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!

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Recipe Review- make ordinary brownies extrodinary with rapsberry cheesecake topping!

Whattt??? A baked goods post that isn't about cupcakes?? Yep- I actually make other desserts too! I hadn't planned this as a blog, but I made some brownies that got rave reviews so I thought I'd share. I think I need to be up front and say that this is not a from scratch recipe. (gasp!) I needed to make gluten free brownies, and if you've even seen gluten free reciepes they are incredibly intimidating. I've never done any gluten free baking so I decided to play it safe and go with a mix- but I doctored it up a bit.

I chose the Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Brownie mix from Henry's. (I guess is going to be called Sprout's soon, but the sign still says Henry's for now.) After searching online I subbed the melted butter for vegetable oil, and the water for milk. The instructions suggested adding in mini chocolate chips, so I threw in some of those too. I also made a cheesecake topping with raspberry swirls. This could be added on top of any brownie recipe to change it up a little. I loved it! 

Raspberry Cheesecake Topping for Brownies

yield: enough topping for an 8x8 inch pan

8oz of cream cheese at room temperature

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup raspberry preserves

In a medium bowl beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Pour on top of uncooked brownies and smooth with a spatula for even distribution.  Drop dollops of raspberry preserves onto cheesecake mixture and swirl with a knife. Bake according to brownie recipe. 

How to make pretty swirly patterns: Drop dollops of raspberry jam onto the surface of the cheesecake. Using a rubber spatula or knife draw parallel lines across the surface of the cheesecake. Next cross those lines, alternating the direction each time to make pretty swirls. Don't mess with it too much or it will all blend together.

I used a round cookie cutter to cut the brownies, which made them look super cute, but wasted a bunch of brownie. Obviously I couldn't let something that yummy go to waste- so I had to eat the scraps!