I’ve never smooshed and baked two different kinds of cookie dough together until now.
I’m so happy I did.
I was going to do peanut butter and chocolate, but thought that a black and white cookie would be fun.
These cookies combine two of my most popular recent recipes. The white halves are Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies. Until making them, I had never baked cream cheese into cookies.
It replaces some of the butter, yet the dough paradoxically tastes more buttery. It’s ironic since there’s actually less butter used, not more, when compared to my gold standard Chocolate Chip Cookies.
The cream cheese cookies are so soft, moist, and have a creamy richness like no other cookies I’ve tried. Not surprising given the cream cheese in them.
They’re the perfect complement to the black halves, Dark Chocolate Dark Brown Sugar Cookies, which are fudgy, rich, intensely chocolaty, and not overly sweet.
They’re made with dark cocoa powder and dark brown sugar, and will tame your fiercest chocolate cravings. They pack a deep, dark, thick punch of chocolate.
When you’re squishing the dough mounds together, chocolate will rub off onto your hands. Wipe your hands frequently or you’ll stain the white cookies. The taste is unaffected but the sharp visual contrast isn’t as pronounced and they’ll look messier.
My normal cookies are usually 2 heaping tablespoons of dough each. I use this cookie scoop, slightly overflowing with dough. These cookies are my normal cookie size, doubled. Making them a solid 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of dough each.
That sounds like a lot, and it is, but I realized when I made cookies from the Momofuku Milkbar Cookbook as well as the New York Times Chocolate Chips Cookies, that bakery-style cookies are always at least 1/4 cup of dough, and often times they approach 1/3 cup dough.
You can’t get big, bakery-style cookies without using at least that much. Just remember that the next time you’re at Starbucks, Panera, or similar. One-third cup of raw dough, or more.
Both of these dough recipes bake up as thick and the cookies don’t spread much. When sandwiched, they looked more like igloos than cookies and even after baking, they didn’t flatten much.
If yours stay domed while baking, give them a gentle tap or two with the back of a spoon after you pull the trays from the oven. That’s what I do if I ever run into domed cookies.
Biting into all the layers of flavors and textures from the creamy, buttery, squishy white half, to the denser, chocolaty, and wonderfully intense dark side is such a treat.
Making them gave me all kinds of ideas about what kind of cookies to combine next.
Molasses Triple Chocolate Cookies with Sugar-Doodle Vanilla Cookies
Nutella Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Softbatch Cookie Butter Brown Sugar Cookies with Peanut Butter Cookies. The possibilities are endless.
These are the kind of cookies you just want to close your eyes and savor as you chew through each melty, rich, wonderful bite.
Right before you lace up your running shoes.
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Black & White Cookies: Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip & Dark Chocolate Dark Brown Sugar
Ingredients
Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened (use cream cheese in a block or spreadable tub; don’t use fat-free, light or whipped)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 2 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks, I used 1 cup chips and 1 1/4 cups chunks
Dark Chocolate Dark Brown Sugar Cookies
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed (light brown sugar may be substituted)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened natural dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
Instructions
Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, cream cheese (measure it by smooshing it into a 1/4-cup measure), sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use an electric hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes).
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add chocolate chips and chunks, and beat momentarily to incorporate, or fold in by hand.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping mounds (I made 28). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
Dark Chocolate Dark Brown Sugar Cookies
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use an electric hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes).
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the remaining ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping 2-tablespoon mounds (I made 15). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten slightly, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
After both doughs are made and have chilled…
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat or spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- Smoosh a cream cheese dough ball and a chocolate dough ball together, making sure they’re tightly combined. Depending on how chilled your dough is, you may really need to squeeze firmly. Be careful that any chocolate dough that rubs off onto your palm doesn’t stain the vanilla dough. Wipe your hands frequently and as necessary. Repeat, combining the doughs, until all dough is gone. You’ll likely have about 1 dozen un-matched Cream Cheese Cookie dough balls leftover because that recipe makes a bigger batch. When you’re ready to bake the unmatched Cream Cheese Cookies, bake for 8 to 9 minutes. Unbaked dough can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 4 months.
- Place black-and-white mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart. I recommend baking 6 to 8 cookies per sheet, no more. Flatten slightly before baking.
