High Altitude Chocolate Brownie Cookies

An easy, high altitude recipe for chocolate brownie cookies with crisp edges and soft chewy centers. The cookie dough comes together without a mixer, and there’s no chill time required!

You might also love these high altitude recipes for the best chocolate chip cookies, perfect fudge brownies, and brownie shortbread bars with ganache.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

No Mixer Needed. Most recipes for brownie crinkle cookies use a mixer to whip the butter, sugar and melted chocolate. But with today’s recipe, you can simply whisk it up by hand, no mixer required.

Quicker than Brownies. Chewy fudge brownies are my all time favorite dessert. But they do take a few hours to cool and set up, so when I’m feeling impatient, these brownie cookies satisfy my need for rich fudgy chocolate. And since every cookie has a crisp edge and soft, thick chewy center, everyone can get those coveted “edge pieces” that always disappear first in a pan of brownies.

No Chill Time. What’s better than getting to enjoy chocolate cookies warm from the oven, without having to wait for the dough to chill first?

High Altitude Tested. I develop and test all of the recipes on my site at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet, so mountain bakers can bake with confidence.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• Unsalted Butter. Adds richness and moisture for a soft, fudgy texture.
• Chopped Chocolate. Contributes to the fudgy texture in the middle of the cookies. I used Chocolove 55% Dark Chocolate.
• Sugar. Granulated sugar and light brown sugar adds sweetness, but also creates the crisp edges and crackly surface on top of the cookies.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Eggs. You’ll need a whole egg plus an egg yolk. Eggs give structure to cookies, and the extra egg yolk tenderizes the dough for a chewy cookie.
• All Purpose Flour. Gives the dough structure and strength.
• Cocoa Powder. Dutch processed cocoa powder gives the cookies their dark color and rich, chocolate flavor.
• Corn Starch. Just a little corn starch makes a softer cookie.
• Baking Soda. Leavens the cookies so they puff and spread out in the oven.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Chocolate Chips. The chocolate chips are optional, but I love the extra pockets of chocolate throughout the cookies.

Instructions

• In a saucepan, melt the butter and chopped chocolate over medium low heat. Stir it frequently, and remove from the heat as soon as it’s melted. Pour into a mixing bowl.

• Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Whisk vigorously, as hard as you can, for 2 full minutes, until the mixture has lightened in color.

• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, corn starch, baking soda and salt, and whisk until evenly distributed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and use a spatula to fold everything together into a dough.

• Let the dough rest and cool for 10 minutes, then fold in the chocolate chips.

• Use a medium cookie scoop to portion the dough into 20 portions (about 2 tablespoons each). Roll each portion of dough into a smooth ball with your hands, and ever so slightly flatten each ball. Cover the dough balls with plastic wrap to keep them moist while you preheat the oven.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Bake 6 cookies at a time, so they have room to spread out, baking them for exactly 8 minutes. (Let the remaining dough balls sit covered at room temperature.) Take the cookies out of the oven, and immediately use a round cookie cutter (one that’s larger than the circumference of the baked cookies) and “scoot” it around the hot cookies to pull in the edges for perfectly round cookies.

• Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Bake the remainder of the dough, 6 cookies at a time, until you’ve baked all the cookies.
• Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 weeks.

Recipe Variations

• Make them Minty. This recipe would be great turned into a chocolate mint brownie cookie. Just add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and some mint chips or chopped Andes mints.
• Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich. Sandwich two cookies with a scoop of ice cream for the best ever ice cream chocolate cookie sandwich!
• Fill with Buttercream. While making these brownie cookies, I had some leftover coffee buttercream, and couldn’t resist filling a few of the cookies with the buttercream to make sandwich cookies. What a delicious treat! Get more buttercream flavor ideas in this post.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can the cookie dough balls be frozen?

Yes, you can shape the dough into balls and freeze them in a freezer bag. If you bake the dough from frozen, they might not spread enough, so I suggest letting them thaw and warm up to room temperature before baking.

Will this recipe work if I don’t live at high altitude?

You would probably need to make a few adjustments. Please see my FAQs for guidance: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/

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