Soft and Chewy Brownie Cookies — 🍫🍪❤️ These cookies have the taste and texture of perfect brownies! Soft and tender in the interior with chewy edges. They’re fudgy, dense, and not at all cakey!
Table of Contents
Easy Fudge Brownie Cookies Recipe
These cookies have been on my bucket list for years. I only wish I had checked them off my list sooner, because I loved every fudgy center and chewy-edged bite.
They’re one hundred percent from scratch, no cake mix, no brownie mix, no shortcuts. The recipe is adapted from Donna Hay, who’s been called the Australian Martha Stewart. After converting grams of butter to tablespoons, and using regular granulated sugar in place of superfine caster sugar, I thought I was in for smooth sailing. Wrong.
I tried again with a 54% Dark Chocolate Pound Plus bar from Trader Joe’s, not to be confused with their 72% bar. Because there’s only 2/3 cup of sugar in the entire batch of cookies, I didn’t want to use chocolate that was too dark for fear the cookies would be bitter.
The chocolate intensity and sweetness level of the cookies from the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate bar (54% chocolate) turned out to be spot-on perfect. Sweet enough, but not too sweet; nor bitter.
The 5 ounces of chopped chocolate that’s added to the batter are unexpected nuggets of bliss. It adds so much intensity and also texture. The cookies are so dark and you can’t see the chocolate, so the chunks really are heavenly surprise bites. The chocolate chunks make the cookies so rich. Like having a mini chocolate candy bar baked into every cookie.
What’s in Brownie Cookies?
To make these chewy chocolate brownie cookies, you’ll need:
- Dark chocolate – Make sure to use a dark chocolate bar, not semi-sweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips! Otherwise, you won’t achieve the bold, bittersweet chocolate flavor we want with this recipe
- Unsalted Butter
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Brownie Cookies
For this recipe, you’ll mix the batter similar to how you would prepare brownie batter, and portion it like chocolate chip cookies before baking. Here’s an overview of the process:
- Combine 7 ounces of the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl with the butter, and melt the chocolate mixture, stirring frequently.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or an electric hand mixer), and beat until pale and creamy.
- Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, and continue to beat on medium-low speed.
- Let the batter stand at room temperature for about an hour. This eliminates the need to chill in the fridge! Then, portion it into 8 cookie dough balls, and arrange them on prepared baking sheets, leaving space between each cookie. Silpat mats are crucial to prevent spreading and overbaking!
- Bake at 350F until the cookies are puffed up and have a crackly top. The exact baking time will vary depending on your oven. Cool completely on the pan, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Possibly, although the cookie “dough” is so finnicky that you may not want to add any mix-ins. If you’re looking for a fudgy chocolate cookie packed with mix-ins, check out the “Related Recipes” section below the recipe card.
These fudge brownie cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Yes! Once the baked cookies are completely cool, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. I recommend placing a sheet of parchment paper between each cookie to prevent them from clumping together. Thaw in the fridge or at room temperature when you’re ready to serve.
No, chocolate chips will be too sweet. I used a Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Pound Plus Bar 54%.
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Soft and Chewy Brownie Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer Fitted with a Paddle Attachment
- 1 Medium (2-inch) Cookie Scoop
- 2 Silpat Mats
- 2 Baking Trays
Ingredients
- 12 ounces dark chocolate from a bar, chopped and divided into 7 ounces and 5 ounces*
- 3 tablespoons butter, I used unsalted
- 2 large eggs
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar, or superfine sugar if available
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted
Instructions
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine 7 ounces of chocolate, butter, and heat to melt, about 1 minute on high power. Stop to stir. Heat in 10-second bursts until mixture can be stirred smooth; set aside to cool briefly.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use an electric mixer), add the eggs, sugar, vanilla and beat for 5 to 8 minutes on medium speed, or until pale and creamy. (Original recipe recommends beating for 15 minutes, but I saw no changes in the mixture after about 5 minutes and believe 8 minutes is ample).
- Add the flour, baking powder, melted chocolate-butter mixture, and remaining 5 ounces chopped chocolate and mix to combine, about 1 minute on medium-low speed (the machine will make lots of noise and shake from the chopped chocolate).
- Remove the paddle, cover bowl with plasticwrap, and allow to stand at room temperature for about 1 hour in order for batter to firm up (Original recipe suggests 10 minutes but my batter was like chocolate sauce and it needed 1 hour).
