Give your Halloween dessert tray a sweet scare with mummy brownies! Here are rich chocolate brownies dressed up as spooky treats you’ll love to decorate!!

Mummy brownies deserve to taste every bit as good as they look, and these little chocolate characters come with dense, fudgy centers, buttery edges, and creamy white chocolate bandages that melt against each bite!!

Ingredients

For the Brown Butter Brownies

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (142 g), cut into pieces, plus a little extra for greasing; measure before browning.
• 4 ounces dark chocolate (113 g), preferably 60% to 70% cacao, finely chopped so it melts easily.
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (28 g), sifted if lumpy; natural or Dutch-process cocoa works here.
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 g).
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (50 g), with any hard lumps broken up.
• 2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt, rather than coarse kosher salt.
  1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder, optional, for a little extra depth in chocolate
• flavor.
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (75 g), spooned into measuring cups and leveled, or weighed.

For the Mummy Decorations

• 4 ounces white chocolate (113 g), finely chopped; choose a baking bar that lists cocoa butter among its ingredients.
• 24 edible candy eyes, approximately 1/4 inch across.
• 1/2 teaspoon neutral oil, only if needed, to loosen white chocolate that is too thick to pipe.

You’ll also need parchment paper, a light-colored saucepan, a whisk, a flexible spatula, and a small piping bag or sturdy food-safe zip-top bag. A kitchen scale is especially helpful for flour, since a generously scooped cup can turn a fudgy brownie noticeably firmer.

Servings: 12, with 1 rectangular brownie per serving

How to Make Mummy Brownies

Heat your oven to 350°F / 175°C with a rack in its middle position, then lightly grease an 8-inch square metal pan and line it with parchment, leaving enough overhang on two opposite sides to lift out a cooled brownie slab.

Press parchment into corners so batter can spread evenly; a little butter underneath helps hold those folded edges in place while you work. Use this pan size for the stated baking time, since a larger pan produces thinner brownies that finish sooner.

Put butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium-low heat and cook for 6 to 9 minutes, stirring and sweeping across its bottom regularly with a heatproof spatula.

It will melt, foam, and sputter as moisture cooks away, then tiny milk solids will turn golden brown and smell wonderfully toasty; once those specks look amber, immediately pour butter and browned bits into a large heatproof bowl.

I’d stay right beside your saucepan during that last minute because amber can become black surprisingly quickly, and burnt butter brings bitterness to every bite!

Add chopped dark chocolate, cocoa powder, and optional espresso powder to hot brown butter, leave them for 1 minute, then stir until smooth, scraping any cocoa from around your bowl.

Residual heat should melt finely chopped chocolate without another trip to a burner.

Let this mixture cool for 5 to 8 minutes, until comfortably warm rather than hot, while you prepare eggs and sugar; use all browned butter, including those flavorful specks, without adding water or extra butter to replace what evaporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk granulated sugar, brown sugar, whole eggs, extra yolk, vanilla, and salt by hand for about 2 minutes, until everything looks cohesive, slightly thickened, and glossy.

Break up any brown sugar lumps against your bowl, but don’t worry if a little sugar still feels grainy at this stage. You want a well-blended mixture with a little air worked in, so there is no need to bring out a mixer or beat until it resembles cake batter.

Slowly pour warm chocolate mixture into your egg mixture while whisking, then scrape around both bowls so all that chocolate makes it into your batter.

Once it looks smooth and glossy, add flour and switch to a spatula, folding gently from bottom to top until you can no longer see dry pockets; stop there, because extra stirring after flour disappears can make brownies tougher.

Batter should be thick enough to fall from your spatula in a broad ribbon that gradually settles back into itself.

Scrape batter into your prepared pan and spread it right into corners, smoothing its surface so each mummy starts with a reasonably level face.

Bake for 28 to 34 minutes, checking at 28 minutes, until edges look set, a thin crust covers most of the surface, and center no longer ripples when you gently move your pan.

A toothpick inserted near center should come out with moist crumbs attached; glossy, liquid batter means it needs another 2 to 3 minutes before checking again.

Don’t wait for a completely dry toothpick, because that usually means your fudgy middle has lost more moisture than you wanted!

