Your coffee grounds have more to offer than you might think. In this recipe for mocha brownies, melting your butter with spent coffee grounds will imbue the butter with a delicious and aromatic coffee flavor. The addition of your grounds also magically brings out more of the chocolatey flavors hidden in your cocoa powder.
For classically chewy brownies, we recommend all-purpose flour, but for something a little denser and flour-free, try our Almond Flour!
Makes 16 servings

Ingredients
- 1 ½ stick salted butter (12 tablespoons)
- ½ cup spent Imperfect Foods Anytime Blend Coffee Grounds
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup Imperfect Foods Cocoa Powder
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour or Imperfect Foods Almond Flour
- ½ cup Imperfect Foods Not-So-Average Chocolate Chips
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and line a 8×8 square pan.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in ground coffee and remove from heat. Let sit for five minutes.
- Strain butter through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Use the back of a spoon to press down on the butter to get as much butter as possible. Butter should look brown with specks of coffee.
- Add sugar, vanilla, eggs and egg yolk to the butter and whisk to combine. Add cocoa powder and flour and stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are set but center is slightly wobbly.
- Let cool in the pan and slice and serve.

Recipe Notes and Variations
- Our Almond Flour is a great example of upcycling within our own supply chain: We bought too many blemished almonds earlier this year, so we reprocessed them into almond flour.
- Sprinkle a little flakey salt on top of your mocha brownies for a salty/sweet flavor boost.
- If you liked this recipe, try these Flourless Banana Chocolate Chip Breakfast Muffins. They’re healthy, but not too healthy.
10 Comments
Janee
April 1, 2021 at 9:23 pmFresh grounds, not already used for brewing, right?
Imperfect Foods
April 3, 2021 at 6:24 pmOur suggestion is for used/spent grounds!
La Kennelly
April 1, 2021 at 9:54 pmWe don’t use added sugar. Any suggestions for the brownies without it? I know I could use less, but any ideas for zero? Like the coffee butter idea…
Imperfect Foods
April 2, 2021 at 11:39 pmAs long as your sugar alternative is granular, it’ll work perfectly in this recipe! Monkfruit sweetener is a great option 🙌
Susan
April 2, 2021 at 3:44 amDescription says “spent” coffee grounds. Looks like recipe calls for fresh?
Smells delicious from here!
Imperfect Foods
April 2, 2021 at 11:24 pmSpent coffee grounds will be the way to go!
Crickett Lancaster
April 3, 2021 at 1:36 amWith a couple of small modifications, these worked PERFECTLY for my keto diet and yet were supremely satisfying for the three non-keto people I’ve given them to so far.
The flour was swapped for almond flour, and I swapped out the granulated sugar for an alternative sweetener (I used Swerve). That trick with the coffee grounds steeping in the melted butter, though? GENIUS.
These brownies are super dense, super mocha, and so very rich! Thank you for posting this. I made them the very day I first saw the recipe, and I am moving the recipe into my Frequent file.
Imperfect Foods
April 3, 2021 at 6:23 pmWoohoo!! We’re so happy to hear this! 🥳💚
Austin Rivera
June 18, 2021 at 5:20 pmI am trying to find a similar coffee to Imperfect’s Anytime Blend now that I’m no longer a customer of theirs. Any idea what the flavor notes in that coffee are? I can’t remember and I threw the last package out!
Imperfect
June 19, 2021 at 8:41 pmYou can come back and shop with us for it 😎😘