Brownie Cookies
Are you ever curious as to how your brownies get that nice shiny crackly top?
That’s what I ventured to figure out with these Brownies cookies, because without the crackly crust these would just be chocolate cookies—and technically they are, but there’s something about the chocolate ravines that give it a brownie appeal.
There’s a lot of theories as to how you achieve the crackly shiny crust on these cookies because I’m definitely not the first to try them, but here’s what I found works best for me!
Butter: Melted butter instead of softened butter does two things: Causes the cookies to spread a little bit more, and gives your cookies a denser, albeit fudgy texture.
Eggs and sugar: The more time you spend whisking the eggs and sugar together the more prominent the cracked tops. This is because you’re incorporating a lot of air into the cookies essentially creating a top layer of meringue–which yields the beautiful crust. I whipped them together for about 4-5 minutes–which is why I do not advise you to try and make these cookies without a stand mixer or hand mixer. To be honest I got the best results with a stand mixer. My upper arms cannot compete with the speed of my kitchen aid stand mixer.
Chocolate: I used a combination of cocoa powder and chopped chocolate. Coca powder for the rich chocolate taste, and chopped chocolate because the fat content in the chocolate bar helps with the fudgy-ness as well.
From my experience, these cookies look and taste the best the same day you make the batter. Attempting to bake these cookies after refrigeration or freezing and unthawing the dough overnight will result in just regular ol’ chocolate cookies. Not as shiny crackly crust in sight.
You know I’m all for the cookie dough you can make ahead, but you can’t with these. Which isn’t much of a problem because they’re so good you’ll want to bake them all anyways!
Brownie Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cups (90g) all purpose flour
- ⅓ cups (30g) cocoa powder unsweetened or dutched processed
- ¼ cup of butter (56g), melted and cooled
- 2 Tbsp neutral oil (canola, vegetable)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ¾ cups (150g) light brown sugar
- ¼ cups (50g) white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup (4oz) dark chocolate (70%), melted and cooled
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Set side.
- Using a double boiler or microwave melt the chocolate and butter together. If you're using the microwave-use a microwave safe bowl, and first melt the butter before adding in the chocolate in batches at a time (chopped or broken pieces). Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, whisk together the sugar and eggs on a medium-high speed for about 4-5 minutes and until the mixture is pale and creamy.
- Pour in melted chocolate butter mixture, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed for and additional 1-2 minutes, or until fully incorporated.
- Fold in the dry ingredients until fully combined with no extra flour bits at the bottom of the bowl. Cookie dough will be loose and sticky like brownie batter.
- Scoop about a tablespoon of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, each cookie about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are set, rotating halfway through.
- Let rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to completely cool. Cookies will be very soft and delicate to move until fully cooled.
These brownie cookies can be left at room temperature up to 3 days, or refrigerated in a sealed container for up to a week.
