We all know that homemade brownies are exceptionally rich. And when it comes to brownie cookies, these are the richestโtrust me, I’ve done my research! They’re extra chewy with soft fudge-like centers and only require about 20 minutes of chill time before baking. For best results, use pure baking chocolate. See all of my success tips below.
Why make a brownie cookie when you can literally just have a… brownie? A very good question and I have a very good answer. A pan of traditional brownies has varying textures. You have slightly crisp and chewy edge brownies with softer, fudgier brownies in the center. When you bake brownies as cookies, you get both in 1. A super chewy and textured edge with that beloved fudge center.
So the real question is this:
Why make a brownie when you can have a brownie cookie?
One reader, Lily, commented: “I’m not exaggerating, every single time I make these, at least one or two people ask for the recipe. I’ve now been specifically requested to bring these to gatheringsโthey’re that insane! So fudgy and rich, the espresso makes them even more chocolatey, but they never feel heavy. I usually finish them with a sprinkle of sea salt on top to balance the sweet richness. I think I’m going to be making these for the rest of my life! โ โ โ โ โ ”
Tell Me About These Brownie Cookies
- Texture: Talk about a satisfying texture. If you love fudge brownies, you’ll appreciate all this cookie has to offerโchewy edges, soft centers, gooey chocolate chips when they’re fresh out of the oven.
- Flavor: These brownie cookies are for pure chocolate lovers. No caramel, nuts, fruits, or candies in the way. The wonderful part is that you can control the chocolate’s sweetness and strength. I recommend semi-sweet chocolate and adding a touch of espresso powder, which deepens the chocolate flavor. For sweeter cookies, use milk chocolate. For bittersweet cookies, use bittersweet or even unsweetened chocolate. (Warningโunsweetened chocolate lends a very deep, dark chocolate cookie!)
- Ease: Though this recipe much easier than, say, chocolate croissants, it’s not quite as simple as mixing brownie batter together. You need 3 main bowlsโone for melted chocolate, one for dry ingredients, and one for other wet ingredients. Shaping the dough is a cinch, though. Use a cookie scoop to keep things uniform.
- Time: Some cookie doughs require chilling in the refrigerator and others don’t. This recipe requires just 20 minutes in the fridge, which is just enough time to quickly clean up and preheat the oven. You’ll be enjoying these cookies in under 1 hour.
If you’ve tried my Midnight Brownie Cookies in Sally’s Cookie Addiction cookbook, or my peppermint frosted chocolate cookies or peanut butter filled brownie cookies, today’s cookies are similarly rich. If you love chocolate, brownies, and cookies, you can’t go wrong with any of these 3!
Recipe Testing: What Works & What Doesn’t
When I was working on today’s recipe, I wanted to experiment with 2 variables: consistency of butter and chill time in the refrigerator. There are 4 cookies pictured below, with the bottom right cookie as the winner (today’s recipe). Each cookie was made with the same measurements and ingredients. For the cookies made with melted butter, I melted the butter with the 8 ounces of chocolate, then whisked in the sugars, eggs, and vanilla before beating in the dry ingredients.
Let me explain each.
- Top Left – Melted Butter + No Chilling: 5 Tablespoons of melted butter with no cookie dough chilling lended greasy cookies that over-spread. The edges burned and crumbled.
- Top Right – Melted Butter + Chilling: 5 Tablespoons of melted butter with 20 minutes of cookie dough chilling. Cookies were thicker, but tasted like pure chocolate. Delicious and rich, but didn’t really have a brownie texture.
- Bottom Left – Softened Butter + No Chilling: 5 Tablespoons of softened butter with no cookie dough chilling. The cookies had more of an irresistible brownie texture, but spread a little too much. The edges burned quickly.
- Bottom Right – Softened Butter + Chilling: 5 Tablespoons of softened butter with 20 minutes of cookie dough chilling. These cookies were the clear winner with nice spread, fudge brownie centers, crackly tops, and chewy edges.
