Brownie Cookies

GOD I LOVE THESE. I have a lot of cookie recipes on the site, some I’m more inclined to at certain times of the year (it’s always the marbled chocolate ones and the choc molasses around christmas; the lemon curd stuffed cookies around easter, etc) but there are some I want every week, no matter the occasion (the bakery style cccs!) and I totally see these brownie cookies slipping right into that category.

I first made them for my daughter’s birthday as a mint brownie cookie, using Deb’s browniest cookies as a very rough template and changing, well, almost everything. My goal was to get the shape of a cookie but all the textures of a brownie: crispy, fudgy edges and delightfully gooey centers.

What I can tell you for sure is that you are going to see this one appear a few more times as a base for other, slightly more complicated recipes (lemon curd stuffed brownie cookies anyone?) so get familiar with it asap!

Notes about this recipe

It’s extremely forgiving but, if you mess around with the ingredients and methods, you won’t always get *that* perfect cookie. With more sugar, with less time to chill, with a chocolate with a higher fat & sugar content, you’ll still get brownie cookies but they’ll be softer overall and won’t have that nice crispy edge.

At one point I browned the butter and didn’t chill for as long, and very little changed but it still wasn’t ideal (plus I couldn’t detect the flavor of brown butter underneath all that chocolate so I decided not to bother).

In an ideal world, you’d use the exact ingredients and brands I used, chill and bake for the same amount of time and get these cookies pictured. Of course, you may find yourself with a different lineup of brands and I’ll just hope that you love the cookies nonetheless.

Recipe Ingredients

Butter: Unsalted, if using salted you’ll halve the amount I have listed. Don’t let the butter sputter out of the bowl when melting!

Salt: I use fine sea salt. You can also use fine kosher. Please don’t use table salt!

Chocolate: This one is important, different types of chocolate have different fat/sugar/cocoa solid combinations. To get the cookies pictured, with those crispy edges you want to use a chocolate bar of 70% cocoa solids. I used the Theo brand (it’s got a red stripe).

Do not use milk or white chocolate, they are very different with more sugar and milk added and will considerably alter the dough!

Cocoa: Also important! Cocoas have different fat percentages, I used Hershey’s Special Dark which is a dutch cocoa. If your cookies look different than mine and you used a different cocoa, this could be one of the culprits.

Sugar: We’ve got a mix of brown and granulated here. You can use dark brown too, but don’t use organic brown (it’s not as moist).

Flour: I used KAF AP flour which has a protein content of 11.7.

How to make this brownie cookie recipe

Melt the chocolate and butter: I do this in a glass bowl in the microwave and I usually melt the butter by itself just a bit first so that the chocolate isn’t touching the bowl (less it burn). Then I add the chopped chocolate and heat it a bit more. When it’s warm enough to melt the rest of the chocolate I stir until it’s smooth (don’t melt it all in over the heat, let some of it melt from the mixture’s heat).

Whisk in the sugar: Once the sugar goes in, put this back in the microwave for a bit and heat. This melts the sugars a bit and is how I make my brownies. Then you’ll whisk, whisk, whisk!

Add eggs and whisk well: I want you to give it everything, whisk for a full minute! Once the dry ingredients are in, you can slow down and use a rubber spatula.

Add the dry ingredients: I’ll usually add the cocoa powder and leavening first, get that whisked in very well then use a rubber spatula to stir in the flour. The mix is still loose enough that it will feel like brownie batter rather than like a cookie dough.

Chill the dough: The cookie dough needs to chill for at least four hours for optimal chocolate flavor but more importantly because it needs to firm up quite a bit. It should be uncovered, this leads to some of the moisture escaping and dries out the dough a bit so that we get those wonderfully chew edges.

Scoop: I use a cookie scoop (or a disher) and portion them into about 2 tablespoons per cookie, with enough space for them to spread, about 2 inches around each cookie. The dough will be firm, sticky and tough to scoop. I like to roll the cookies between my palms to smooth them over but this step isn’t necessary. You can sprinkle them with flaky sea salt if you like before baking.

Bake: The cookies will puff up substantially in the oven, and you’ll see some cracks at the edges. They’re done when they’ve puffed up substantially and after about 10-12 minutes, pull them out. They will deflate as they cool.

Why chilling the dough, uncovered is important

Like I said this wasn’t intentional, but I have a theory why it works: uncovered and in the fridge some of the liquid escapes out to dry out the dough and the flour has more time to absorb more of it (crispy edges!!). Please don’t skip this =)

Add-ins and flavorings for Brownie Cookies

In some of the photos you might spot some chocolate chips I slipped into the dough before it chilled. You can absolutely do this (no I didn’t measure but I’d gander I did about 100g chopped chocolate or ½ cup chips) but it’s not needed and somehow takes from the experience of a ‘brownie cookie’ so I left it out of the recipe below.

That said, let’s talk about mixing these up to have, say, a mint chocolate brownie cookie: I’d use a mint chocolate bar in the dough and might even add a ½ tsp peppermint extract.

If you wanted an orange brownie cookie you could add some orange zest and use an orange flavored chocolate bar in the dough. Perhaps even orange extract.

Let’s answer some questions that might come up

Can I double this recipe? 

Yes, but I’d suggest either chilling the dough in separate bowls or for double the time. We want enough moisture to escape and it won’t be able to do so if you have one hunk of dough piled up.

Can I freeze this brownie cookie dough? 

You can do this after the fridge chill, after you portion them. Once they are on a cookie sheet scooped out, freeze the pan for 10 minutes or until the dough balls are firm. Then place them in something airtight to keep for longer. If baking from frozen you’ll want to add a few minutes to the bake time.

Brownie Cookies

Crispy edged chewy and gooey centered brownie cookies. One bowl, a chilled dough leads to brownie in cookie form bliss.

Yields: 16 cookies

4.89 from 9 votes

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Ingredients

• 113g or ½ cup butter unsalted
• 85g or ½ cup dark chocolate bar chopped, 70% cocoa solids
• 100g or ½ cup brown sugar
• 100g or ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp fine sea salt
• 125g or 1 cup all purpose flour
• 50g or ½ cup dutch process cocoa

Method

• In a large heatproof bowl, add the butter and chocolate. Warm in the microwave for 1 minute, then stir and heat for another minute. Stir until chocolate and butter is fully melted and smooth.
• Add the sugars, set the bowl back in the microwave for another minute. Whisk very vigorously, the mix will look a bit separated.
• Add the eggs and whisk again, for a full minute, until the batter is smooth and shiny.
• Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
• Set the bowl, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 4 hours (this is important for crispy edges) or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two greased cookie sheets with parchment paper. Portion the cookie dough into about 1.5-2 tablespoons each onto the sheet.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Notes

Makes about 16 cookies.

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