Orgasmic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Chunk Brownies

A side view of these gorgeous creatures. The thick, moist, squishy, wonderful cookie dough layer is at the bottom, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting snackers and make them shout, “Cowabunga!”

Here is a dish that gives you warm, gooey cookie dough, rich chocolate chunk brownies, and blondies. All at the same time. Just take a peek:

I could not resist sharing the photo of the brownies cut just minutes after coming out of the oven. So gooey! See the cookie dough layer peeping out? Heaven in a baking dish, I tell you!

It’s been a while since I’ve been this blown away by a brownie recipe. I really think this may be the ultimate brownie, even more so than these, which I dearly love but which clearly lack the cookie dough component. I suppose it depends what you’re looking for. For pure chocolate bliss, the baked fudge is probably your best bet; but for comfort dessert at its finest, with both chocolate bliss and the heaven that is warm, melty cookie dough, these aptly named Orgasmic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Chunk Brownies are the be-all and end-all. (I thought long and hard for a metaphorical title. Could you tell?)

As with many of my favourite dessert recipes, I found this gem of a recipe quite by accident one day. The blog from which I drew this recipe, Health Inspirations, seems pretty darn cool, and I recommend checking it out even if you don’t make these brownies. Which would be a terrible mistake.

The cookie dough layer is rich, dense, gooey, and like a partially baked chocolate chip cookie – one of my favourite sweets ever, if I’m to be honest with myself. Even though I goofed and added 1/4 cup too much flour when making these, I still found the cookie dough layer to be excellent. (Fear not; I have corrected the recipe below. Ah, the perils of converting from grams to volume!) The original recipe called for Oreo cookies to be layered atop the cookie dough layer, but a certain Someone, with the help of a certain Someone Else, polished off the Oreos. So I used chocolate chips instead. I would do that again in a heartbeat, Oreos be damned!

As if this fanfare of melty awesomeness weren’t enough, the brownie layer – thick, rich, unbelievably chocolatey, and laden with chocolate chunks to boot – sort of melds into the cookie dough layer beneath it, and I…

I’ve never had a better brownie in my life. Ever. These are even better than cream cheese brownies, a former favourite of mine.

The brownie people have been turned onto their sides to give you more of a perspective of their double-layered audacity.

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Orgasmic Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Chunk Brownies
Yield: 12 – 16 brownies

Ingredients:

For the cookie dough layer:
1 stick salted butter (110 g; 1 stick is 113 g, so close enough)
scant 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar (50 g)
3/4 cup sugar (150 g)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups, minus 2 TBS, all-purpose flour (170 g)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup chocolate chips OR chopped chocolate (75 g)
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup Heath toffee bar bits, optional

For sprinkling between the cookie dough and brownie layers:
2 cups chocolate chips OR chopped chocolate

For the brownie layer:
1 stick + 3 TBS salted butter (150 g)
1 cup + 2 TBS sugar (220 g)
2/3 cup cocoa powder (70 g)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup + 1 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour (85 g)
splash of milk to thin consistency as needed

For sprinkling atop the brownie layer:
1 – 2 cups chocolate chips OR chopped chocolate

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8″ baking dish* with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

For the cookie dough layer:
In a small bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder; set aside. Cream together the butter and sugars with a hand mixer. Add the egg and vanilla and continue beating until thoroughly incorporated. Gently beat in the flour mixture and stop beating before completely blended. Switch to a spatula and finish folding in the flour mixture by hand. Stir in the chocolate chips; if necessary, use your hands to mix these in, as the dough may be a bit stiff. NOTE: I misread my notes for this recipe as “1 2/3 cups flour PLUS 2 TBS,” when it should have been “MINUS 2 TBS.” As such, my cookie dough was quite stiff, but it still turned out succulently. This recipe lists the corrected amount of flour, so bake fearlessly!

The cookie dough is a bit stiff due to an error I made in “translating” the recipe from grams into volume. The correct version appears in the recipe below, so that you won’t have to contend with overly stiff dough (which was still freaking amazing!).

Press the cookie dough evenly into the prepared pan, making sure the dough is flattened on top. Sprinkle the 2 cups of chocolate over the top of the dough and set the pan aside.

The cookie dough layer is nestled in the pan, ready for topping with chocolate chips. Chocolate chunk brownie dough is to follow. I suppose that, after baking, the cookie dough will be transformed into actual cookie and won’t be mere dough anymore, but it maintains a certain beautiful squishiness that isn’t quite cookie-like.

For the brownie layer:
Wipe clean the bowl you used to beat together the cookie dough ingredients and wipe the beaters as well. It’s okay if they’re not perfectly clean; the beauty of this recipe is that cookie dough and brownie batter are melded together into one amazing unit.

Melt the butter and transfer to a bowl (the same bowl you used for the cookie dough, if you are keen on conserving dishes). Add the sugar and cocoa and beat until well combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until slightly thickened. (The batter thickened within about 10 seconds.) Stir in the flour. If you feel the batter is too thick, add milk, a TBS at a time, to thin it to the desired consistency. (I did not feel that any milk was necessary, but you may want a slightly less dense brownie layer.)

Pour the batter over the cookie dough layer and spread with a spatula to even out the top of the batter. Sprinkle with the 1 – 2 cups chocolate.

The cookie dough layer has been covered lovingly with chocolate chunk brownie batter! Now all that remains is to top the batter with chocolate chips, which leads to things like this…

Just out of the oven after baking. The melty chocolate chips make me swoon with anticipation! I may use chopped chocolate next time, though, for a bit of variety. It depends on the next solar flare, really.

Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until the brownie layer just loses its sheen. Enjoy fresh out of the oven while still gooey and warm.

*The original recipe did not specify a size for the baking dish. I thought an 8×8″ square dish worked well, but if you feel a larger or smaller dish would work better for you, then feel free to follow your bliss!

Source: Adapted from Health Inspirations