Pillow Cookies

Bakerella is one of my favorite food blogs; it combines beautiful photography with easy to follow recipes and delicious outcomes! What could be better? Last week, I discovered her recipe for Pillow Cookies and almost died because of how amazing they looked, and I knew I had to recreate them. I had most of the ingredients on hand, besides the brownie mix, so it was a pretty impulsive act. I tweaked a few things here and there (mostly due to me running out of some things... oops), but the recipe is almost identical!

Pillow Cookies

Recipe adapted slightly from Bakerella.

What You'll Need:
1 package brownie mix (plus whatever ingredients it calls for... mine called for eggs, vegetable oil and water)

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 6 oz chocolate chips

First, make the brownies as per the the box directions. Let them cool and then chop them up into 10 little cubes slightly over an inch wide and put aside. You can do whatever you please with the rest, I saved them for later of course... (actually I just ate them all while I made the cookies.)

To start making the cookie dough, place butter in the bowl of a mixer and mix at a high speed until creamy.
Next, add in brown sugar and continue mixing until smooth.
Then, add in eggs, yolk and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth.

In another bowl, throw in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix together.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat at medium speed until combined and smooth-ish. Stir in chocolate chips.

Next, and this is CRUCIAL: refrigerate for at least an hour (I did 1hr and 20mins).

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Grab a sturdy 1/2 cup measuring cup to scoop out batter. I used my hands to pack it in tightly and a spoon to scoop it out of the scooper (haha). It's going to get messy, but you need to do this quickly so the dough stays chilled.
After scooping 1/2 cup of batter, make a little hole in it and place a brownie square in it. Roll it together to form a ball and have the brownie sitting snugly in the middle.
Then, place the ball on a baking sheet with parchment paper. I found it easier to do it one at a time, but I only had room to bake 5 at a time so I did 5 in succession. Keep the rest of the dough refrigerated until you bake the second batch.

After you have all 5 on the baking sheet, bake at 350 degrees for about 19 mins.

Let them cool on the baking sheet for a few mins then transfer on to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!

I found that they had a more scone-like texture but it was definitely a good thing; especially considering I had some with my coffee the next two mornings; and it was AMAZING. They stayed moist and great for the next 3 days, too (they might have lasted longer had we not eaten them all)! They are extremely rich and HUGE so I found that even one at a time was a bit too much, but definitely delicious and worth making.