Getting Your Brownie Texture Right Starts With the Pan (2024)

Brownies in a round pan offer an elegant presentation, so we tried both a cast-iron skillet and a tart pan. I prefer the former. The tart pan, while beautiful, delivered a less moist and more cakey brownie than the skillet. Brownies baked in a cast-iron skillet had a crisp edge and a super-moist, gooey, fudgy center.

The skillet is also very easy to clean, naturally nonstick, and earns its keep (that is, you probably already have it in your arsenal of kitchen tools and you can use it for a thousand other things too). It’s also the best choice for serving brownies warm if that’s your thing (ideally right in the skillet, with a few scoops of ice cream on top).

The best uniformly shaped cakier brownies: Brooklyn Brownie Copper Pan With Built-In Slicer

This pan is highly satisfying to use. It’s remarkably nonstick and has a removable bottom that makes the brownies easy to lift out of the pan. But the real star of the show here is the built-in slicer: Pour batter into the pan, smooth it into an even layer, press in the included grid of metal that divides the brownies into evenly-shaped pieces, and bake. Fifteen minutes after the brownies come out of the oven, lift out the slicer, and just like that: truly perfectly shaped brownies, no gummy knifing necessary. You can also use the built-in slicer to corral toppings, like M&M’s and crushed Oreos, on individual brownies prebake. As far as texture goes, these baked without much definition between the edges and the middle, sort of evenly soft all the way through—great if you like a softer, cakier brownie.

The best for fans of chewy and crisp corners: Bakelicious Crispy Corner Pan

Edge-and-corner brownie fans, I can’t fully relate, but I know that this is the pan for you. The Bakelicious Crispy Corner Pan yields a spread of interlocking diamond-shaped brownies with substantial, crunchy, almost crusty edges. The centers are very chewy, with a chocolate-cookie texture. Invert the pan to pop out the brownies (which happens very easily—the pan is slick), then break or cut apart the generously-sized individual pieces. The price you pay for extra chew is oddly shaped brownies, but for true corner devotees, it’s worth it.

A sleeper hit: 18x13" rimmed baking sheet

I tested with this pan, but any 18x13" rimmed baking sheet will deliver similar results.

As a lover of gooey brownies, I wasn’t expecting to be so thrilled by a pan that offered an ultra-thin rendition, but I was, and here’s why: These brownies baked in 20 minutes, and were crackly-crunchy at the edges and fudgy toward the center, like an enormous cocoa cookie studded with chocolate chips. (Follow this sheet-pan brownie recipe if you don't want to use a mix.) You get a full sheet-pan sized amount of brownies, but they’re just ¼ inch thick. I realized this would be ideal for making brownie ice cream sandwiches for a crowd, and now that’s on the top of my summer bucket list. If you really love a truly crisp, brittle-style brownie, you could keep baking these until almost dry.

The Competition

A 9x9" metal (aluminized steel) pan yielded crisp-edged, somewhat dense brownies that were unremarkable. An 8x8" glass pan made brownies with cakey, crackly-on-top corners and a very thick, gooey texture within. A 9" metal tart pan with a removable bottom made a really pretty pan of brownies (with its flirty fluted edge, it’d easy to envision this cut into wedges, sprinkled with big flakes of sea salt, drizzled with fancy olive oil, and plunked down on the tablecloth after the main course at a dinner party)—but they were a little dry, without a much definition between the edges and the middle. A silicone brownie-bite pan made for very tender, cakey brownies, almost like a rich devil’s food cake, but they were somewhat difficult to unmold.