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America’s Test Kitchen’s Julia Collin Davison explains what makes our gluten-free brownies the best.

Chewy, chocolaty brownies should be simple and satisfying, but too often the gluten-free versions are dense and remarkably low on chocolate flavor. For simple old-fashioned brownies without a lot of fuss, we used plenty of Dutch-processed cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor and ditched the bar chocolate. We didn’t miss the flavor of the bar chocolate and loved the ease of not having to prep it. To bring out the best flavor from the cocoa, we found it important to bloom it with melted butter and oil in the microwave. The real key to our success with this simple brownie, however, was discovering the perfect ratio of oil to butter. We worked to get the right balance of saturated fat (butter) and unsaturated fat (oil) for maximum chew and found that equal parts worked best. We then added an egg yolk in addition to two whole eggs, whose emulsifiers pre- vented fat from separating and leaking out during baking. A little milk gave the brownies the right amount of moisture, while adding a rest allowed the milk to hydrate the gluten-free flours, eliminating grittiness. A modest amount of all-purpose gluten- free flour blend, plus baking powder and xanthan gum, gave the brownies a structure that was partway between fudgy and chewy. Nailing the baking time was essential—too little time in the oven and the brownies were gummy and underbaked; too much time and they were dry. Thirty minutes in the oven provided the right balance. A tablespoon of vanilla rounded out the flavor of this quick and easy brownie.

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