The recipe for these Lunch Lady Brownies has been passed down for generations and is the actual recipe used in schools over 50 years ago!
One of our favorite desserts at school growing up was the Lunch Lady Peanut Butter Bars. Our mom made them all the time at home once she got the recipe, and we’ve had so many lunch ladies reach out to let us know it was the EXACT same recipe they used in the cafeteria.
These lunch lady brownies are also straight from the lunch ladies themselves, and they rival those peanut butter bars for number one dessert! A fudgy, chocolate brownie with a decadent chocolate frosting, you’ll never go back to a boxed mix.
“These are my favorite brownies. I used to be a box mix only person, until this recipe came along. Now this is pretty much the only recipe I use!” – Alyse H.
What are Lunch Lady Brownies?
Lunch Lady Brownies are old-fashioned, scratch-made chocolate brownies with a thick, fudgy frosting. They get their name from the school cafeteria cooks who baked them for decades (and shared this recipe with us!). These brownies don’t have baking powder or baking soda, which gives them the dense, fudgy texture instead of a more cake-like crumb.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Made with pantry staples. No special chocolate or obscure ingredients required.
- Ready in about 30 minutes. From start to finish!
- Minimal cleanup. You only need one bowl for the brownies and one for the frosting!
- Feeds a crowd. This recipe bakes in a 9×13” pan, so you can cut it into 15+ squares.
Ingredient Notes:
- Butter: the original recipe, as it was shared with us from a lunch lady of 25+ years, calls for unsalted butter. However, if you are nervous about there not being enough salt (as some readers have commented) or you only have salted butter on hand, you can use salted butter.
- Flour: a simple, all-purpose flour is all you need.
- Sugar: white, granulated sugar (any brand) will work.
- Cocoa Powder: Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder is our go-to, but any unsweetened cocoa powder will work. If you want a more intense, deeper chocolate flavor, you can sub this out for dark or “special dark” cocoa, too.
- Eggs: 4 eggs gives it a texture that is pretty fudgy, but holds together well.
- Vanilla: for the best flavor, we love using pure vanilla extract, not imitation.
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make These Lunch Lady Brownies
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, use a mixture to mix butter and cocoa together until smooth. Add in flour and sugar and beat until there are no more streaks of flour (don’t overmix!).
- Mix in eggs and vanilla until just combined, then pour batter into a greased 9×13″ baking pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean (only a few crumbs).
- Let the brownies cool for about 10-20 minutes.
- While it’s cooling, mix together all the frosting ingredients and frost while still warm.
Expert Tips for Perfect Lunch Lady Brownies
- Don’t overbake. Pull the pan when the center is just slightly underdone. A toothpick pulled out of the center should have just a few crumbs stuck to it.
- Don’t overmix. Once the flour is added to the batter, stir until you don’t see streaks of flour and not any more.
- Measure flour correctly. Spoon flour into the measuring cup and level it off rather than scooping it directly from the bag.
Variations to Try
- Stir in mini chocolate chips for extra gooey bits of chocolate in each bite
- Add chopped pecans or walnuts to the batter for a little extra crunch
- Add a little bit of mint to the frosting for a mint brownie (or try these mint brownies!)
Storage Suggestions
If you manage to have any leftover brownies, here’s how you can store them:
- Counter: Store brownies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. If your kitchen is particularly warm, consider refrigerating instead to prevent them from getting too soft or melty.
- Refrigerator: Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week. Let them come to room temperature before serving for the best texture and flavor.
- Freezer: To freeze, make sure brownies are completely cooled. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap (or Press & Seal) and then place in a freezer-safe bag or container. For easier portioning, wrap individual squares before freezing. Don’t forget to label with the date. They’ll stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months. For best results, you will want to freeze them unfrosted and frost them once they are thawed.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common cause is overbaking. Brownies keep cooking from residual heat even after they leave the oven, so pull them out when the toothpick has a few moist crumbs, not when it’s perfectly clean. Avoid overmixing the batter as well, or overpacking your measuring cups can also lead to dry brownies.
Either works! The original recipe handed down to us calls for unsalted, but it’s up to your preference. Some readers have commented that using salted butter leads to better-tasting brownies (in their opinion).
That’s on purpose! These are a dense, fudgy brownie – so no leavening agent is used. The eggs are the binder that holds the batter together.
Yes, this recipe is written for a 9×13” pan, but you can use a 9×9 or 8×8 if you halve the recipe. To feed a bigger crowd, you can double the recipe and make them in a half sheet pan (just make sure you’ve got a big enough lip). Just make sure you watch the brownies more closely, as doubling or halving the recipe will change how long they need to bake.
We use Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder, for both the brownies and the frosting. Any unsweetened cocoa powder will work! If you want a deeper chocolate flavor, you can use dark chocolate cocoa powder.
You can, but frosting can crack or fall off a little when thawing. For best results, we recommend freezing just the brownie bottoms and frosting them after they’ve thawed.
More Easy Brownie Recipes
You can view our entire collection of brownies and bars. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Copycat Cosmic Brownies
- Mom’s Famous Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies
- Cake Mix Caramel Brownies
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies
- Lemon Brownies with Lemon Frosting
Lunch Lady Brownies Recipe
Ingredients
Brownies:
- 1 cup butter (unsalted), melted
- ½ cup cocoa
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 4 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting:
- ¼ cup butter (unsalted), softened
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup cocoa
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, use a mixture to mix butter and cocoa together until smooth.
