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Part brownie, part chocolate chip cookie: BROOKIES are one of my favorite cookie bar recipes! They’re rich and decadent and a combination of two of my favorite desserts.
Don’t worry: it’s easy to make homemade Brookies from scratch. Thanks to the sponsorship of Challenge Dairy, I used their unsalted butter to marry two of my best ever recipes that I’ve been making for years so you know they have to be good!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this recipe: This is the perfect recipe for when you don’t want to have to choose your dessert! With cookies and brownies, you can’t go wrong.
What is a Brookie?
A brookie is a dessert mashup of epic proportions: it’s part brownie and part cookie. I’ve seen them made into actual cookie shape, but I like making them as bars because it’s way easier.
The best part: ANY COOKIE can go on top of the brownies to form the cookie bar. I’ve made other versions before:
This one is a CLASSIC: chocolate chip cookies on top. And not just any chocolate chip cookies: my BEST ever chocolate chip cookies!
The cookies are married to my favorite chewy fudgy brownie recipe that’s to-die-for. HEAVEN in a bite, that’s these!
Ingredients in Brookies
Basically, you have to make two different recipes and then put them together.
To make the brownie layer you need:
- Butter: Use unsalted butter for best results!
- Chocolate: Baking chocolate, the kind sold in the baking aisle
- Eggs: Be sure to buy large eggs
- Cocoa: Unsweetened cocoa powder – regular or Dutch process
- Sugar: Granulated sugar is what I use in my brownie recipes
- Flour: All Purpose Flour – be sure to measure it correctly.
- Vanilla: Pure vanilla is the best!
To make the chocolate chip cookie layer you need:
- Butter: Use unsalted butter for best results!
- Sugar: A combination of brown and granulated sugar makes a soft cookie
- Egg: Be sure to buy large eggs
- Baking soda and salt: Typical for cookies
- Flour: All Purpose Flour – be sure to measure it correctly.
- Chocolate Chips: Use your favorite brand
How to make Brookies from scratch
First, make the brownies from scratch:
- Melt butter and chocolate in a large bowl on 50% power for about 2 minutes.
- Then stir in sugar, then eggs.
- Add eggs and mix until smooth.
- Stir in cocoa, salt and vanilla.
- Mix in flour.
- Spread in a 9×13-inch pan.
Then make the best chocolate chip cookies:
- Stir or mix the butter with sugar, then stir in egg.
- Mix in baking soda and salt, and flour.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Layer on top of brownies in the pan.
- Bake until set.
Now, you’ll notice that both of the recipes use BUTTER, which is one of my favorite ingredients. And, as usual, when a recipe calls for a lot of one ingredient, you want it to be the best version of that ingredient, which is why I use Challenge Butter.
What’s the best butter for cookie bars?
We all know my history with Challenge, right? That it’s the only butter my parents bought when I was a kid? Mention butter around my dad and you’ll hear about how Challenge is the best – and it is. You can taste the difference, whether it’s on bread or in baked goods.
Challenge is made right, from the freshest cows at family-owned dairies and it’s got no hormones, additives or fillers (they were the first brand to enforce raising cows without growth hormones). It’s a cooperative of more than 400 California owned dairies and is available nationwide.
AND! Challenge is award-winning! Cook’s Illustrated (aka Food Gods) selected Challenge’s Unsalted Butter as its favorite in a taste test among 7 top-selling brands!
Why do you use melted butter in your brownie and cookie recipes?
For brownies, melted butter and chocolate together make the brownie super fudgy and chewy with that dense center everyone loves. When it comes to chocolate chip cookies, melted butter is the way to go for me. I love the toffee-like flavor it gives when mixed with the brown sugar.
Tips and Tricks for making homemade Brookies:
- Put the brownies in the pan first, but make sure you’ve sprayed the pan with nonstick cooking spray first (and use foil if you want easy removal).
- Scoop balls of cookie dough and flatten with your hands before dropping them on the brownies. Press them together with your fingers (it won’t be a solid top).
- Because we’re baking it as a bar, there is no chill time!
How do you know when brookies are done?
The cookies will be nice and golden brown on top and you’ll see around the edges that the brownie looks done. The toothpick test doesn’t really work because the brownies stay fudgy, so don’t bother. Once the cookies are golden they’re done.
Let them cool completely before slicing for best results!
Can you freeze a leftover Brookie?
You can also freeze these bars! For instructions, read my guide on how to freeze desserts.