- Bake for about 12 to 13 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set. Don’t overbake because the chocolate cookie portion is prone to drying out and getting crumbly if overbaked. Cookies may look loose and unset on baking tray, but they firm up as they cool. (The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled in the freezer for 2 months, allowed to stand at room temp for 15 minutes, and were baked for 12 minutes, with trays rotated halfway through). If your cookies stayed domed while baking, tap them gently with the back of a spoon to flatten. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Have you ever baked two different kinds of cookie dough into one? Dream combinations?
making the dough, freezing it after it’s been rolled into balls, and then baking the cookies off fresh when you’re ready to bake. I definitely prefer frozen dough to actually making the cookies and then freezing those because they never taste quite as good. But the dough…totally fine to freeze.
This is an older recipe, but I just tried it this weekend and have to say that I am really impressed! I have NEVER been able to get a thick, bakery-style (and size) cookie. No matter how much dough chilling, etc., I’ve tried, my cookies always depressingly flatten out. But these were thick…and huge…and absolutely delicious. Thanks for posting such a great recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you were able to get big thick cookies!
These are AMAZING cookies!!! My new favorite and are now part of my annual holiday cookie baking. The only thing I did different was add chocolate chips to the dark chocolate dough because I’m such a chocolate lover.
I’m so glad you love these and that they’re part of your annual baking! And you can’t go wrong with dark chocolate chips and more chocolate added :)
Have you tried to double the batch for both (thinking of cookie exchanges at Christmas where I make several dozen)?
I haven’t tried doubling either type but I think you’d be fine!
Averie, I made these today not sure what to expect b/c my experience in the past w/ black and white cookies is not positive:) What can I say- the cream cheese chocolate chip was soft, slighty crunchy on the edges and beautifully buttery tasting- probably my favorite part of the cookie! The dark chocolate was intense and robust, which really contrasted the other dough and I was able to get away with using honey in the dark chocolate dough without major spreadage! Overall, my cookies were soft, chewy and puffy(flattened once out of oven) with really good texture and flavor- Thanks for making a black and white cookie recipe that finally works for me!
What a glowing report and so detailed – I appreciate the feedback and so happy you now have a B&W cookie that works for you! And yes, I agree with these cookies, the beauty is in the contrast of the flavors/textures!
Hi Averie! I love all your recipes and photography! I made these cookies but instead of doing the white part with chocolate chips, I made them with orange zest! They came out delicious, however, didn’t come out as fudgy, more like cakey and crumbly but nevertheless great. Do you have any recommendations to make them fudgier? Like your photos?
Congratulations on your beautiful blog!
With dark cookies it can be very tricky to get them to stay fudgy because cocoa powder tends to dry things out. I would suggest baking a few minutes less or possibly using a couple tablespoons less flour and just really eyeballing your dough in the bowl and seeing what you think it needs and evaluating at that moment. Sometimes 1-3 tbsp of flour can really effect results! Glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Thank you for replying! I’ll try that :)
Oh, my!! Talk about dreamy.
Thanks for the dough measuring tip! Sometimes I crave a cookie(s) the size of my face. :D
Love this combo, you get the best of both worlds :-)
I’m such a cookieholic, Averie! I want to try all of these cookies that you shared in this post. But those Black and White Cookies sure do look yummy!
Oh goodness, this recipe is brilliant :) this might be my new favorite!
Good grief ALMIGHTY.
Cookies like these make sure I never have to choose between normal chocolate chip and double chocolate chip. Thanks for making my cookie decisions easier!
Ok, you can push two cookies together all you want, because these look amazing!!
do you even realize how cool this is. Being able to combine two cookies in one but in the way to where you can decide which taste you want bc they aren’t mixed. I LOVE IT
These looks delicious! What ingredients would you recommend swapping out to make it healthier?
They’re cookies – they’re not necessarily healthy by nature. I would recommend working out more and eating more broccoli at other meals and saving these as a special treat :) Sorry to be tongue in cheek but I hope you understand :)
What a great recipe Av AND the photos are killer with those two contrast of colors!
You are the cookie queen my dear!
And I saw those pumpkin butter numbers of yours today -mmmm, so good! :)