I know what you’re thinking. What’s the point of a brownie… cookie? Why not just have a brownie? Or a cookie? Why both? Well, 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.
Brownie cookies > brownies. (A bold statement!!!!!)
This recipe stems from an older recipe on my website: death by chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. I based the recipe off of an America’s Test Kitchen recipe a few years ago. This time, I subbed a little cocoa powder for flour. I found that this teeny tiny increase in cocoa powder gave the brownie cookies an even deeper chocolate flavor (of course). And for that cocoa. Remember the difference between dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder? Things are pretty important when we use baking soda (BASE) in the recipe as natural cocoa (ACID) reacts with it. However, it’s not that big of a deal when using baking powder (like today) because the recipe doesn’t need that extra acid (from natural). I know it’s confusing. Basically, today, we can use either dutch-process or natural in the brownie cookies.
Cookies are delicious chemistry.
Speaking of chocolate. The base of this recipe is… pure chocolate! Just like we do in peanut butter filled brownie cookies, you’ll start by melting down 8 ounces of the good stuff and mix it right into the dough. So just like how any ordinary cookie recipe begins by creaming butter and sugar together… but we’ll also add melted chocolate. I like to use a quality chocolate from the baking aisle like Ghirardelli or Baker’s. The melted chocolate paired with brown sugar and eggs creates a remarkably moist center. Just want you center-brownie-lovers crave!
“Indulgent” doesn’t even cover it.
“Excessively decadent” is more like it.
Because texture clearly rules all, I threw in a generous amount of walnuts. If you have an extra few minutes, give the chopped walnuts a quick toast in the oven for added flavor. Spread chopped walnuts onto a lined baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes at 300°F (149°C).
More Chocolate Cookies to Try
- Brownie Cookies (similar to today’s recipe, but plain)
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peppermint Mocha Cookies
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies (the chocolate version of my beloved Sugar Cookies!)
Brownie Walnut Chunk Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Super fudgy, thick, chewy, and rich brownie cookies with big chunks of chocolate and walnuts!
Ingredients
- 2 four ounce bars (226g) semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/3 cup (27g) natural unsweetened or dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup (5 Tablespoons; 72g) 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
- 1 cup (125g) chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup (90g) 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, 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 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Pour in the slightly cooled melted chocolate and mix on medium speed until combined.
- On low speed, add the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat until combined. Finally, beat in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Cover and chill the dough for at least 45-60 minutes in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Roll the dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each. Place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets and bake for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set. The centers will look a little soft.
- 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. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more chocolate chips or walnut pieces into the tops– this is only for looks!
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. 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. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools: KitchenAid Stand Mixer | Hershey’s Cocoa Powder | Baker’s Semisweet Chocolate Bars | Silpat Baking Mat | Cookie Sheets | Cooling Rack | Black Plates
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: brownie walnut chunk cookies
Hi Sally: These cookies are absolutely delicious! I did have a hard time rolling the cookies into balls. I used baking chocolate but the dough hardened after an hour in the fridge and was difficult to scoop out and then roll. I think next time I will roll the cookies and then refrigerate to prevent too much spread. It must be due to the type of chocolate that I am using. Do you have an ideas on this? Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Roze! It could be a variety of factors, but you can definitely try rolling and then refrigerating.
I had the same problem as a few others did – the dough turned hard as a rock after chilling, even after it had sat out on the counter for a while I couldn’t scoop it and had to chip chunks of dough out of the bowl with a knife. They didn’t spread at all when baking and came out looking exactly as they did when they went in. I’m not sure what I did wrong as I followed the directions exactly, double checking several times along the way. I’d love to try them again, any thoughts on what I might’ve done wrong?
Hi Andrea! Could be a few things such as over-measuring the flour, cocoa powder, or using a different brand of chocolate. (I recommend pure baking chocolate such as Baker’s brand). To fix for next time, skip the chilling and roll/bake the cookies right away. It’s a guaranteed fix. 🙂
Wow! These look awesome & my hubby would love! I will try to make them this afternoon as a surprise tonight! He loves pecans over walnuts so I wouldn’t think I would have to do any adjusting!?! Could you tell me if & why I have to chill the dough? Always curious if needed & the reason! Thanks so much for another great recipe !
Yes, pecans will work also! You need to chill the dough so that they don’t turn into flat over-spread cookies when you bake them 🙂
Hi there! Wondering how these turned out for you with the pecans?? Hoping to do the same thing and make some for my brother’s birthday this January!
Sally, these cookies are FABULOUS! All the chocolate chips and walnuts…these have to be a new favorite! And I love how thick they turned out! In fact, I used your tall cookie trick and the baked cookies were SO thick (literally still lumpy pillars!) I had to press them down a little with a spoon 😀 They taste just like brownies! Mmmm. Yum! I will definitely be making these again; pretty soon, I’m sure. We have a weekly connect group, so I have the perfect excuse… 😉
These were absolutely amazing. Some of the best cookies I’ve made from your site. I used guittard Dutch cocoa powder as well and they turned out amazing!!
These were so gooey and delicious. I love to add dried cherries to them to add a nice tart bite to all the sweet. Great recipe!
Hello Sally, what’s the difference between this recipe and the Inside Out White Chocolate Chip Cookies, in terms of tatse and texture?
These cookies have almost two textures in one – soft and fudgy on the inside with a crispier outside! Both have a super chocolate taste so you can’t go wrong either way!
