Cookie Dough Brownies are best part of cookies and brownies all in one!
Cookie Dough Brownies seem like a natural progression for my dessert section given the recipes I’ve had in the past including these Easy Dark Chocolate Chunk Brownies, the Cookie Dough Stuffed Salted Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and my recipe for Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough that we keep in our freezer for all occasions. But wait there’s more… How about my Monster Cookie Dough Cupcakes? Or when we took cookie dough on a trip to S’moresville with the S’mores Cookie Dough and Graham Cracker Cupcakes stuff with S’mores Cookie Dough? Yep, we’re a cookie dough loving bunch around here. We even stuff it into Ice Cream Sandwiches!
These Cookie Dough Brownies are really pretty easy to make. You could definitely make it without a stand mixer for your base but I recommend using some kind of mixer, even a handheld one, for the cookie dough layer. The butter and sugar will originally start as one color but as you whisk them more and more you will see that color lighten up. That is when you’re ready to move on to adding the rest of the ingredients. I have done the cookie dough topping with just a whisk, but I did end up with a pretty tired arm, you’ll want to give it at least three minutes of hand whisking before the color really lightens.
Tools used in this Cookie Dough Brownies recipe:
9×13 Baking Pan – The straight edges and even cooking of this pan is ideal for bars and brownies.
Stand Mixer – The classic stand mixer, it’s always a huge help to get things mixed a heck of a lot faster. Plus, that blue! <3
Hand Mixer – For smaller jobs you don’t want to pull the large mixture out for this hand mixer is a breeze
Dark Chocolate Chips – My favorite dark chocolate chips, I keep them on hand in volume! More and more stores carry the brand now too, so when mine has a sale I buy 3 or 4 bags of every flavor. (Sometimes I can even get them for LESS than Nestle)
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – This cocoa powder gives an amazing, dark, rich chocolate flavor. I also highly recommend the Trader Joe’s Brand of cocoa powder.
Cookie Dough Brownies
Ingredients
Brownies
- 3/4 cup butter , melted
- 2 1/4 cups white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips (You can use any type of chocolate chips you'd like)
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup softened unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup water , but I like leaving these out at room temperature]
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Brownie Layer:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour or use baking spray a 13x9 pan.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs.
- Add in the cocoa powder, chocolate chips and salt and whisk until well combined.
- Add in the flour and whisk until just combined (don't overwhisk)
Bake about 25-28 minutes or just until done in the center.
- Remove and cool on a rack until no longer hot.
Cookie Dough Layer:
- In a bowl with a mixer or a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until they are noticeably lighter in color and very fluffy.
This usually takes a couple of minutes.
- Add in water and vanilla and mix for a couple of seconds.
- Add in flour, salt and one cup of the chocolate chips and mix until all combined.
- The chips are so small they won't break apart in there.
- If you are worried or use an alternate type of mix in that is more fragile, use a spatula or whisk to incorporate the mix-ins.
- Spread the cookie dough onto the cooled brownies and sprinkle on the remaining half cup of mini chocolate chips.
- Press them into the top very lightly so they "stick."
My brownies didn’t cook and came out in a batter, followed directions. Do you know why?
Oh no! Ovens do vary so maybe they needed to be baked longer. Have you checked the accuracy of your oven temperature lately?
It was good but there was a thin layer of cookie dough. That might just be me.
Do you cook the cookie dough?
No, the cookie dough portion goes on top of the baked brownies. Enjoy!
I used a box brownie mix, then made my cookie dough. Got super excited before reading the rest and tossed my dough on top of the brownie batter and cooked the whole thing! Oops! We will see how it turns out I guess haha ?
bad. cookie dough was way too buttery 10/10 do not recommend this recipe.
Made this for my husband’s birthday. Used a box brownie mix for simplicity. I used vegan butter for the cookie dough so I added some tapioca flour to thicken the topping. Everyone loved it. The topping almost overshadowed the brownie. But otherwise fantastic!
is it plain or self raising flour
All-Purpose flour 🙂
I made them last night and they turned out super good but is the cookie dough supposed to be like a batter or kinda lumpy I guess
Mine was like cake batter
Thanks for the recipe Sabrina? I’ve followed G’s suggestion and baked the flour at 350 for 5 minutes, and it comes out wonderfully. Luckiky I didnt have any problem following the dough recipe. My brownie tastes perfect.
Yay!! Thanks for coming back to let me know.
Turned out perfect, the brownie tasted like two-bite brownies and the cookie dough was the perfect smooth, rich and creamy consistency!
Thanks for coming back to let me know. I appreciate the 5 stars.
Would I be able to just make the cookiedough part and put melted chocolate on the top, harden, then slice it up to make a cookie dough slice? And can this be stored at room temperature or fridge?
I’ve not tested it like that but if you decide to try, I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks!
how do you store this?
Store them in an air tight container either on the counter for up to a few days or in the refrigerator for them to last longer.
It is unclear if you bake the recipe or refrigerate. Cookie dough is raw with eggs so it should be baked?
The cookie dough in this recipe is eggless.
Yes it is eggless but uncooked flour is very dangerous. The flour should be heated, you can make people very unwell
Made these with a little twist. I did a fresh fruit purée for the brownie portion. It turned out wonderful…cookie dough on top just really made it perfect. Thanks for the recipe
Sounds wonderful!
do you bake the whole thing after you put the cookie dough on top
Sorry, your comment got stuck in my spam filter. No need to bake once the cookie dough is on top. Hope you enjoyed them.