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop or small ice cream scoop, scoop out mounds of dough onto Silpat-lined baking trays, placing 8 mounds per tray. Do not crowd them in case your cookies spread a fair amount (mine didn’t but I can foresee it). Allow mounds to remain on trays, uncovered, for about 1 hour before baking to help batter set up more.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until puffed and cracked (I baked for 9 minutes).
- Allow cookies to cool completely on trays.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Averie, these look so gooey and delicious! Mmmm!
Yay! I hate when I see delicious brownie-like cookies, only to read the ingredients and they’re like “cake mix” “brownie mix” “pudding mix” and I go all arghhhh.
So I adore these. :P
I know. It happens to me on FG or TS when I click over to a recipe and bam…it’s cake mix cookies. Nothing wrong with that if that’s what you know you’re in for; but sometimes (most times) I am caught off guard!
Can I just tell you how absolutely helpful your breakdown of all the little parts of this (and most!!) recipe is? Also the written account of all your second guessing/mental panic about the instructions in the original recipe made me feel better about the cake-cookie I’ve been working on. You are super!!! And so are these brownie cookies!! Thanks for all your hard work!
So glad that it was entertaining/helpful. Sometimes I like to know what goes on in the heads of those who’s blogs I read….like does their stuff really turn out so effortlessly every time? Mine sure doesn’t…so I figured I’d be candid about this one :) And good luck with your cake! I want those carrot cake cookies!
Wow, you’ve really perfected this recipe, Averie! Can’t wait to try this for myself. I may just have to whip up a batch and send it to Jason – he’ll be over the moon if he gets a box filled with this!
I’m sorry you had such a gruelling experience making these cookies but I’m super appreciative that you went through it first and detailed it in this post. I would’ve been freaking out the entire time, wondering what the heck I did wrong! Judging from the look of these amazing, fudgy, decadent cookies, I’d have never known there were so many problems. They look positively molten in the middle (which I’m sure is from the fact that you had to scoop the runny batter). I love the effect – these look incredible!
Molten and gooey is what made all the trials & tribulations worth it. I know you’ve been there with recipes – they sometimes just make you pull your hair out!
These are gorgeous! And all from scratch, I love it.
So glad you did the experimenting. Now I have another reason to get a Silpat!
Oh, man, I have to make these! SO decadent and chocolaty…perfect!
Fudgy, chewy with chocolates chucks sounds sooo good! And they do look amazing as well.
Averie, you have to STOP this incredible looking baked goods madness…you are driving my sweet-buds absolutely crazy! The photos of these cookies just scream soft and chewy!!! Lovely!!!
You’re so sweet, Carol, thank you!
This was quite the process. Thanks so much for giving such details about what works and what doesn’t. These cookies look incredible and indeed look like little round brownies, but I can just see myself in the kitchen trying to recreate these! The faster I can breeze through something the better. Still, one day, I really would love to make an effort and give it a shot. They look to good to miss out on!
They’re really not that bad NOW, as I wrote the recipe. A 2 hour chill process on the counter. But I just wasn’t expecting that…at all :)
YUM! These cookies look so rich, chocolatey and decedent!!! I would thoroughly enjoy sinking my teeth into about 5 of these!! And I really enjoy that the ingredient list is so easy. Simple is better :)
Super simple ingredients list and now that I have the methodolgy down-pat, I’m good to go :)
Oh! Brownie cookies are on my bucket list too. What a lot of trials and tribulations Averie! But the result, those look amazing!
I wanted to throw them out the window, Dorothy! I know you’ve been there too w/ recipes but so glad I stuck w/ them b/c they are the best brownie cookies I’ve ever tried!
I love brownies and I am sure I would love these equally. They look so delicious! Man do I ever miss those pound plus chocolate bars from TJs!!!
pound plus chocolate bars from TJs are such a great value$ – love those things!
These cookies look perfect. I’ve made many brownie type cookies….. probably my favorite type of cookie. These look so much better. Mine are always much thinner and chewy. These look like a fudge brownie!
These are super fudgy, Carrie. And it was such a pain and comedy of errors to finally get the recipe to where it works for thicker cookies but so glad I stuck with it. Fave brownie cookies EVER!
These cookies look fabulous, totally worth the waiting. And I never bake cookies without the Silpats, they are the best.