Ultimate Skillet Brookies

Are we ready for the Ultimate Skillet Brookies or what?

Picture the most delicious brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough (inspired by my fav Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie dough) you’ve ever had (go ahead, imagine it) and it’s mingling right next to some rich, fudge-like brownies and that my friends, that is exactly what this ultimate brookie recipe is.

Decadent brownie batter + brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough = ultimate skillet brookie party heaven! I love cookies (and bar cookies!) so much, I even wrote a book dedicated to them, The Cookie Book, and it has an entire chapter devoted to bar cookie love. Love that for us.

Below I give you some details on browning butter if this is your first time (you can also check out my How to Make Perfect Brown Butter tutorial if you need a refresher!).

All of the ingredients you’ll need to gather, why you should bake these brookies stat (the taste! the texture! the ease! serving ideas!), a little Q&A about making these skillet brookies, plus more bar cookie AND brown butter recipes for you to bake.

You can see all of the Brownie & Bar Cookie Recipes. Here are some of my favorites: Foolproof Crinkly Fudgy Brownies, Fudgy Brown Butter Brownies, Ultimate Skillet Brookies (brownies + chocolate chip cookie’s baby), Vegan Peppermint Brownies, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies and White Chocolate Fudge Brownies.

Ultimate Brookie Ingredients

These are the ingredients you’ll need to make the ultimate brookie recipe! All substitutions are mentioned below; if you have additional ingredient questions, please leave them in the comment section.

Unsalted Butter

Oil (use any oil you have on hand, more oil notes are below in the Q&A)

Dark Brown Sugar (you can also use light brown sugar or light/dark muscovado in a pinch)

Granulated Sugar

Large Eggs

Real Vanilla Extract

Fresh-Brewed Espresso or Strong Coffee (you can substitute water if you’re not into espresso/coffee)

Baking Soda

Sea Salt (I love fine sea salt in baking and use this one)

All-Purpose Flour (these ultimate brookies were tested with King Arthur Flour; for those who live outside the US, look for an all-purpose flour with 11.7% protein content for similar results)

Unsweetened Dark Dutched-Process Cocoa Powder (I love this Hershey’s Dark as it’s easy to find and yields beautiful flavor + color; you can however use any unsweetened cocoa powder you have on hand)

Dark Chocolate Chips (I’m loving these baking chips and I used them when testing this recipe); whatever chocolate you use, make sure it’s good quality and can handle melting as you’ll need to melt chocolate for your brownie dough.

Why You Should Make These
Ultimate Skillet Brookies
Right Now

FLAVOR + TEXTURE

First, let’s chat about the texture of this ultimate skillet brookies recipe! The intensely chocolate brownies are very fudge-like. I didn’t want these bar cookies to be cakey, at all.

In fact, in the first three tests the brookies were delicious but indeed, too cakey around the perimeter.

That’s when I decided to add in the wee bits of oil to both doughs and juste comme ça, it was the perfect amount to keep things soft and chewy and fudgy.

Second, the flavor of these ultimate brookies is TO DIE FOR!!! The chocolate chip cookie dough is made with browned butter, dark brown sugar and mega vanilla extract for the most delicious cookie dough ever (I’m thinking of working on this flavor trio for a new chocolate chip cookie for us, stay tuned!).

The rich chocolate brownie dough dotted with big 2-tablespoon (30-gram) cookie dough balls throughout means that every bite is a little bit brownie and a little bit chocolate chip cookie — SO GOOD!

METHOD

I went back and forth on what the easiest technique would be for this. I settled on:

1. Brown the butter for the chocolate chip cookie dough and set aside to cool.
2. Melt the chocolate for the brownies and then throw together the one-bowl brownie dough; set aside.
3. Throw together the cookie dough (also one-bowl!) with the now-cooled browned butter, this will only take a couple of minutes and then assemble the skillet brookies and bake!
4. I *HIGHLY* recommend letting your ultimate brookies cool completely before trying to cut. And that’s it!

Even though we’re making two doughs, I made sure that each dough was one-bowl and that our active time was as minimal as possible. I can’t wait for you to try these brookies!

BAKER’S TIMELINE

These are mixed together in roughly 30 minutes and baked for another 25 minutes. However, in terms of serving them, you’ll need to wait hours for the brookies to cool completely. If you need to expedite cutting and serving the brookies, I suggest popping them in the freezer or fridge and checking every 30 minutes to see if they’ve cooled enough to cut.

The cast iron holds onto heat well, so make sure to allow this cool-down time in your schedule.

These are quite delicious the next day, making them a perfect make-ahead dessert.

TO SERVE

These ultimate brookies are absolutely perfect as is…HOWEVER, if I was going to suggest something to go with them it would absolutely be your favorite vanilla bean ice cream!!!!!!

Browning Butter for The Ultimate Brookies

Place the butter in a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. Once melted, crank up the heat to medium high. Continue stirring and look for small golden bits that will start to settle on the bottom of the pan. It will smell deliciously nutty and caramel-y. This should take around 3 to 5 minutes. Once this happens, take it off the heat and pour into a medium, heat-safe bowl to cool a bit.

