I Tried Ina Garten's Viral Brownie Pudding and My Family Couldn't Get Enough

My husband Jake loves brownies, and they're the treat I bake most often to surprise him, especially during the holidays. The tradition began in our first year of marriage, many moons ago, when all he asked for on Valentine's Day was a pan of brownies.

Ever since, I've been on the hunt for new, exciting brownie recipes that feel different from my usual go-tos, like the mochi brownies or ube halaya brownies that I developed for my cookbooks. 

Naturally, I turned to the internet to see what was trending, and to my surprise, there's one recipe that kept making the rounds on TikTok and social media, Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding. Ina's recipe dates back to 2008, when she first published it in Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.

What Is Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding?

A brownie pudding is exactly what it sounds like. It looks like a classic brownie, at first glance—shiny and crackly on top. However, when you break through the top with a spoon, as if cracking the sugar shell of crème brûlée, you'll find a rich, moist, chocolatey, molten brownie. It's best to enjoy this brownie pudding while it's warm, like melty fudge, and serve it with ice cream.

Unlike brownies, which are meant to be sliced into neat squares, brownie pudding is intentionally messy and gooey, so you'll want a spoon, not a knife. It's the kind of dessert meant to be shared straight from the dish, with everyone digging in with their own spoon.

How To Make Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding

Ina's Brownie Pudding is a dessert for people who prefer their sweets, well, sweet, as Jake does. Nearly a pound of granulated sugar goes into the batter. I'm known for making not-too-sweet desserts, so I couldn't resist tempering the sweetness by adding a touch of red miso (and I suspect a few splashes of high-quality soy sauce would work beautifully here, too).

Making brownie pudding for Jake was an adventure. When I make brownies, I don't usually whip the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, stream in a generous amount of melted butter, and bake them in a bain-marie for a full hour, but I trusted the process.

In the end, the brownie pudding was a bit too sweet and messy for me, but Jake and our son Philip thought it was really tasty, and they appreciated my efforts. I loved the texture of the brownie pudding—not quite pudding and not quite a brownie—rich, buttery, melty, and molten.

I was happy to have tried the recipe and learned something along the way. While it may not replace the brownies I reach for most often, it was joyful to bake something new and feed my loved ones. 

Tips for Balanced Brownie Pudding

• To temper the sweetness, swap out one stick of butter with salted butter. Or I add about one tablespoon of red miso to the batter while whisking the eggs with sugar. Splashes of high-quality soy sauce can work too. 
• For even more fudginess, stick a piece of semi-sweet chocolate into the middle of the batter in the baking dish. 
• You can also split the batter into individual ramekins and bake for up to 35 to 40 minutes. 
• Instead of framboise liqueur, I used Japanese whisky, which was what I had at home.
• I skipped the vanilla bean and extract due to cost. The Japanese whisky was also a substitute for vanilla. 
• While you should not overmix the batter, be sure to fully incorporate the melted butter. Otherwise, it will pool in a greasy mess while baking in the oven. 
• I want to try it with peanut butter or black sesame paste to temper the sweetness further.