chocolate chip almond cookie dough brownies.

Chocolate chip cookies have been a huge hit ever since time immemorial, a little way back chocolate chip cookie dough truffles were popping up on every other blog, and now cookie dough has even been doubled up with brownies. I may be a little late, but I think chocolate chip cookie dough brownies are still in fashion.

P.S. Have you heard of The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook? It sounds so delicious I want to eat the whole book! Oh I want it so badly.

You know how some recipes have flavour pairings that you don't naturally think of together? I think this one is one of those recipes. The kind of recipes where you take two components that you love and put them together, because 1 + 1= 2 so you'd love the final creation doubly! In relation to that, I'm not such a cookie dough fanatic and I love a good brownie, but only once in a while. In other words, I'm just sort of neutral towards chocolate chip cookie dough and brownies, so overall, I think that this brownie creation is just pleasant. Not outstanding, but certainly worth a try if you love cookie dough and brownies.

Having said that, I think the individual components are commendable. The brownie layer is chocolaty, fudgy and dense. Typical words you would use to describe a good brownie, but here's the difference. The batter is a lot thicker than what I'm used to- it's almost of a doughy consistency, but that is precisely what makes it so sturdy and firm. And when refrigerated, it creates a difference sort of density. Some brownies have more of a batter consistency so when you underbake it slightly and then chill it, they have a texture similar to fudge. Fudgy is not bad. In fact, fudgy is good. But sometimes, the added flour somehow cuts through the richness of the chocolate a bit. Or I think.

If you ask why the almonds in the cookie dough, it's because I know that the cookie dough would probably be quite sweet (and because of that, I reduced the sugars a bit), so I wanted a different sort of flavour apart from the chocolate chips in the dough. I initially thought of walnuts, which is actually quite a classic combination with chocolate chips, but I didn't have any. But I had almonds, so that was what I used. This would be a good time to mention that if you have salted almonds, salted peanuts etc, I highly recommend that you use those. The saltiness would balance out the overall sweetness. If you're a fan of the sweet-salty combination, well, here you go!

The ratio of add-ins to dough was very high. I don't know about you but I would like more dough actually. If I were to make this again, I would increase the decrease the quantity of add-ins or increase the quantity of cookie dough. Although who am I kidding- increase the cookie dough!

My cookie dough turned out quite grainy. It's to be expected in a raw cookie dough but I find the grittiness frankly quite distracting. This could be because I did not add the milk so the sugars had less liquid to dissolve in. Perhaps the graininess might disappear after a day or so? If you've made this before could you let me know how yours turned out?

Final parting words- make this with nuts! You won't regret it!

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookie Dough Brownies
lightly adapted from Recipe Girl
makes 32

I made quite a fair bit of changes to the original recipe, the most drastic one probably being the mixing method of the brownie. I reshuffled the addition of ingredients such that you would only need 1 bowl for the entire process. Throughout the whole recipe, I also swapped the salted butter for unsalted with an addition of salt. I also reduced the amount of sugars in both the brownie and the cookie dough. And obviously, I added almonds!

Brownie Base
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, diced
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Cookie Dough
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped (you could also use walnuts, macadamias,etc)

For the brownies: Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Add the eggs one by one, making sure that one is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the flour until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool completely before layering on the cookie dough.

For the cookie dough: Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Mix in the milk, vanilla and salt. Mix in the flour until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and toasted and cooled almonds.

Spread the cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until firm before cutting.