Best Chocolate to Use
Most of the cookie’s chocolate flavor comes from melted chocolate. Do not cut corners hereโuse pure chocolate baking bars, just like we do for dark chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies. You can find them right next to the chocolate chips in the baking aisle. They’re typically sold in 4 ounce bars, so youโll need 2. I’m not affiliated or working with this brand, but I strongly recommend Ghirardelli (pictured below). This chocolate simply produced the best tasting and looking cookie. The cookies made with Baker’s brand chocolate were great, but the cookies didn’t really have the crackly tops.
- I use and recommend semi-sweet chocolate, but you can use bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate for a much darker flavor.
- If you can find it and want to splurge, use 8 ounces of semi-sweet Scharffen Berger Chocolate. These are sold in 3 ounce or 9 ounce bars. My regular grocer carries it in the baking aisle, but you can find and purchase it online.
Overview: How to Make Brownie Cookies
The full printable recipe is below, but letโs walk through the recipe so you understand each step before you get started.
- Melt the chocolate. Start by melting the chopped chocolate. I recommend doing this first so it has a few minutes to cool down before you need it in step 3 below. (Don’t want to melt the creamed butter or scramble the eggs!)
- Whisk dry ingredients together.
- Work on wet ingredients. As detailed in the recipe below, cream the butter and both sugars together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, then beat in the melted and cooled chocolate. Pay attention to your mixing times. We want to beat long enough to whip some air into these ingredients, which helps achieve a crackly brownie appearance on the cookies. (Which are usually created by deflated air, melted sugar, and quality chocolate.)
- Combine wet and dry ingredients.
- Chill as oven preheats. Chill the cookie dough for just 20 minutes. This quick chill time helps slightly solidify the chocolate and butter in the dough, which gives the cookies a nice spread (not over-spread). Chilling for longer creates thicker cookies where, in some cases, they may not spread at all. My peanut butter chocolate chip cookies have a super quick chill time, too.
- Scoop and bake. Dough is thick and sticky, so I strongly recommend using a cookie scoop. The medium size is perfect because each dough ball should be around 1.5 Tablespoons, the same exact size I recommend for double chocolate chip cookies.
Pictured above are our 3 bowls: 1 for dry, 1 for wet, and 1 for melted chocolate. When it all comes together, expect a thick and sticky cookie dough.
And for those of you who want your brownie cookies AND brownies… ๐
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
- Hot Cocoa Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookies
And here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.ย
Brownie Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes (includes chilling)
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These are extra rich, extra fudge-like, and extra chewy brownie cookies. For best results, use good chocolate and follow this recipe closely.
Ingredients
- 2 four ounce bars (226g) semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 3/4 cup (94g) all-purpose flourย (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (21g) natural unsweetened or dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional: 3/4 cup (135g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or use the microwave. Microwave in 20 second increments, stirring after each until completely melted. Set aside to slightly cool (so it doesn’t melt the butter or cook the eggs).
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. (Hereโs a helpful tutorial if you need guidance onย how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat on high speed for 2 full minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl, then beat on high for 1 more minute. Pour in the slightly cooled melted chocolate and mix on medium-high speed for 2 full minutes.
- Pour in the the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. Finally, beat in the chocolate chips.
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. As the oven preheats, continue to step 6.
- Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for just 20 minutes as the oven preheats. This quick chill time helps slightly solidify the chocolate and butter in the dough, which gives the cookies a nice spread (not over-spread). Chilling for longer creates thicker cookies where, in some cases, they may not spread at all. If chilling for longer than 20 minutes, allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling and baking.
- Roll or scoop the dough into balls, 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each. I recommend a medium cookie scoop. Place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets and bake for 12-13 minutes or until the edges appear set. (The centers will be quite soft, but will set up as the cookies cool.)
