These cookie dough brownies are a recipe remake from September 2011. They remain one of my favorite bar recipes to date!
I just returned from a marathon month of work travel. One day, I saw an email come through about a Monthly Baking Review. Curious, I opened it and was surprised to see that we were doing a monthly baking challenge. The winner would get bragging rights, or maybe even a prize.
Being the competitive person (and baker) that I am, I signed up.
I needed to bake something epic. Something that everybody would like and vote for. I thought about copycat Cosmic Brownies, salted caramel brownies, cranberry bliss bars, and other things. Ultimately, I decided to go back to a tried and true recipe – these cookie dough brownies. I last featured them in 2011 so it was due for a photo reshoot.
When I asked the competition organizer who won, he said, “Everyone’s a winner!” NO. There must be one winner! Yes, I am competitive, but the point of the event was to celebrate a winner. Since this competition was very anti-climatic, I’m not sure if I will participate in the next bake-off (which is brownies).
Cookie dough brownies
Ingredients
Brownies
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 and 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Cookie Dough
- 1 and 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter softened
- 1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 9 Tablespoons milk
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups mini chocolate chips you can use regular semi-sweet chips if you can't find the mini ones
Instructions
Make the brownies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.
- In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it's hot, but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
- Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, if you've heated it in a saucepan. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla.
- Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth. Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.
- Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool completely on a rack.
Make the cookie dough
- Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk. With mixer on low, add flour and mix until well combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips.
Assemble the bars
- Spread the cookie dough onto the cooled brownies. You can put the pan into the freezer for about 30 minutes if you're impatient! Chill the brownies until the cookie dough is firm. Cut into bars and serve.