Brookies

Brookies, I don’t know who came up with the idea but it’s a really good one. Best of both worlds. You don’t have to pick one as you get both baked into one. When I baked these, the daffodils and muscaris were in bloom, and my kids were dividing the chicken duties and making lists. So you will see the blooms and the chore list as props in the pictures along with a batch of Brookies.

My younger daughter loves animals, I know, don’t all the kids love animals and reading about them?…yes they do. From when she was very young, I could tell that her love runs a little deeper than the other kids of her age. She wanted to have a cat or a dog but due to my allergies and my fear of living with indoor pets, my kids never got to have a cat or dog.

It was mid of February 2020, we brought home four chicks, we got them right before the Covid-19 madness, and during the end of bitter cold winter. So we put them in a box in our dining room and later build a bigger box and there they stayed for the next 6 weeks! Do not ask me how and why I do not want to revisit that time. But my little one was adamant about keeping them indoors until the weather was perfect for them. She can be very persuasive when she comes in loaded with chicken facts. Read more about the chicks who are now a few months old, healthy and beautiful egg-laying chickens click here

Once the chicks were home we talked about how they were going to grow and how they would need more care from us. that’s when my kids sat down together to make a list of everything that the chickens need and started dividing the chores between the two of them.

I knew they could manage and come to a happy solution I decided to bake a batch of fudge brownies as a reward, knowing how they love baked desserts especially brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Ask I was mixing the brownie batter I remembered I have cookie batter in the fridge. That’s when I thought of baking both the chocolate chip cookie dough and the fudge brownie batter in the same pan. I have had brookies before, so I knew it would taste good and why won’t they?

I’ll be honest, I haven’t always made these from scratch, sometime we have a box mix of brownies. so I just use one of those and bake the cookies from scratch. Hey, we all live busy lives so if you do have a a box of brownie mix use that. I absolutely love the ghirardelli brownie mix, so thats the one I use.

Brookie—the half brownie & half cookie

It can be a little tricky to whip up both, the dough and batter. Here is what you can do, gather all the ingredients for brownie mixture and cookie dough keep them sperate. Prepare the pan by laying parchment paper in a 13 x 9 pan, leave a couple of inches overhang. Preheat the oven. First, mix the brownie batter by following the instructions above and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Then mix the ingredients for the cookie dough.

For the brownie layer, I followed the trusty brownie recipe that I posted earlier here. It is the best one I have tried bakes into a perfect brownie with a crackly top and the tastes like pure fudge.

For the cookie part, I followed the following recipe that’s a bit chewy and soft. This is my go-to recipe, it’s quick and easy and never fails to deliver what one needs in a perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Drop small spoonfuls of the cookie dough evenly over the brownie batter, the dough will spread once it starts baking. Bake for about 40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely. To cut, lift the brookies out of the pan using the parchment overhang and transfer them to a cutting board. Pull the parchment away from the edges. Using a sharp knife, cut the brookies into squares directly on the parchment.

Once you have whipped the batter for brownies and the dough for the cookies, you just need to layer everything in the prepared pan.