Some of my other favorite ways to use Challenge Dairy:
- No Bake Cherry Cheesecake Dessert
- Lime Butter Cake
- Chili Cheese Dip
- Cheesecake Apple Salad
- Chocolate Chip Caramel Butter Bars
Chocolate Chip Brookies
Ingredients
For the brownies:
- 4 ounces (113g) unsweetened baking chocolate coarsely chopped
- 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted Challenge Butter
- 1 3/4 cups (350g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons (10g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup (124g) all-purpose flour
For the Cookies
- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted Challenge Butter melted
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups (186g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups (255g) chocolate chips semi-sweet or milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9×13” pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Make the Brownies: Place the baking chocolate and butter in a large, microwave safe bowl. Heat on HIGH power for 2-3 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until chocolate is smooth. Stir in sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and cocoa and stir well. Add flour and stir carefully.
- Make the Cookies: Cream together butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand mixer. Mix in egg, extract, baking soda, and salt. Stir in flour, then stir in chocolate chips.
- Spread brownie batter in prepared pan. Scoop tablespoons of cookie dough, flatten slightly with your hands and then lay over the top of the brownies. It’ll be hard to spread because it’s thicker than the brownie batter, so it’s best to drop flattened tablespoons evenly over the batter and then press lightly with your fingers to adhere them to each other.
- Bake for 28-35 minutes until the tops are dark golden. If you test them with a toothpick in the center, the brownies won’t be totally done, so just take them out once the tops are dark golden in color.
Recipe Video
Recipe Nutrition
EASY Brookies – these homemade chocolate chip brookies recipe is part brownie and part chocolate chip cookie from scratch but they’re simple to make! You can make these bars from a box but making them homemade tastes SO MUCH BETTER!
Last Updated on February 12, 2023
Amazing recipe! My kids ask for these all the time!
I’ve made this type of recipe many times. I only needed half not even of the cookie dough to cover the top. If I had used it all it wouldn’t have cooked correctly. My advice is make a smaller batch of cookie dough and drop them on the brownie but don’t flatten them into each other. Just leave space for the brownie to ride in between a bit. This recipe calls for disaster seeing how everybody’s ovens are different and a lot of people may deal with hard cookies and uncooked brownie
I let my son choose what he wanted for his birthday dessert and he asked for brookies, so I was thrilled when I found this recipe. We had them with vanilla bean ice cream and it was absolutely divine! At first, I was worried that they weren’t actually done because the brownies seemed doughy, especially in the middle. I did cook them about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for, and once they cooled a bit, they firmed up and were just wonderful, fudgy, delicious brownies. I think this is what my son is going to ask for on his birthday for many years to come!
Yeah this recipe needs an update, 9×13 isn’t accurate. It can’t just be any 9×13, it needs to be a shallow baking dish or something because I couldn’t get the brownie to cook through. It was completely liquid, even after baking for an extra 25 minutes. Or the brownie needs to be pre-baked halfway, then the cookie dough added on top to finish baking. Please update!
I use a metal 9×13-inch pan for these and the brownies stay fudgy but are cooked. If you want your brownies to be fully solid and no longer fudgy, you can bake the brownies for 10 min before adding the cookie dough, or you can put the cookie dough on the bottom. The recipe is accurate.
The recipe I’ve been dreaming of!! Perfect! Baked at 325 for a little longer. This is my new go to recipe! Thank you. So delicious and the textures of both the brownie and the cookie were incredible.
I followed the directions exactly. I had to bake it an additional 20 minutes in order to achieve the golden brown cookie color. The desert was a disaster. The chocolate chip cookie dough was crunchy. The gooey brownie batter could not hold shape, was not cooked, and nowhere near the consistency of fudgey. The only place the brownie batter cooked was along the edges and the cookie was hard as a rock. I’ve cooked and baked well for many years. It was a waste of good chocolate.
I’m sorry you had problems with this recipe. I have made it a few times so I know it’ll work – possibly your oven bakes differently than mine.
if it is a nonstick pan, you have to cook it at a temperature 25 degrees less. i made this mistake with banana bread but turning the oven down helped.
Made these for my family and they loved them!!!! I don’t know what I did wrong, but after the recommended cooking time the chocolate base was still very gooey. I had to bake them about another 30 minutes before the chocolate seemed set, and I also substituted white chocolate chips for the chips in the recipe. But after all , everyone told me they were one of the most delicious desserts I have made, and I make a lot!!! Definitely saving this one!
Not tried it yet but could I use softened butter instead of unsalted/salted butter
Do you mean like butter spread (not cubed)? I haven’t ever baked with spread – for best results use real butter.
Wowzers!! These are the best. Love love love.
First time ever making “Brookies” can’t wait till they cool to see how this went!
*I did use cut parchment sheets rather than foil, and baked on convection setting so it only took 25min to dark golden brown.
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