Wednesday, July 18, 2018

chocolate chip cookie brownies

There’s something you should know. I always underbake. On purpose. So today especially as you gaze upon those fudgy underbaked chocolate chip cookie brownies, I’m hoping no one takes offense to the excessive gooeyness. It’s just how I roll.

There’s something else you should know. I don’t have much time to write this post today because right as soon as I’m done writing this, I am going to go up to the shelter to enjoy my favorite time of day: playtime.


This is an adorable video that Bjork made on his iPhone during a lazy afternoon of play that might help give you an idea of what is currently competing for my time.


Okay, let’s talk dessert real quick. This is the dessert that makes me think of my best friend which equals road trips, college, movie nights, and Mexican food. Totally a natural connection there.

Bottom line: we make these all the time.

This is also the dessert that should be really easy to make but somehow took me four tries to get it just right. I kid you not: I made this four times, so yes, everyone within a ten mile radius of our house now knows what chocolate chip cookie brownies are.

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These easy chocolate chip cookie brownies have my very favorite chocolate chip cookie dough baked into the top layer of decadent, fudgy brownies.

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 stick salted butter (1/2 cup, very soft)
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 18.9 ounce brownie mix – my all-time favorite is Ghirardelli Double Chocolate – this is also a great brownie recipe but I found it more difficult to bake evenly when I made my brownies from scratch
  • (eggs, oil, and water for brownie mix)


INSTRUCTIONS
  1. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars in a small mixing bowl. Add vanilla and egg; cream again until smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir gently until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare brownie batter as directed. Pour batter into a glass 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish. Scatter pieces of cookie dough over the top of the brownie batter. In my 8×8 square pan, I was able to get about 2/3 of the cookie dough to fit over the brownies and I just saved the rest for regular cookies. Press gently on the dough just until it starts to sink down into the batter a little bit.
  3. Bake for 35-40 minutes (35 for gooey, 40 or more for fully baked), covering with foil if you need to keep the cookies from getting too brown on top. Let stand for 15-20 minutes and cut into pieces for serving.

NOTES
Beware of taking these out too early because the cookies look brown – usually when I do that, the brownies are still underdone and they sink down in the middle. I found that it was easiest to alternate baking them covered and uncovered. I did the first 20 minutes uncovered, the next 10 minutes covered, and the last 5 minutes uncovered. This allows the brownies to bake without the cookies getting too brown. I’ve also taken foil and just made a cover around the edges so the middle can bake without burning the tops of the edges