Showing posts with label mommy blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mommy blogger. Show all posts

Cookies & Cookie Dough Brownies

Today my girls went back to school and for the littlest one it was her first day of all day school.

I’m not going to lie there were tears. Not a lot and I made sure they were not in front of her. 

Then she went and told me she was going to miss me! I was strong though and I told her I would miss her too, but that she was going to have lots of fun in her new classroom and with all her new classmates!

If only I was starting in a new classroom with new classmates to distract me. Now I am sat here on my computer suppose to be writing up my CV for some part-time jobs I've been looking at. Instead I am here writing this post while eating one of these brownies to ease the temporary loss of my children.

You may just have to take my word on this one, but I do believe a combination of chocolate and sugar can help with the emotional stress of leaving your child at school for the first time.

Even if the first day of school has come around for you or you don’t have kids you should still try these brownies! Everyone has some sort of stress of everyday life. It's a fact.


Right before I left my parents house I discovered these Cookie Dough limited edition Oreos! I of course brought some back with me. And you wouldn't be reading this if I didn't use them to make brownies! Regular Oreos would work just as well in this recipe so don't worry if these limited edition ones aren't available by you!

First I made eggless cookie dough to add to the brownies, but the chunks that were thrown in the mixture just disappeared even though they were frozen when put in. So, you could leave this step out, but I would still want to sprinkle some on top! If you do make the cookie dough you have to freeze it so do this ahead of time! Here’s how I made it.


Cookie Dough:

50g chocolate chunks
160g plain flour
130g golden caster sugar
4 tablespoons of demerara sugar
170g unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons of soya yogurt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 tsp of fine salt

Place all the ingredients into a big bowl, I used my free-standing mixer and beat into a sticky dough. 
Place on cling film, wrap it up and then flatten it until it’s about 2 cm. 
Chill in the freezer for about 2 hours.

I couldn't find soya yogurt in a small tube, so I used the leftover to make a delicious fruit smoothie by throwing in some mixed frozen berries and an over ripe banana. Perfect breakfast!

You will have a lot left over of the cookie dough, that could be used in ice cream or cupcakes or whatever floats your boat!


Once it’s been sitting nicely in the freezer for about 2 hours you can get on with the brownies. I shared with you how I made the ones pictured; however I would add at least 50 grams more of crushed Oreos if not more!

Cookies & Cookie Dough Brownies:

150g dark chocolate, broken up
150g milk chocolate, broken up
250g salted butter
400g light brown sugar
4 large eggs
140g plain flour
50g Mortimer Pure Dark Chocolate Powder
120g Cookie dough (recipe above)
100g (7-8 cookies) Cookie Dough Oreos, smashed

Preheat oven to 180C/gas4 and line a brownie tin (8x11) or an 8in square pan with parchment paper.
Very gently melt both chocolates with the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan. Stir occasionally with a silicone spatula. Just before the chocolate is completely melted, take off the heat and gently stir until it’s completely melted.
Then add the eggs one at a time to the melted chocolate mixture. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the pan and stir until just combined. Fold in half the cookie dough and half the smashed cookies.
Then pour the mixture into the prepared tin/pan. Scrap the bowl with your spatula to make sure you get all the batter in. Scatter the rest of the cookie dough and Oreos over the top of the brownies before baking in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. If you want them a little less gooey bake for 5 minutes more.
Cool completely before cutting into squares. When I bake them for only 30 minutes I tend to stick them in the fridge for 30-60 minutes before cutting just to get a cleaner cut.




last minute notes: I wish writing a CV was as easy as writing a blog post. I miss my children already; I actually like having them around! I must stop eating these brownies! 
Spatulas are from OXO, as a baker I tend to use spatulas a lot and I must say these are very sturdy and have fast become my favorite spatulas! They are perfect for scraping out sticky cookie dough and getting that last bit of chocolate brownie! They were sent to me to review.
Mortimer Pure Dark Chocolate Powder was given to me at Food Blogger Connect and I bought the Oreos while on holiday. Please see my contact/policy page for further information.
Cookie Dough recipe was adapted from Jamie’s Food Tube Cupcake book and the brownie recipe is one that I have used over and over from Good Food Bakes & Cakes Magazine Summer 2013 edition.

Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton {book review}

I long for the days when I only had to think of myself at meal times. I know what I like and therefore I find it easy to feed myself.

Now I have a husband and two little people have likes and dislikes of their own. Which means dinnertime especially can be nothing short of my worst nightmare.

To be fair to my husband it’s not his fault he’s allergic to all citrus, but it is something I have to accommodate for.

My Mini-Baker loves all veggies and will try anything and everything at least once. My Baby-Baker loves meat and point blank refuses to try anything.

When I first became a mom I did stress about food. My Mini-Baker didn't like jarred baby food nor did she like homemade food, whole or pureed. She was only happy with toast and some fruits.

I felt like I was failing at one of the 3 fundamental things that all children (and adults) need: food, clothes, shelter.

I wish I had this book then, I would have saved me a lot of stress and allowed me to relax and know that it would be okay. It wasn't until she was 8 or 9 months old that I realized there was no need to stress. I caught her watching my fork go to the plate to my mouth. From then on she ate what we ate and did so just fine. 

According to Amazon I bought this book in 2011 well after both my little ones were weaned, so there were parts that I really related too.

He tells us how at first he was very smug at his 2 year old ate pretty much everything, but little did he know that by the time she was 3 she would start to get picky.

When Mini-Baker was about 2 ½ years old she loved Chilli Beef, our local Chinese does the best, so I didn't blame her. We were so tired of her stealing ours we ordered her her own portion and she ate all of it. I was so smug about it I told everyone!

We took her again for a treat around 6 months later and again ordered her her own portion expecting her to demolish it. No, such luck she decided that it wasn't that good and much preferred to just eat the rice. I wasn't so smug after that and was prepared when her sister came along.


Baby-Baker currently loves olives and hot sauce, sometimes together. But I know one day that might not be the case. For know though we have lots of olives because I love them too.

This is the reason that children are so hard to feed. One day they love something the next day they don’t.

Now that they are both older and discovering their own tastes when I meal plan they get to suggest something they would like for dinner. I always listen because it saves me the hassle of figuring out what to make!

If you are a foodie, parent, or both this book is for you. It’s full of parenting truths only learned by experience, but it’s also full of recipes!

In chapter 18 he states that his food fantasy is to take his daughter to Toyko for the ultimate culinary vacation. Well his fantasy came true as he writes about it in his second book Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo which I have downloaded on my kindle app and will be reading while I am visiting in the USA!

If you are a parent I would love to hear what your kids favorite foods and dishes are! Please leave a comment below! 

notes: I bought this book as stated above years ago, I have just re-read it and felt like writing down my thoughts on it. I will be posting a post on my summer reading soon! Matthew Amster-Burton also writes a blog called Roots and Grubs.