First Post - Brooksters

Half cookie. Half brownie. 100% amazing!

For my inaugural post, I present a delicious hybrid of two favorite desserts: the Brookster.

It's an amazing marriage of brownies and chocolate chip cookies. I came across this delightful dessert while on Pinterest. I did a little research into it and it turns out The Brookster originated at Baked NYC, a bakery in Brooklyn that specializes in brownies.

Unfortunately, the pin didn't link to a recipe, but a baking mix from Williams Sonoma instead for purchase. Looking at the picture in the pin though, I figured it shouldn't be too hard to figure out my own recipe. I've made both brownies and chocolate chip cookies before - it shouldn't be that difficult to combine them, right?

I'm surprised that these actually turned out okay...

For the brownies, I'm going to cheat and use a Betty Crocker mix because 1) I have a box in my cupboard right now and I'm lazy, and 2) I don't think it'll make too much of a difference. Maybe (probably) one day, I'll make these again and make the brownies from scratch. I altered the instructions on the box though, to make the brownies more homemade-tasting, by using butter instead of oil and adding some vanilla extract.

As for the chocolate chip cookies, I recently came across a great recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction for them. The dough has cornstarch, extra butter, an extra yolk, among other things, to make the cookies super soft and chewy.

The Brookster - brownie + cookies (makes ~15)

Brownie:

• 1 box of brownie mix (I used Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix)
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate chip cookie: (from Sally's Baking Addiction)

• 2 and 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Make the cookies first! Mix the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. 
2. Combine the melted butter with the brown and white sugars, and then beat in the egg and extra egg yolk. Mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Combine the dry and wet mixtures. Mix in the chocolate chips. The dough should be very soft. 
4. Cover bowl and put in the fridge. Time it so when you need the dough, it would have chilled for at least 1-2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Make the brownies! Mix all the ingredients together.
7. Grease the bottoms of a muffin tin and fill each cup halfway with brownie batter. 
8. Bake in preheated oven for 17-20 minutes. 
9. In the meantime, pull the cookie dough from the fridge and form 1.5 inch balls. Squish the balls down to form thick discs that are smaller than the top of the cups. 
10. At 15 minutes, pull the brownies from the oven and put a cookie disc on top of each brownie cup. (Work quickly!) Lower heat down to 325 and stick the tin back in for another 12-15 minutes.
11. The heating and the timing of the baking will depend on your oven. Make sure to watch the cookies. The outside will cook a lot faster than the inside, so it can be tricky to get the timing right. 
12. Remove from oven and let cool. Or try to eat one right away like I did and burn your tongue.