Chocolate Brownie Cookies (Without Chocolate Chips)
These chewy chocolate brownie cookies are rich with a fudgy center, crisp edges and a crackly top. Best of all, these cookies are ready in under 30 minutes, use cocoa powder instead chocolate chips and don't need a mixer!
Feeling extra? Add in chopped nuts, peanut butter chips, or even chocolate chunks or chocolate chips for double chocolate brownie cookies! Then dust your chocolate cookies with powdered sugar for an even sweeter treat.
Looking for more amazing cookie recipes? Check out these contest-winning jumbo chocolate chip cookies, these brown butter smores cookies, or this confetti cookie recipe!
Recipe Overview: Chocolate Brownie Cookies
✅ Recipe Name: Chocolate Brownie Cookies (without Chocolate Chips)
🕒 Ready In: 25 minutes
👪 Serves: 8
🍽 Calories: 351 calories per serving (estimated)
🥣 Main Ingredients: flour, cocoa powder,
👌 Difficulty: Easy! Mix, chill & bake!
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Why You'll Love These Cookies
- You don't need a mixer! These chewy brownie cookies come together easily by hand.
- Make these brownie cookies without chocolate chips. Cocoa powder makes this recipe simple and gives these cookies all the chocolate flavor they need!
- They're easy to customize! Chill the dough for longer for a thicker cookie or load the cookie dough with your favorite mix-ins.
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Key Ingredients
Flour. A 50/50 blend of all-purpose flour & cake flour is used for this recipe. All-purpose flour ensures that the cookie's structure is stable enough for it to hold together. Cake flour lowers the total gluten percentage in the cookies, giving it a softer texture.
Cocoa powder. Regular unsweetened cocoa powder is used in this chocolate cookie recipe. This powdered form of chocolate also helps to prevent the cookies from spreading too much!
Sugar. Another 50/50 blend - granulated sugar and brown sugar. Granulated white sugar makes the cookies sturdy, while brown sugar gives them a chewy texture and complements the deep chocolate flavor.
Unsalted butter. The water content in the butter helps to act as a solvent for the sugar, giving the cookies a crackle top, similar to brownies.
Cornstarch. Helps keep the cookies soft & chewy even after they cool.
Baking soda. Balances the acidity of the cocoa powder and gives the cookies a fudgy texture compared to baking powder, which would make them more cakey.
Flaky sea salt. Balances the flavor so they're not cloyingly sweet.
How to Make Chocolate Brownie Cookies
- Step 1: Mix the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and melted butter.
- Step 2: Add the egg & vanilla and mix until all the sugar is dissolved.
- Step 3: Fold in all the dry ingredients and chill the dough. 10 minutes for a regular cookie and up to 20 minutes for thicker and more fudgy chocolate brownie cookies.
- Step 4: Scoop and bake!
FAQs
In this recipe for chocolate brownie cookies, yes. The cookies will taste a little sweeter since alkalized (Dutch processed) cocoa powder mutes the more intense & bitter aspects of cocoa.
If you like a more intense and rich flavor and are using Dutch-processed cocoa powder, you can add a bit of espresso powder or a teaspoon of instant coffee, like in this homemade chocolate cake recipe.
Use a kitchen scale, don't over-mix and chill the cookie dough before baking. Using a scale prevents you from using too much flour, which will make your cookies more cake-like, just like over-mixing.
Chilling the dough slows down spreading and how fast the center of the cookies heats up, preventing them from over-baking and giving them the fudgy center reminiscent of brownies.
Cookies can get a cake-like texture if you add too much flour, overmix the dough, or incorporate too much air into the dough. To prevent cakey cookies, use a spatula instead of a whisk to avoid incorporating too much air, measure with a kitchen scale, and mix only until ingredients are combined.
Make sure you dissolve the sugar as much as possible. In this recipe, this means using still-hot melted butter and making sure the sugar in the cookie batter is smooth and doesn't feel gritty before adding your dry ingredients.
During baking, the moisture in the recipe evaporates, leaving behind a thin, shiny & crackly top, making the outside just a little crisp but the inside soft and fudgy!
Ainseanlea's Top Cookie Tips
- Apart from the butter which should be hot, use room temperature ingredients. Cold ingredients don't form an emulsion easily, and, more importantly, sugar will not dissolve readily. This is what gives the cookies a crackly top similar to brownies!
- Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved before adding dry ingredients. To test, you can press the batter into the bowl using the spatula - it should feel smooth, not gritty.
- Use an oven thermometer! I recommend one for literally all my baking recipes. It takes out the guesswork since your oven can have hot spots or run hotter (or cooler) than the displayed reading. A precise temperature is especially important for this recipe since it will dictate whether the cookies spread just enough or too much.
- Don't place the cookie dough on an already hot or warm pan. Doing this will cause the cookies to spread more. Since most of my delicious cookie recipes usually yield 8-10 cookies, I always have at least 2 cookie baking sheets ready to account for sufficient spacing.
- Set a timer! Even an extra minute can make a difference in desired doneness.
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Chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies (Without Chocolate Chips)
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Add the all-purpose flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cornstarch & salt to a bowl and stir to evenly distribute all the ingredients. Set aside.100 grams all-purpose flour, 100 grams cake flour, 26 grams unsweetened cocoa powder, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon flaked sea salt
- Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar and melted butter to a mixing bowl and mix with a spatula until smooth.Do not use a whisk. This will incorporate air and make the cookies cakey.120 grams granulated sugar, 120 grams dark brown sugar, 140 grams unsalted butter
- Add the vanilla extract and the egg and mix again until the sugar is dissolved. A little undissolved sugar is fine but try to dissolve the sugar as much as possible at this point. This will give the cookies a crackly top.To test, you can press the batter into the bowl using the spatula or rub a little of the batter between your fingertips - it should be smooth, not gritty.2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 large eggs
- Add the dry ingredients from earlier and fold into the sugar/egg mixture just until there are no more dry spots.
- Chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes. For a thicker cookie chill the cookie dough for a minimum of 20 minutes.
- Scoop the cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Allow for at least 2 inches of space around each cookie to account for spreading.
- Bake cookies for 9 minutes at 400°F on the middle rack of your oven. If you prefer a softer, more fudgy center, bake for 8-8½ minutes.
- Allow to cool on baking tray/cookie sheet at least slightly before serving. Enjoy plain or dust lightly with confectioner's/icing sugar!confectioner's sugar for dusting
- Store in an airtight container and serve within 5 days for optimal taste and texture!
Nutrition
Notes
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- For best results use a kitchen scale and measure in grams (or ounces). Grams are more precise and allow for consistently replicable results! Although alternative measurements (in cups) for dry ingredients are provided, please note that these are only estimates as this can differ from person to person.
- Use room temperature ingredients except for butter which should be hot.
- Set a timer! Even an extra minute can a make a difference in desired doneness
My favorite cookie of all time now! Super chocolaty, Super browniey, Super good!!
Easy and delicous! I chilled the dough for 20 minutes for thicker cookies and they were perfect!
I love the idea of a brownie meeting a sugar cookie, these were so yummy. Great cookie to add to the rotation!