Brownie Cookie Dough Sandwiches
Colourful, cookie dough sandwiched between delicious, gooey brownies, need I say more?!
So my week has not been my best week ever, but I am coming to terms with it. Basically three weeks ago I started riding my bike to work. My work advised my colleagues and I that we weren’t to catch public transport, which FYI is my main method of transportation. So here I am riding my bike home from work up a hill, wearing a side handbag. I think you can see where this is going. My handbag gets caught in the wheel and the bike stops while midway up the hill and I get thrown off the bike, over the handle bars. I land with bike handles in my leg. I guess I will point out that this was a highly embarrassing incident and 30 people may have witnessed this. Anyway, I go running like I always do and my leg is hurting and continues to hurt for a few weeks. This all ends with me finally going to the physio on Tuesday afternoon, I have to cut my loading and I can’t box jump. Box jumps are my favourite exercise. Running is my favourite. So I have to spend a little time without my favourites and that’s okay because I still have COOKING!
So while I’m sooking around without a few of my favourite things, I’ve taken to Instagram scrolling. Recently, I have been scrolling through my feed and a few things have caught my eyes. Next minute, I see Buttermilk by Sam and Lanibakes brownie sandwiches and I was like “dayum, I gotta get me some of that.” So I did! Here’s the product of all that. They taste pretty good and I think they look FUN! Sprinkles make everything fun. They are colourful and full of sweet things, so how can you feel down when you have a batch of these bad boys?!
Makes 8-12 sandwiches (more or less) depending on how it is cut.
The Brownie
227 g butter
130 g chocolate*
1 cup packed brown sugar*
1 cup raw caster sugar*
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs coffee (espresso or ground fresh coffee)
4 eggs (room temperature)
2/3 cup flour
The Funfetti Cookie Dough
1 1/4 cup flour
113 g butter
2-3 tbs cream*
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup raw caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
sprinkle of salt
2-3 tbs sprinkles
1 cup mixed mini choc chips or m&ms
To make the brownie
Preheat the oven to 170’C, fan forced or 180’C for any other oven
Line a rectangular or square lamington tin with baking paper.
Place butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir gently until melted and smooth.
Add the sugar and whisk to combine and keep on the heat until mixture registers 60’C or the batter becomes thicker (about 5 minutes maximum) then remove from heat.
Add the salt, vanilla and coffee and mix until combined.
Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition until well combined.
Add the flour and fold until just combined (there can be some streaks of flour).
Pour batter into the pan and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until the centre is slightly puffed and the top is shiny and cracking.
Cool completely* before turning out and cutting the brownie in half, trimming until equal shaped halves.
To make the dough
Preheat oven to 180’C and place flour onto a baking sheet/tray lined with baking powder. Bake the flour for 10 minutes (stirring every now and then to cook the flour evenly). This is important to heat treat the flour and make it safe for consumption. On that note, I’ll be honest… I still eat raw dough and cake mix.
Place the butter in a saucepan and melt over heat until completely melted. I like to brown my butter so I will in this step take the butter until it is brown in colour and nutty in smell. To do this I will keep the heat on high and swill the saucepan every now and then until I start to see brown foam.
Place sugar in a bowl and add the butter, cream and vanilla, and mix until homogeneous.
Add flour to the mixture and stir until well combined. At this point the dough should be like cookie dough but it will absolutely work if the dough is a bit wet. You do not want dry dough it will be too hard to spread.
Fold in sprinkles and chocolate until well distributed. (You should put the add-ins in the dough once it has cooled otherwise you get melted chocolate which isn’t so bad).
Put aside until brownie is cooled.
To assemble
Line a tin (probably the same tin you used for baking the brownie) with glad (plastic) wrap, enough wrap so there is overhang on all sides.
Place one brownie half in the bottom of the tin then spread the cookie dough gently over the surface of the brownie.
Put the remaining brownie half on top of the cookie dough and press lightly on the top brownie.
Wrap the plastic wrap tightly over the sandwich. then place a weight (book/saucepan) on top of the brownie and put in the fridge overnight.
Remove the sandwich from the tin and cut into squares/rectangles for consumption. YAY!!! You can store at room temperature in winter but store in the fridge otherwise.
Notes:
*I used a combination of 55% cocoa and 80% cocoa, I think go for darker chocolate because otherwise it can be a bit sweet on sweet.
*Brown sugar can be dark or light, it does not matter. I like a dark brown sugar for a more caramel undertone.
*You can use caster sugar, as in the white one instead of the raw one will work.
* I put my brownie into the freezer to cool it at hyperspace speed. I was KEEN
*Add more cream depending on consistency. Remember you do not want the dough to be dry because it needs to be pliable enough to spread over the brownie.
*You could like Buttermilk by Sam fill the brownies with ice cream. You can’t really go wrong with ice cream sandos.
final thoughts…
Baking cheers me up. If you’re lucky you might be receiving a special little care package from me sometime soon. Friendship is so precious and I love my friends! I want to let them know.
Another thing apart from baking that has truly saved me this week is AFL. How great is AFL?! We get it almost all week this week and the next few weeks. I want the grand final in BRISBANE… and I want my team the Lions to be in that grand final. I mean how great would that be?! So on that note, be safe and don’t let the COVID come back to QLD! I need my AFL fix, I NEED IT!!!
Love ya,
Amelia xx