Hi Sally!
I love your blog. Made these cookies for a family get together today and they’re gone now! They tasted soooo good. I’ll def make these again. Much love x
SERIOUSLY WITH THESE COOKIES!! They flew off the plate like they had wings! Fam just asked me if these could be tonight’s dinner, ha! Looks like I’ll be making them again (for the 3rd time this week), and to be clear… they are Dessert!
Hi Sally. Can I use dark brown sugar instead? Would the dark brown sugar make it more soft and fudgy which is what I like. Also when your cookies recipes states light or dark brown sugar which type do u normally use? Thanks.happy holidays.
I used light brown sugar, but dark brown works just as well. The cookies will be soft and fudgy with either 🙂
These cookies look so delicious!
My daughter made these yesterday and they are delicious! She made half with walnut and half without. The crispness on the outside combined with the rich, smooth flavor on the inside made these one of the best cookies I’ve had in as long as I can remember. She said it was a quick, easy recipe-definitely a keeper!
The cookies came out deliciously. My only issue was that they didn’t really flatten out from the balls and are pretty hefty little cookies. They still taste really good though!
These were SOOO good and I’m not even a brownie person! Everyone at work loved them. Thanks Sally! (Also to everyone making these or any of Sally’s recipes – I highly recommend a kitchen scale – it has made baking a breeze!)
These are absolutely amazing! I made them for a charity bake sale, and they all sold out pretty quickly. I got so many compliments too!
I did them without walnuts, to make them nut-free, but I will probably make them again with nuts.
Thank you!
I was so excited to make these but they just didn’t turn out how I had hoped. The dough was really stiff and the cookies were small and crunchy. They had good chocolate flavor but the texture and size were not what I expected. The cookies didn’t spread at all while cooking. In the images above they look softer and like the dough spread out more – any suggestions for how to get a better result next time?
Hey Jen! Did you spoon and level the flour? Because it sounds like there’s a bit too much dry ingredients. You can sift the flour + cocoa powder before measuring next time. That should help!
I made a batch yesterday and it’s gone today. I have to make more this weekend. The BEST cookies I have ever made.
I love these cookies so much I made them twice in one week! I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, which is a mix of natural and dutch. I also subbed out the walnuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips for 1.5 cups of dark chocolate chips. SO good! I brought one batch to work and one to a get-together and both times they were a complete hit! These were also so easy to make, which I loved. Thanks for another great recipe, Sally!
Made these the other day and they were gone in 2 days. My son absolutely loved them. I did substitute the walnuts for toasted pecans because I don’t really like walnuts. Fantastic recipe will definitely make them again 🙂
Loved this cookie. We are planning our Annual Garden Club September Tea and I have all kinds of recipes that I sent to committee members. Already I received a phone call of this tested recipe and an invite to sample, and I must say it was so delish. (no surprise there!)Thanks so much! These 80 year olds usually don’t have computers and I have to explain what a food blogger is and it’s been so much fun in this preparation stage. Thanks again, Sally. I’ll be making your Glazed Apple Crumb Muffin mini, the Banana Cake with cream cheese frosting. Can’t wait!
Hi Sally, I just took them out of the oven – GREAT!!!!!!!!!! I only used 200 g of chocolate (chocolatate bars are 100g/piece where I live and I did not want to open a third bar) and about 100 g of brown sugar, no white sugar – they are still wonderful, sweet and oh-so-chocolaty! I love all your cookie recipes, they always turn out great! Thank you so much!
Holy chocolate!!!!! I made these today and added caramel with the walnuts bc I’m different 😉 They are so rich and fudgey, I cant even… THANK YOU THANK YOU!
ps- I made your light chicken corn chowder in the slow cooker today too! I may be cooking my way through your blog! 🙂
Hi Sally, can I roll them into balls first before chilling? And would they then go straight from fridge to oven, or do they need to come to room temp first before baking?
You can, yes! The dough will be a little sticky. No need to sit the cold dough balls at room temperature before baking then.
“Decadent” describes these to a T. Made these today and they were a delicious chocolate hit with a wonderful texture. I didn’t use the nuts but subbed with a mixture of white, dark, and semi-sweet chips. Then sprinkled a little salt to help them from being too sweet since I wasn’t using nuts. Will definitely keep these in my recipe stash. So yummmmm.
Your best cookies! These are so good. Way to go!
I just made these and they turned out wonderful! Living in Switzerland it is usually hard to recreate American recipes since the ingredients needed arent available.. but I always use a little molasse and 150g of caster sugar and substitute the chocolate chips with normal dark chocolate that I cut into pieces and it works out very well! They turned out absolutely amazing and my friends loved them! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wonderful skills and recipes with us! It is much appreciated and makes me and all the people around me so happy! So thank you for your work!
Just made these and they’re sooooo good! And this is coming from a middle brownie person! I ended up using half unsweetened chocolate because I ran out of semi sweet and pecans because I like them better than walnuts. They’re scrumptious!! My cousins, niece , and husband are devouring them as soon as they come out of the oven 🙂
If all I have is semi sweet chocolate chips can I just melt those for the 8oz semi sweet bar?
I don’t recommend it as chocolate chips contain stabilizers. They won’t melt down into the thin and smooth chocolate you need for the base of this dough.
Made these today…fudgy and yummy!