Pillow Cookies

So about a month ago, I was on Bakerella's blog and saw her post on Pillow Cookies. Well, the pictures alone will make you drool. Bakerella is not only an amazing baking creator, she is also pretty great with a camera. I'm jealous. Of both skills. Anyway, these Pillow Cookies have tormented my dreams for weeks... well, if I remembered my dreams they would. They tormented my daydreams at least. This afternoon I decided they needed to be made, once and for all. The recipe below is mostly Bakerella's, find the original here. I did tweak a few spots, which I've noted. By the way, this cookie dough recipe may be my new favorite chocolate chip cookie. It uses only brown sugar, has more vanilla and also an extra egg yolk in it. It turned out really well!

makes 10 large cookies
Ingredients:
1 package brownie mix

for cookies:
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown 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 salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. bag miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Bake up the brownies according to the package directions.  I added about 3 palmfuls or so of finely chopped walnuts -- we like nuts in our brownies, but I didn't want them to be too chunky for this creation so I chopped them much finer than usual.  I also underbaked the brownies a bit, about 4 minutes short of the box time -- again kinda our preference, but my theory was also that they will bake a bit inside the cookie.  Let the brownies cool and then cut 10 one inch squares and set aside. Do with the remaining what you will.  ;)  By the way, did you know the best and easiest way to slice brownies is with a plastic knife?  True story!  Brownies stick to the metal knife, but not to the plastic knife.

While the brownies are cooling, begin the cookie dough.

In a mixer, beat butter until creamy.  Add brown sugar and beat until smooth.  Add eggs, yolk, and vanilla and beat until smooth.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt with a fork.  Gradually add flour to butter mixture and mix until well combined.  Stir in the mini chips.  so, I didn't have mini chips.  All I had were the normal size.  I had the bright idea of trying to pound them a bit with the flat side of a meat tenderizer while they were in a baggy to break them up.  Not one of my finer ideas, since the bag busted and I lost a few chips to the floor!  ha, but in the end, the regular size chips worked okay.  I do think the mini chips would make a neater looking cookie.  but, back to the recipe... Let dough chill, covered, in the fridge for at least one hour -- it will be easier to work chilled. Just resist the urge to visit the fridge and nibble on it. It's hard and I may have failed that part.

Once the dough comes out of the fridge, you'll have to work fairly quickly as the dough will soften up on you and becomes harder (stickier) to work with.  Of course a lot of this may have something to do with the amazing July heat and humidity here.  ;)  Using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/2 cup of dough onto a cookie sheet (I used my baking stone).  You'll get about 6 scoops on one regular sized cookie pan.  Make a small indentation in the middle of each scoop and place one of your 1 inch brownie squares in.  Cover the brownie with the cookie dough, at this point I gently picked up the dough and formed a rough ball around the brownie -- don't handle the dough too much, though.  You'll want to put the dough back in the fridge until you're ready for the second batch.  After all 6 cookies are finished, pop them in the oven (you should get 4 more cookies in the second batch, for a total of 10 from this recipe).  Bakerella suggests 18 minutes at 350.  I kept the 350, but went for 14 minutes.  Again, total preference to have a gooier cookie.  :)  And that our oven bakes just a tad hotter.  After removing the baking stone from the oven, I let the cookies rest about 2 minutes before transferring them to wax paper.  And then be prepared to be amazed with chocolaty, brownie, cookie goodness.  :)  Mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty in the middle as Bakerella's did.  I guess when you want a gooey cookie, you give up perfect photo opportunities.  ;)