- Add flour and sugar; beat together.
- Mix in eggs and vanilla until just combined.
- Pour batter into a greased 9×13" baking pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean (only a few crumbs).
- Let the brownies cool for about 10-20 minutes and then frost while still warm.
Frosting:
- Mix all ingredients together and frost as desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I’m having a hard time not going straight to the kitchen to make these. Looks like I’ve lost that battle…off I go.
There are some things that school lunches rocked at…these were one. I cannot wait to try these out!!
Those look exactly like the brownies we had in high school, but I bet they taste 100x better! Yummy 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Ha ha ha ha! Right?! I was the same exact way!! 🙂
This is exactly the kind of brownies my husband loves. Thanks for the recipe!
Sinea from Ducks ?n a Row
Guess I know what I’m baking tomorrow, and only tomorrow because I work today.
Just wanted to say, that I am a lunch lady! Love my job! And I adore those kids! I began working as a”Lunch Lady” when my kids went to school. I wanted to be home when they were and off when they were. That was almost 24 years ago”! Stange! But true!
I live in Utah, and YES we make alot of things from stracht! We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast every other Thursday. Homemade wheat rolls almost 3 – 4 times a week! You should see the salad bars we put out there for these kids!
I don’t remember eating this many fruit and veggies in my life!
Just wanted to pop and say HI!!
From the BEST SCHOOL THERE IS!!!!
LeAnn
Sorry! I misspelled scratch!
These look delicious!
How funny! I went to Bonneville Jr. High in Idaho! Actually, it was renamed Rocky Mountain Middle School in 1992 when I attended as part of the first 6th grade class. Both of my parents attended the school when it was Bonneville High! I do remember the brownies being pretty darn good!
I taught there for a few years from 03 to 06-don’t think I ever tasted the brownies, though! These look amazing!
This looks so yummy and brings back some fun memories.
our lunch lady also made no bake cookies like no other I’ve ever had.
Just made these for a party tonight. We had so much stuff that my mom ended up putting her dessert on top of mine since mine had a lid. That means I have leftovers! Yum!
Wow,
I am a lunch lady too, and we can not have any home made sweets. Cinnamon buns sound great! I love anything from scratch. You have lucky kids in Utah. The Lunch Lady brownies are wonderful. Made them twice and they are being requested by my daughter again…
The hard part is waiting for it to set at the end! I’ve been tasting as I go and it is all so yummy!! Have to sit on my hands to keep myself from cutting into them before they’ve cooled.
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Is the cooking time the same if you have a fan assisted oven?
So sorry, we are not familiar with fan assisted ovens.
Do you mind sharing the cinnamon roll and wheat roll recipe you make at school?
I like my brownies less cake-like so I only used 3 eggs instead of 4 and they were PERFECT! Trying hard not to eat the whole pan right now (they are to DIE for when warm!)
These are my favorite brownies. I used to be a box mix only person, until this recipe came along. Now this is pretty much the only recipe I use! The only thing I dislike is that my husband doesn’t like sweets (WHAT?!?!) and I end up eating way too much! Thanks!
I made these for a friends gathering and they were super dry and dense. Did I miss something? Did I over-mix? I stuck a tooth pick in the center at 22 minutes and they were still wet so I left them in there the remaining time. I’ve never made from scratch brownies so I’m not sure if I overcooked them by putting them back in for the remaining time. Ideas?
They aren’t as dark and moist looking as your photo.
Hi Ericka, sounds like they may have cooked too long. All oven temps vary so much. These are a heavier brownie than a boxed brownie. Hope this helps.
So, are you saying that eliminating one egg will make it more chewy? I don’t like cake-like brownies either. I like them moist in the center. I also would take them out of the oven when there is still a little bit of crumb clinging onto the toothpick; that way they wouldn’t be so dry. Brownies are usually much better when slightly under-baked.
What kind of cocoa powder so you use?? There’s so many different kinds so I wanted to see what you use!
We love Hershey’s.
Unsweetened I am assuming??
Yes, unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa powder.
Sorry. I’m disappointed..not fudgy like pic. After 25 min still gooey..cooked until toothpick came out clean like instructed. Probably overcooked and dry
I’m sorry to say, these were a real disappointment. Even my non-picky husband wouldn’t eat any more after the first one, and usually I have to hide brownies from him! I used high-quality ingredients—this was supposed to be for a friend who’s recuperating from surgery, but now I’ll have to find the time and ingredients to make something else tonight. I think the problem is the unsalted butter, which made the brownies super-bland and flavorless. I would definitely go with salted butter if you are going to try these. I’ve since searched the internet and found other versions of the lunch lady brownies and they use regular salted butter.
These turned out perfectly! I used my regular Hershey’s cocoa so I’m guessing mine was sweetened? Everyone loved them!
….and I used salted butter…..
Could I double this recipe and use a sheet pan?
We haven’t tried it in a sheet pan. We have Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies that are made in a sheet pan, but a totally different brownie recipe. All are delicious. We often make these Lunch lady brownies and turn them into marshmallow brownies. They are a favorite too.
A new favorite at my house, no more boxed brownies in this house.