Black cocoa olive oil brownies

When a chocolate craving hits and you have an hour to spare, these black cocoa brownies are the answer.

And they aren’t just your average brownie — black cocoa powder is the secret ingredient. It’s like regular cocoa powder’s edgier cousin, with an unmistakable depth of flavor and a pitch-black hue that makes these brownies stunning and decadent.

This is also my first real recipe I’m posting here, so welcome! Developing this was a labour of love, and I’m excited to keep writing recipes and help people make simple but delicious meals and desserts. Stay tuned here.

If you make these brownies, leave a comment with how they turned out!

Why you’ll want to make these

They have an intense chocolate flavour. If you’ve never tried black cocoa in your baking, you’re missing out. Think Oreo chocolate but the richness of a brownie — they’re perfect for dark chocolate lovers. But you can also use lighter cocoa powders if you want, the recipe will be the same.

They’re easy to make. You only need a few dishes and less than an hour of your time. This is my go-to dessert when I get a random chocolate craving, or when I’m stoned and need something quick hehe.

They’re customizable. Think of these brownies as a base recipe: you can take it to so many different places. If you love nutty desserts, try mixing ½ a cup of walnuts into the batter, or maybe your vibe is cookies and cream and you add ½ a cup of white chocolate chips.

Ingredient notes

Olive oil: I love the taste of olive oil, so I usually use this over butter or vegetable oil in baking. You can use any oil you’d like, though. Just make sure you like the taste of whatever oil you’re using.

Vanilla extract: I also love vanilla, so there’s a lot of extract in these brownies to contrast the deep chocolate. If 1 tablespoon sounds like too much for you, feel free to start with a teaspoon or two and see what you think.

White and brown sugar: I use equal parts white and brown sugar here for two reasons: one: having this much brown sugar gives a deeper flavour profile, and two: it’s less sweet than regular sugar so the brownies aren’t a sugar bomb.

Black cocoa powder: The star of the show! It’s an ultra-dutched style of cocoa that is so dark because of how refined the chocolate is. If you’ve never tasted it before, it is intensely chocolatey and less bitter than your typical cocoa.

Eggs: They bind everything together. I haven’t tested any vegan egg replacements with this, but I know flax eggs work well in brownies. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!

🍫

Black cocoa olive oil brownies recipe

Ingredients:

✨  1/2 cup olive oil

✨  1 tbsp vanilla extract

✨  3/4 cup white sugar

✨  3/4 cup brown sugar

✨  1/2 cup flour

✨  1/2 cup black cocoa

✨  3 eggs

✨  1/4 tsp salt

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°. Grease an 8×8 pan with olive oil or line it with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, black cocoa and salt. Sift if lumpy.

3. In a separate bowl, beat sugar, olive oil and vanilla extract with a whisk until homogenous, about two minutes (it will probably be clumpy). Whisk in eggs one at a time until smooth.

4. Add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, switch to a spatula and fold together until smooth. Add in the rest of the flour and repeat.

5. Transfer mix to your pan, and sprinkle the top with flaky salt for luck. Place your pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes until done. How to know it’s done: the tops will be hard and crackly and the whole thing will no longer jiggle. When you put a tester in, there should be chocolate and crumbs but nothing wet. If it comes out clean, you’ve overbaked! After the first 15 minutes, check back in 5 minute intervals.

6. Take out of the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and let sit in the pan until cool. Or eat right away.

Tips for the best black cocoa brownies

Use room temperature eggs. It will help make sure the sugar and oil mixture emulsifies properly.

For sliceable brownies, let them cool. Room temperature brownies will slice perfectly, but if you don’t care and want molten chocolate, just wait a few minutes for everything to settle and dig in!

Serve with something cool and creamy. A black cocoa brownie + vanilla bean ice cream is a match made in heaven IMO.

Can I use regular cocoa instead of black cocoa?

Yes! You can safely replace it 1:1 with any other cocoa powder in this recipe. Black cocoa has pretty much no fat, which can change the structure of your dessert in a huge batch  — but in my experience it doesn’t make much of a difference in small amounts like this. I would stick to a darker cocoa powder, though.

Where can I find black cocoa powder?

I get mine at Bulk Barn in Canada!