Set your pan on a wire rack and leave brownies to cool completely, which usually takes about 2 hours. Don’t skip this step, because warm brownies are still delicate inside, and white chocolate will slide across a warm surface instead of keeping its shape.

If you want particularly tidy edges, refrigerate your cooled slab for another 30 minutes before slicing; that brief chill firms butter and chocolate enough to make cutting easier.

Lift out your cooled slab using parchment, place it on a cutting board, and cut into 4 equal strips, then cut each strip into 3 rectangles to make 12 brownies, each approximately 2 by 2 2/3 inches.

Use a large sharp knife, wiping it clean between cuts; if you warm your knife under hot water first, dry it completely before it touches a brownie.

Transfer pieces onto fresh parchment with a little space between them, and brush away loose surface crumbs so decorations have a clean place to settle.

Put white chocolate in a completely dry microwave-safe bowl and heat at 50% power in 20-second bursts, stirring thoroughly after each one.

Stop heating while a few soft pieces remain and let stirring finish melting them, which helps prevent scorching; depending on your microwave, this usually takes 1 to 2 minutes of heating in total.

If smooth, melted chocolate is still too thick to fall from a spoon in a continuous ribbon, stir in up to 1/2 teaspoon neutral oil. Keep water and milk out of this mixture, since a small splash can make melted chocolate clump.

Let melted white chocolate stand for a minute or two if it feels very warm, then spoon it into a small piping bag and snip an opening approximately 2 to 3 millimeters wide.

I’d start with a smaller opening and test a line on parchment before making it wider, since thin bands are easier to control and leave more chocolate brownie showing.

If your test line spreads immediately into a puddle, let chocolate cool a little longer; if it comes out reluctantly, check for a clogged opening or gently warm remaining chocolate in its bowl before refilling.

Pipe two small dots of white chocolate near the upper third of each rectangle, press a candy eye onto each dot, and give your mummies their own slightly uneven expressions.

Pipe several thin bands from side to side, angling some upward and others downward, then add a couple of crossing lines while leaving both eyes and small gaps of brownie visible.

Keep your bag moving as you squeeze, and stop squeezing before lifting it away to avoid large blobs. Crooked bandages are welcome here; these little fellows have had a long night!

Leave decorated brownies flat for 20 to 30 minutes in a cool room, or until white chocolate feels firm enough to handle without smearing.

In a warm kitchen, refrigerate them for 10 to 15 minutes to help those ribbons set, then serve once centers have softened back toward room temperature.

Wait until decorations are firm before moving brownies into a container, and keep them in a single layer so each pair of eyes survives its trip to a serving plate!

Small Fixes That Make Decorating Easier

• If a brownie edge crumbles while slicing, pause and chill remaining pieces for 20 to 30 minutes before continuing with a clean knife. A small missing corner can sit underneath a crossing bandage, so there is usually no need to trim every piece into a perfect rectangle.
• If your white chocolate becomes grainy or scorched, fresh chocolate is a better choice for these neat little ribbons; adding more oil will not reliably repair it. Use gentler heat for your next batch, and make sure your bowl, spoon, and piping bag are completely dry.
• If bands form a thick white blanket, use a smaller piping opening and move your hand a little faster. A few narrow spaces between ribbons make a mummy recognizable and keep white chocolate from overwhelming that rich brownie underneath!

Serving Suggestions

Serve mummy brownies at room temperature, when centers feel soft and dense and white chocolate gives a gentle bite. Cold milk makes a lovely match for all that cocoa, while coffee balances sweeter decorations beautifully.

• For a dessert plate, add a small scoop of vanilla ice cream beside one brownie and spoon raspberry sauce around it, keeping sauce away from candy eyes so their expressions stay intact!
• For a Halloween party, arrange brownies in a single layer on a platter or in individual paper liners, which makes them easy to pick up without touching every bandage.

This recipe makes 12 individual servings, and their rich chocolate flavor makes one rectangle a generous little treat alongside other party snacks.

Set these mummy brownies on your Halloween table while their centers are soft and their white chocolate ribbons are ready for that first bite, and let everyone choose the little face that makes them smile.

Between toasted brown butter, rich cocoa, and creamy bandages, every rectangle has plenty to offer before anyone even notices its lopsided eyes.

Make a batch, embrace a few crooked lines, and leave room on your plate for one very delicious mummy!