You do not need to strain brown butter. I read this somewhere. The horror. Those brown bits hold all of the flavor…we want them. We need them.

You also don’t want your brown butter to be black as then it is burnt and the taste won’t be beautiful, caramel-y and glamorous.

Definitely do not do anything but brown butter when you’re browning butter. This isn’t the time to multitask. You’ve got this.

I have a How to Make Perfect Brown Butter Post
if you’re looking for how-to photos + video!

DH BROWNING BUTTER TIP
If you’re new to making brown butter and worried you’re going to burn the butter, here’s my hot tip: Once you start to see the golden bits on the bottom of the pan you can take it off of the heat and continue stirring. The heat from the pan will continue to cook the brown butter causing the delicious milk solids (the bits that are getting bronzed up) to turn an even deeper golden brown.

How To Make the Top of Your Ultimate Skillet Brookies Look Pretty

I finally settled on a styling that I thought yielded the prettiest baked brookies. I gently smoothed the brownie batter over the bottom of the skillet. And then I dropped heaping 2-tablespoon (30-gram) sized dough balls over the top of the brownies.

I took care not to drop the cookie dough evenly over the top and instead created clumps of dough, this is by design as I wanted pools of the brownie batter to poke through.

The finishing touch is adding more chocolate chips over the tops of the cookie dough balls + brownie dough and trust me, more is better! I added 3-4 chocolate chips per dough ball for the prettiest final baked skillet brookie!

Questions About Making Skillet Brookies

What if I don’t have a 10-inch (25 cm) cast-iron skillet?

You can use a 9×13-inch (23×33 cm) baking pan and bake the brookies for 20 to 25 minutes as they may bake faster.

I use a cast-iron skillet because I think these are so pretty to serve in the skillet as a decadent dessert (although they’re seriously delicious any time!).

Make sure whatever vessel you bake the brookies is oven safe.

Can I use light brown sugar for the cookie dough?

Absolutely! You can also use muscovado (dark or light) if you’re feeling it! I really wanted to draw out the caramel/toffee flavors of the chocolate chip cookie dough so it could stand boldly next to the rich brownie dough, which is why I specified the dark brown sugar. But all of those mentioned above will work beautifully.

What are your favorite chocolate chips?

I’m really having a moment with these Ghirardelli Premium Baking Ships 60% Cocoa Bittersweet. They melt beautifully, have delicious flavor…I used them for all of my brookie testing. This isn’t sponsored and I purchased these myself. I also really love this particular Callebaut which I’m currently out of.

Why is there oil in both the cookie and brownie dough and what one do you recommend?

In my initial testing of this recipe I didn’t have oil in either of the doughs. The brookies were turning out delicious, but they were a little too cakey for my taste. I like my brownies and bar cookies to have that gooey, fudgy factor. I also like them to taste just as delicious the next day. I found adding 1-2 tablespoons of oil did the trick.

I used Sunflower Seed Oil in both the chocolate chip cookie dough and the brownie dough. However, you can use whatever oil you have on hand and that you like the taste of. There is so little oil in both doughs that you won’t taste it in the final product. However, I do suggest that you like the flavor of the oil by itself so that any off flavors aren’t transferred into your delicious brookies!

For baking, I also love grapeseed oil and mild olive oil.

Why did you use the extra egg yolk in the cookie dough?

This gives the cookie dough a super soft, chewy texture!

Can I use something in place of the espresso?

Yes! Feel free to omit the coffee and just use water in its place!

Equipment for your Ultimate Skillet Brookies

10-inch Cast Iron Skillet (I have a ton of cast-iron skillets and this is by far my favorite! It comes perfectly seasoned and is just a dream)

Favorite Glass Bowls

Whisk

Spatula (I had a favorite Staub spatula but I think it’s discontinued…this is a close second!!)

My Scale (this is a great recipe to use a scale with if you’re new to scale baking)

2-tablespoon (30 g) Cookie Scoop (I scoop heaping scoops, it doesn’t need to be exact so use a smaller/larger cookie scoop if that’s what you have…this is a great cookie scoop brand if you’re in the market)

Chocolate Chips (LOVE these for this!) (These are the chocolate chips I used to test these brookies; they taste delicious, melt gorgeous and are available at most grocery stores)

More Bar Cookie Recipes

Perfectly Crinkly Shiny Brownies

Not a bar cookie, but not to be missed Crinkly Fudgy Brownie Cookies and this Vegan Soft & Chewy Brownie Cookie recipe

Brown Butter Muscovado Chocolate Chunk Bar Cookies (recipe from The Cookie Book!)

S’more Bar Cookies

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies with Coffee Ganache

Brown-Butter Chocolate Caramel Skillet Cookie

Five-Spice Prune Bars

Vegan Peppermint Brownies

More Brown Butter Recipes

Brown Butter Muscovado Snickerdoodles

Brown Butter Muscovado Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown Butter Muscovado Banana Bread

Brown Butter Salted Caramel Brownies

Salted Caramel Brown Butter Blondies

*You can substitute brown sugar for muscovado in all of these recipes! xo

Let’s bake some ultimate skillet brookies, shall we?