Brownie Stuffed Cookies

Recipe Review: woah. 

When I saw these on Bakerella I seriously had a small heart attack. How simple and genius and I had never seen it before. Why on earth haven't people been stuffing cookies all along?

Bakerella called these "pillow cookies" and made them jumbo sized. I did this at first, and while they tasted AMAZING I didn't like that they were oversized, and they didn't look aesthetically pleasing. I played around with different batches and different ways to combine the brownies and cookie dough before coming up with something that I liked.

Eventually I devised a way to make the cookies just about normal sized, with a bite of brownie in the middle. In person the cookies have noticable bump in the middle so you can tell that there is something in them- for whatever reason the photo doesn't relaly represent that, so I just wanted to warn you ahead of time that it's normal!

How to make brownie stuffed cookies

1. Bake some brownies.

• I used fudge brownie mix- not really sure what kind, whatever was on sale. Use your favorite! You don't want the brownies to be too thick so be sure to bake them in an 13x9 pan. Be sure not to overbake them- they're gonna go in the oven again with the cookies, so if they are on the slightly underdone side its ok.

2. Make your cookie dough.

• I've been baking chocolate chip cookies using the recipie on the back of the Nestle chocolate chip morsels bag since I was a kid. I never change it. My tips however are to let your butter soften to room temperature rather than microwaving it. The butter's temperature and consistancy makes a big difference in how the cookies turn out. Also bake the cookies on parchment paper, and always start with a cool baking pan or the cookies will spread too much and turn out thin.

3. Assemble cookie/brownie stacks.

• Use a 1inch circle cookie cutter to cut out brownie circles. Scoop cookie dough into balls using a dough scoop.  Pinch a little bit of dough into a pea sized ball. Squish the brownie down a little to compress, but don't flatten completely. Stack ball of cookie dough directly on top, smoosh the cookie dough down on to brownie to get it to stick. You'll want the cookie to be directly on top because if it is off center the ball of dough will fall off in the oven. Flatten the pea sized dough and use it to stick the brownie to the sheet. 

4. Bake according to your cookie recipe, cool, and enjoy!