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Cookies won’t spread as much if dough balls were frozen, so about halfway through bake-time, gently press down on the baking cookies with a spoon to help get them to spread. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Double Boiler | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Chocolate: Use pure chocolate baking bars. You can find them right next to the chocolate chips in the baking aisle. They are sold in 4 ounce bars, so youโll need 2. I strongly recommend Ghirardelli brand. I’m not working with this companyโthis chocolate simply produced the best tasting and looking cookie. I use and recommend semi-sweet chocolate, but you can use bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate for a much darker flavor. If you can find it (my regular grocer carries it in the baking aisle) and want to splurge, use 8 ounces of semi-sweet Scharffen Berger Chocolate. These are sold in 3 ounce or 9 ounce bars.
- Espresso Powder: Espresso powder deepens the chocolate flavor. You can find it in the baking aisle at the grocery store or online. You can skip it or use 2 teaspoons of instant coffee powder instead.
Reader Comments and Reviews
should i add Flakey salt on top of the cookies after they have cooled or while cooling? and is the extra salt a good idea?
Sounds great – you can add flaky salt while they are cooling.
Hi, Could I use this recipe for the base cookie for the Death by Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookie recipe? So that would be adding 2 cups of chips vs 3/4 cup this recipe calls for?
In general, do the type of add ins matter in most cookie recipes if the total volume equals what is listed in a recipe? for example exchanging chocolate chips for M & M’s, toffee bits, nuts etc?
Thank you for your help!
Hi Terry, you could absolutely swap the optional chocolate chips here for peanut butter chips. It should be fine to increase them to about 1 cup total (either all peanut butter chips or a combination of peanut butter and chocolate chips) for this recipe, but 2 full cups would be a bit too much for this particular recipe. Yes, in general you can get creative and customize the add-ins to your preference, keeping the total amount about the same. Hope this helps!
Hi. Can I make cut out cookies out of this dough or shall I change the ingredients?
Hi Mariya, no this dough is not ideal for rolling out and shaping with cookie cutters. Instead, try my chocolate sugar cookies.
I followed the recipe exactly, so Iโm not sure what went wrong.
The cookies were a complete flop. When I took the tray out of the oven, they smelled burnt and had melted into flat, dark discs.
I even double-checked the oven temperature, and it was set correctly.
Recipe directions right on & delicious for chocolate lovers. That said, using the medium Oxy scoop 40, I got 31 cookies (7 extra). Just wondering if there is a weight to the scoop size to get to the 24 number. I know scoop weights have been listed in other recipes.
These cookies are sooo good. I plan on adding them to my Christmas cookie gift bags. Thanks!!
If I use unsweetened chocolate bars, wonโt I have to increase the amount of granulated sugar?
Hi Linda, Changing the amount of sugar in these cookies would change the texture and how much they spread. You can control the flavor and sweetness by changing what type of chocolate you use. Unsweetened chocolate lends a very deep, dark chocolate cookie! See the section above on flavor for more details.
Made these per the recipe as written, (no added chocolate chips) and they came out perfect and look just like your pics on the website. Soft, slightly chewy and very chocolatey. I used bakers chocolate as I wasn’t going to spend $20 on two bars of Ghirardelli chocolate. But I did use Ghirardelli cocoa powder. Very easy recipe. Will def. make again.
So its 8 oz. Chips plus an additional 3/4 cup chips for the cookies?
Hi Martha, we don’t recommend using chocolate chips for the melted chocolate, but instead chocolate baking bars – see Notes after the recipe for more details. You can add 3/4 cup chocolate chips to the cookies (not melted) if you would like – they are optional.
I have started using only vanilla powder. Should I add the vanilla powder to the dry or liquid ingredients?
Hi Debbie! We would add it with the dry ingredients.
How many % cocoa should the chocolate be?
Semi-sweet chocolate is typically between 50-60% cacao. Hope this helps!
Can I use Callebaut 54.5% Dark Choc couverture instead of Ghirardelli?
Hi Agnes, yes, that should be fine!
