Brownies or chocolate chip cookies? You don't have to decide with these outrageously good brownie chunk cookies.
I’ve never been particularly interested in choosing between a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie. If both are available, I will find room for both.
But then I came across an Instagram video from @cloudykitchen that eliminated the decision making by folding chunks of brownies directly into chocolate chip cookie dough. I was immediately sold. There are plenty of desserts that combine brownies and cookies—brookies, stuffed cookies, layered brownies—but I loved the simplicity of this version. No careful layering or dividing batter in half. Just brownies, chopped up and folded into cookie dough.
And since I already have a favorite Taste of Home recipe for each, I couldn’t resist seeing what would happen when I put them together.
What are brownie cookies?
In this case, “brownie cookies” aren’t cookies made from brownie batter. They’re classic chocolate chip cookies with actual pieces of fudgy brownie folded into the dough before baking, so you get crisp, buttery cookie edges, melted chocolate chips and pockets of brownie in the same bite.
The method in @cloudykitchen‘s video has one particularly smart detail: She cuts the baked brownies into small chunks, then freezes them before adding them to the cookie dough. That way, the brownies are firm enough to survive being folded into the dough rather than turning into chocolaty mush.
It also means these cookies require a little more planning than the finished product suggests. You’re essentially making two desserts to get one, which means two sets of ingredients, two recipes and enough time for the brownies to bake, cool and freeze before the cookies ever make it to the oven. Fortunately, “there are brownies in my cookies” is a fairly persuasive argument for patience.
How to Make Brownie Cookies
I started with our double-chocolate brownie recipe, baking according to the directions (feel free to omit the pecans). The creator calls for using about one-third of a batch of brownies in her cookie dough, so I made the full Taste of Home recipe, cut roughly one-third of the pan into chunks and reserved the rest. I have never considered leftover brownies a problem.
My brownie pieces were nowhere near as neat and tidy as the perfectly squared little cubes in the Instagram video. This may be because our brownies are especially fudgy, or because I do not possess the patience required to turn a pan of brownies into tiny edible building blocks with architectural precision. Either way, I cut them as evenly as I reasonably could and put them in the freezer to firm up.
While the brownies chilled, I made a batch of our Big & Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies. I left the finished dough on the counter rather than putting it in the refrigerator while I waited for the brownies. I wanted the dough to stay soft enough that I could fold in the frozen brownie pieces without smashing them into chocolaty rubble.
Once the brownie chunks were completely firm, I gently folded them into the cookie dough, being careful to keep as many of those little brownie bits intact as possible. Then, I refrigerated the dough for about 30 minutes before baking.
I wasn’t entirely sure how large the finished cookies were supposed to be, so I roughly rolled six fairly generous portions and baked them at 350°F for about 10 minutes. In the end, I had about two dozen cookies.
It’s worth noting that making brownies from scratch adds considerably more time to what is otherwise a very simple idea. If you want the shortcut version, cut up a few good store-bought brownies, freeze the pieces, and proceed exactly the same way. Our brownie recipe is so delicious, I didn’t mind the extra effort, particularly since it left me with most of a pan to eat later. At least, that was the plan until I tasted the cookies.
How do they taste?
These were so good that I decided having an almost-full pan of extra brownies and two dozen brownie-studded cookies sitting on my counter was perhaps a little more abundance than one household required. I sent the brownies to work with my husband and kept the cookies at home, which felt like the responsible choice.
The cookies really are the best parts of both desserts at once. The chocolate chip cookie dough bakes up buttery around the edges, with the familiar chew and pockets of melted chocolate you’d expect, while the brownie pieces stay soft, dense and intensely fudgy inside. Because they’re actual chunks of brownie rather than simply more chocolate mixed into the dough, the texture changes from bite to bite: crisp edge, chewy cookie, gooey chocolate and then suddenly a soft bite of warm brownie.
You don’t lose either dessert in the combination. The cookie still tastes like a cookie, the brownie still tastes like a brownie, and somehow, putting the two together improves my already very favorable opinion of both.
Have you ever made brownie cookies? Let us know in the comments below!
