Letter from America: Cookie Brownie Chunks

A little preemptive chat before we get to the real meat of the post. Whilst I was on holiday, I was trying to think of a few ways to perk up the food side of my blog. It's really why I started the blog, but I've been finding it difficult to focus on, for a variety of reasons. I'm hoping that by taking a series approach, I can plan in advance, and be a bit more reliable in providing recipes for you lovely lot. I can then also slot in stand alone recipes whenever it takes my fancy. Does this sound like a plan to you? I hope you're all nodding fervently right now, because that is the plan! So, onward with the post! 

My first recipe series is Letter from America, and will be full to bursting with recipes inspired by what I ate in the last three weeks (if you missed it, you can find out a bit more about my holiday here, here and here). We're looking at five recipes, and the first is Cookie Brownie Chunks, a thick layer of chocolate chip cookie topped by a thinner layer of brownie.

This isn't based on anything I at specifically, more on an observation I made. If Americans like something, and they think it'll go with something else they like, they'll bring it together in a glorious, if slightly bizarre mash up. Prawn tempura in a sushi roll. Oreo cream in the middle of a doughnut dipped in icing and Oreo crumbs. Chunks of brownie replacing the chocolate chips in cookies. 

This last one got me thinking about the combination of cookies and brownies - certainly not unheard of, very popular on pinterest, but not something I'd really considered previously. A bit of research indicated that tradition dictates a thin layer of cookie topped with a thick layer of brownie, or even brownie topped with raw cookie dough. But brownie is a much stronger flavour than cookie, much more overpowering. So I switched the two around, and using my go-to cookie and brownie recipe, produced these bad boys. And they really couldn't be easier!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

You can find the recipe I used right here, but I swapped the 150g of raisins for 150g smarties, because I was going for completely over the top indulgence and fun to look at. In hindsight, next time I'd go for extra chocolate, because the smarties didn't provide the pleasing pop of colour I was looking for, and so didn't really improve the bake.

When you've made up the cookie dough, just press it into the bottom of a greased and lined tin. the one I used was 8"x8" and about 2" deep. leave to chill in the fridge until you have made your brownie mix.

Brownies

200g Dark Chocolate (broken into pieces)

175g Unsalted Butter

300g Caster Sugar

25g Light Brown Sugar

130g Plain Flour

3 Eggs

Melt the chocolate and the butter together, then add the sugars. Fold in the flour, and finally add the eggs one at a time.

This is my go to brownie recipe, I talked about it in more depth over at Scot Bloggers a while ago. This is double the amount you'll need, so I would make all of it and then just make some normal brownies too. It's a win win situation really.

So, pour half the brownie mixture over the cookie dough, and then bake at Gas Mark 6, or 200°C. I wanted them fairly solid so I could slice them into chunks and take them places, so I baked them for 45 - 50 minutes. If you're serving it as a dessert with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream (I wholeheartedly recommend this) then bake for more like 35 minutes, so the brownie is still all melty in the middle.