Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cream Brownie Bars

I’m in the middle of my second one of these cookie-brownie bars as I type this, smearing my keyboard with buttery fingers and dropping tiny shards of Oreo between the keys.

I’m actually not sure I’m going to be able to stop eating these. They are that good!

If you live within a 5-mile radius of me, have mercy and come over to eat some sugar. Save me from myself!

These brownie-cookie bars are so decadent. They are the obvious answer to your question: should I bake cookies or brownies today? Three layers of chocolate, starting with a chewy, buttery cookie, followed by Oreos (because yes.), and topped off with a rich brownie. The outsides are crisp, the inside is soft and a little gooey. Does it get any better?

I am envisioning them knocking bake sales out of the park and causing a mild stampede at church picnics.

I won’t be too offended if you decide to make these out of cookie and brownie mixes…but as we all know, I strongly believe homemade is wonderful!

Start with your cookie dough. Beat butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until soft and well combined. Add an egg and vanilla extract. (I actually used vanilla bean paste here, for no good reason other than the whim of my left hand as it reached into the pantry.)

Stir in flour, baking soda, salt.

Stir in chocolate chips. You may be tempted to go for broke with the chocolate chips here, but let me assure you that the bars will have chocolate in spades! Don’t overdo it.

Now make some brownie batter. I did this on the stovetop, but you could definitely melt your butter in a microwave-safe bowl and go from there!

On the stove, melt your butter. Add in sugar and cocoa powder. Stir until a dark chocolate syrup forms. It may begin to look a big grainy as it cools, but don’t worry!

Whisk in the salt, vanilla, and egg. Don’t skimp on the salt, as there really is a ton of sugar in these bars and you will be grateful for the balance! Whisk until the egg is absorbed and the batter is thick and shiny.

Slowly stir in the flour, stirring only until the flour is all worked into the chocolate.

Now assembly. Line a 9″ square baking pan with foil or parchment paper. Two notes here: you really will be better off with the 9″ pan than with an 8″ pan. While, yes, you can bake these bars in an 8″ pan, the result is rather different. You must bake them significantly longer in order to set the center, which means that the outer edges get really quite firmly baked. Also, when I tested this, my baked bars were almost an inch taller at the edge of the pan than they were in the center!

Second note: I obviously used parchment paper when baking the bars pictured here, but it really is a pain to spread the cookie dough in the pan with the parchment sliding all over the place. Foil isn’t a ton better…but it does stay in place a little more than the parchment! You can decide. Either way, just be patient as you spread your cookie dough in the pan.

Follow up the cookie dough with a single layer of Double-Stuf Oreos. I really recommend the Doubles because you can still clearly see the creamy layer even after baking! I also recommend cutting some of the Oreos in half to make them fit in the pan without stacking on top of each other. I used 20½ Oreos in the 9″ pan (and Jake got to eat the last little half.

Spread the brownie batter in an even layer on top of the Oreos.

Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the center is set on top. (I baked mine for 32 minutes, which left them rather gooey in the center, just the way I like my cookies/brownies.) Don’t overbake these bars! The gooey centers are just so lovely.

Let them cool about 45 minutes in the pan, then lift out and cool completely before slicing with a very sharp knife. Often I recommend using a plastic knife to cut brownies neatly, but in this case, with all the Oreos and the cookie layer, the sharper the better!

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cream Brownie Bars

lightly adapted from What’s Gaby Cooking
makes 25

Cookie Ingredients:
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1¼ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Brownie Ingredients:
10 tbsp. unsalted butter
1¼ cups sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
½ cup flour

1 package Double-Stuf Oreos

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9ʺ square baking pan with foil or parchment paper.
Starting with the cookie dough, cream together the butter and sugars in a mixer bowl. Scrape the sides of the bowl at least once, beating until the sugars are completely worked into the butter. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until creamy.
Add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix on low speed until everything is incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips. Set dough aside.
In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and cocoa powder and whisk to combine. Remove from heat and let cool 5 minutes.
Add the salt, vanilla, and eggs to the pan and whisk heartily until the batter is uniformly shiny and thick.
Add the flour stir with a spoon or spatula until just combined. Set batter aside.
Layer the bars in the prepared pan, starting with the cookie dough and spreading to the edges. Press with clean fingers if necessary to spread evenly. Place the Oreos in neat rows, not overlapping or stacking the cookies on top of each other. Finally, spread the brownie batter evenly over the Oreos, all the way to the edges of the pan.
Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the center is set. (If unsure, test with a very sharp knife, aiming between Oreos if possible. The brownies should be gooey but not soupy, so return them to the oven for 5 minutes or so if the knife is covered with batter.) Avoid overbaking; gooey is better than dry or crunchy.
Let the bars cool in the pan completely before cutting into small squares.

Enjoy!

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