Hi so i followed your recipe and instructions down to the last stop but my cookies didny hold shape instead after just five minutes in the iver they were all flat and mixed into each other looking like a giant sheet of goo instead of cookies iโm so disappointed can u please tell me how to fix this issue ??
Hi Zoe, happy to help. Here’s our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading. Starting with butter that isn’t too warm is the most important!
Delicious. Tastes like a brownie and looks like a cookie. Followed the instructions exactly, except for adding 1/2 tsp of baking powder because I live at 9000ft. Thank you for the amazing recipes that are always perfect!
As my dough is chilling in the fridge, I thought to myself…hmm I wonder if there are high altitude directions! Oops too late, but I am only at 5000ft. So here’s hoping!
Any chance I can make this recipe without an electric mixer? Iโm ready to move and things are packed.
Thanks so much. Love everything SBA
Hi Joe! Thanks so much for loving my recipes and the kind comment! You can still make these Brownie Cookies without an electric mixer. To cream the butter and sugar by hand, use a sturdy wooden spoon or a hand whisk and beat the mixture vigorously until itโs light and fluffy. Then proceed with the recipe, using a whisk or spatula to combine. It will take a bit more time and effort, but itโs definitely doable!
Hi Sally and team, has this recipe replaced the brownie walnut chunk cookie recipe? I canโt find that one on your site anymore!
It was similar to this but a few differences. Thanks in advance!
Hi Nicki, we were no longer satisfied with the outcome of that older recipe, so we unpublished it. We still have it, though! Send us an email and we can forward it to you – sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com
I made these cookies last night and I am blown away by how delightfully delicious they are! I made them with bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate because that is what I had on hand and I needed brownies NOW, but I will definitely try them with semisweet as well. I followed the recipe exactly, doing what I normally do-add eggs one at a time, add half dry ingredients at a time, etc. These turned out amazing texturally and are a chocolately dream come true. Thanks for the recipe- it is taking a coveted spot in my cookie rotation!
This cookie was made for chocolate lovers! I’ve made this recipe many times. I use all dark chocolate and top with a sprinkle of salt. Leaving the batter in fridge for a few hours is essential. Make 2 batches, you’ll go through them quickly! ๐
Ok soo- what happened!!!!
These cookies literally are terrible! They were impossible to make without the butter splitting and then the mix was so hard to get into shape on trays. I followed the recipe exactly and they taste and look terrible! Probably wonโt make them again
I’m so sorry you had trouble with the cookie dough. How did the butter split? Was it too warm to cream? Was the cookie dough curdled looking? The butter could have been the issue.
What changes if I only have dark brown sugar vs light brown? Will it need less dark brown sugar or more granulated sugar? Thanks! Your recipes are always a hit! โบ๏ธ
Hi Misty, you can use dark brown sugar and light brown sugar interchangeablyโsame amount. Enjoy!
For the bars, can we use any chocolate bars?
Hi Kaitlyn! A high quality baking chocolate is recommended.
What happened to the recipe?
There were walnuts.
Now there are none.
Hi Jenny, we had an older version of this recipe that included walnuts, but we have since removed it from the website. If you email us at sally@sallysbakingaddiction.com, we’d be happy to share a copy with you!
These cookies are so delicious! You get all the chewy goodness of a brownie without the density (and cook time!) I usually have all the ingredients to make these at home so they’re a favorite to make when I get a craving. The recipe is super easy to follow and it comes out great!
These are so fun to bake! I like to use gluten free flour with this recipe and they still turn out amazing!
Have made ur Blueberry muffins twice this week, luv them!
This isn’t the recipe for blueberry muffins. I think you’re on the wrong page.
I’m not exaggerating, every single time I make these at least one or two people ask for the recipe. I’ve now been specifically requested to bring these to gatherings, they’re that insane! So fudgy and rich, the espresso makes them even more chocolatey, but they never feel heavy. I usually finish them with a little sprinkle of sea salt on top to balance the sweet richness. I think I’m going to be making these for the rest of my life!