition

Calories: 141kcalCarbohydrates: 24gProtein: 2gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 29mgSodium: 41mgFiber: 1gSugar: 18gVitamin A: 130IUVitamin C: 1mgIron: 1mg

Keyword slow cooker brownies, fudgy brownies, chocolate brownies, brown sugar brownies, easy dessert

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