Marbled Cookie Brownie – How to Make the Perfect Brookie

This delicious marbled cookie brownie, or marbled brookie, is easy and decadent. I used dark chocolate cocoa powder and dried cranberries, but feel free to substitute chocolate chips instead.

You can follow this same technique with packaged brownie and cookie mixes from the store if you’d prefer.

Cookies have been a beloved dessert since at least the 7th century CE, when sugar became widely available in Persia. You’ll love this modern twist!

Is this brownie recipe more like cake or fudge?

Since we are using baking powder, this is more like cake. Generally speaking, recipes with higher proportions of flour and recipes with baking powder or baking soda tend to be more cake-like. Creaming the butter with sugar without melting it first also appears to make brownies more cakey. This is because you essentially beat in air bubbles, which helps the brownies rise.

Classic brownie recipes only have five ingredients: butter, sugar, chocolate, eggs, and flour. If you go easy on the flour, this yields a fudgier brownie. Melting the butter can also help with this.

To make brownies more chewy, try adding an extra egg and mixing different types of chocolate (i.e. semi-sweet with unsweetened).

P.S. Want to save this marbled cookie brownie recipe for later? It’s in this E-Book!

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These brownies are no relation to the brownies in folklore

While our brownies are a tasty treat, they share a name with mythical household spirits found in Scottish folklore. At night, when the family is asleep, the brownie comes out and does chores. You may be familiar with brownies from the fairy tale of “The Shoemaker and the Elves,” collected by the Brothers Grimm. If you’d like to read it (it’s short), here’s the link.

The humans who live in the home must leave an offering for the brownie, often a bowl of milk or cream left by the hearth. Brownies are mischievous and easily offended. If they feel insulted or taken advantage of, they will disappear, never to be seen again.

In stories and artwork, brownies are either naked or clothed in rags. If a human gives a brownie clothes (or tries to baptize one), the creature will leave for good. As you may be realizing, the house elves in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are based on brownies, also called broonies.

In different regions, these helpful sprites carry different names. In Wales, they are called bwbach, and in different regions of Scotland and England, they are known variously as hobs, silkies, or uruisgs.

To be on the safe side, I recommend eating these brownies with a glass of milk.

Marbled Cookie Brownie Ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

• Two mixing bowls and spoons (or one and allow more time)
• Measuring cups and spoons
• A butter knife for swirling
• A microwave safe bowl (if you, like me, forgot to set out the butter ahead of time)
• An 8″ x 8″ square pan

Cookie Dough Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or chocolate chips, walnuts, etc.)

Brownie Batter Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark, but milk is fine too)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp water

How to Make the Perfect Marbled Cookie Brownie

For the cookie dough

1. To begin, make the cookie dough. If you forgot to soften the butter, as I did, microwave it for 20 seconds or so. Cream the butter and the sugar until smooth.
2. Next, add in the egg and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
3. After that, add in the flour, salt, and baking powder. Thoroughly mix the dough.
4. Then, you can add in your topping of choice (in my case, the dried cranberries). Blend them in until they are evenly distributed. Set your dough aside.

For the brownie batter

1. Once the cookie dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350° and make the brownie batter. As before, cream your butter and sugar until well mixed.
2. Then, add in the egg and vanilla extract and blend.
3. Once that is done, add in the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Stir slowly so the cocoa powder doesn’t puff all over your kitchen. Keep stirring until thoroughly combined.
4. Next, add in the water. You will want the brownie batter to be wetter than the cookie dough and pourable so you can use it to fill in the gaps in the pan left by your globs of cookie dough.
5. Grease your baking pan (or use parchment paper).
6. To assemble your brookies, use a spoon or two to place chunks of cookie dough strategically across the bottom of your pan so each slice has a decent amount of cookie.
7. Once you’ve placed all the cookie dough in the pan, use a spoon to start filling in the gaps with brownie batter so your pan starts to look full and even. If you don’t need these marbled cookie brownies to look fancy, you can just pour the brownie batter on top.
8. You could stop there. However, to get the lovely marbled look, use a butter knife to swirl the brownie batter and cookie dough together.
9. Bake for about 38 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. Finally, let them cool before cutting, and enjoy!

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Variations on this Marbled Cookie Brownie

As mentioned earlier, feel free to replace the dried cranberries with chocolate chips, or leave them in and add white chocolate chips and/or macadamia nuts.

You can use any mix in you’d like: walnuts, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, mini marshmallows, maraschino cherries, peanut butter, mint candies, cherry pie filling, etc.

If you have more distinct layers, you can add a layer of Oreos or vanilla wafers as your middle layer for added decadence.

Try adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top just before serving.

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Related chocolate and dessert posts

If you enjoy this chocolate cranberry combination, try my chocolate covered cranberry recipe!

Try my high altitude chocolate chip cookies for those at high elevation.

You may also enjoy these cashew butter cookies.

I hope you enjoyed this marbled cookie brownie recipe!