If you follow my blog you know I love to take classic desserts and give them a fun twist. One of my favorite desserts from childhood was cosmic brownies, and I wanted to give you a homemade cookie version! These Cosmic Brownie Cookies are a delicious, rich take on the nostalgic treat. If you’re a chocoholic, this recipe is for you 🙂
Let me start by saying this cookies are a chocolate lovers dream. This is the kind of dessert where a glass of milk is necessary. These cookies come together pretty quickly, but you will need to chill the dough in order for them not to spread. See below for some tips!
RECIPE TIPS
Chill the cookie dough: These cookies are made with melted butter. They are super flavorful but because the fat is melted, they can easily spread. In order to avoid over spreading you should chill the dough for 30 minutes. I find the easiest way to do this is to scoop the cookie dough and then chill it. Otherwise you are fighting to scoop the cool dough.
Cocoa powder: I like to use dark chocolate cocoa powder because I feel it intensifies the chocolate flavor. That’s not required, you can really use any type of cocoa powder you prefer or have in your pantry! If you’d like to try dark chocolate, you can typically find it in your baking aisle at the grocery store. I also like to use Ghirardelli’s!
Sprinkles: What makes these cosmic brownie cookies are the sprinkles. I found them in my local grocery store in the baking aisle, or you can order them here. If you don’t have the sprinkles feel free to use confetti or traditional rainbow sprinkles.
Cookie dough scoop: I always get a ton of questions about what scoop I use, so I wanted to link the ones I used for this recipe! I like this set because it comes in 3 different sizes. For these cookies I used the medium size. Using a cookie dough scoop gives you perfect cookie dough balls that are even and therefore will bake evenly!
These cookies are so fun, colorful and a great upgraded version of the nostalgic childhood treat. I hope you love them as much as I do!
Looking for my favorite pans, props and kitchen equipment? Check out my Amazon Store Front!
Cosmic Brownie Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 cup salted butter melted
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp corn starch
- 1 cup cocoa powder I prefer dark chocolate cocoa powder, but use whatever you prefer!
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
For the ganache frosting:
- 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate I like to use baking chocolate bars but you can use chocolate chips as well!
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup cosmic brownie sprinkles
Instructions
For the cookies:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the melted butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and vanilla extract. Mix on medium for 1 minute. Add in both eggs and mix on low until incorporated. Add in the flour, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix on low until everything is combined.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (you can also use wax paper, but do not bake with the wax paper) Use a medium sized cookie dough scoop, about 2-2.5 tablespoons of dough per ball, to scoop 20 even cookies and place on the prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to chill the cookie dough. This will help to enhance the flavor and prevent spreading. Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Once the cookie dough has chilled, space each about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 9-10 minutes, or until the edges are just set. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a cookie rack to cool completely.
For the ganache:
- While the cookies are cooling, make the ganache. Break the chocolate up into pieces (unless using chocolate chips) and place in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small pot on the stove over medium heat until it starts to simmer. Pour over the chocolate and let it sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add in the vanilla extract and use a whisk to stir until completely smooth. Let cool for 15-30 minutes, or until it is a spreadable consistency.
- Once the cookies have completely cooled, spread the ganache overtop (2-3 tablespoons) leaving about ¼ of an inch of cookie around the edges. Sprinkle some of the sprinkles on top. Serve or refrigerate if you want the ganache completely set.
I made these for a family get together and they were a BIG hit. Your recipes are always so good!
I made these tonight, they were delicious but they sank once it came out the oven. Any idea what went wrong? I used all of the ingredients like the recipe called for
Hi Alisha! Sinking with cookies can happen for a number of reasons but for this recipe it may be that the butter was too soft when it went into the oven. Because this dough is made with melted butter it needs time to chill before being baked. Otherwise they will spread too much and collapse after baking. Another common reason is that the oven was too hot, causing them to inflate quickly and then deflate just as fast. I’m glad to hear they were delicious though and hopefully this was helpful!
Following. Bc mine did too!!
I made these today. They weren’t quite as thusly as yours but once you got the ganache on them they were delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
I meant “thick” not thusly lol
[…] stop picturing a chocolate version. I decided to use one of my favorite recipes as a base, my Cosmic Brownie Cookies, and build from there. The outcome… incredible! These cookies taste like brownies topped with […]
Made a double batch of these and they turned out amazing!! Genuinely the best recipe ever, gonna make these a lot now. Thank you so much for making this recipe 🙂
Hi Evan, so happy you loved them!
I’ve made these twice now and the middles are raw and the cookies are flat. I did the chill time but can’t figure out what’s going on. Any suggestions?
I had this happen too. 3 different batches
If you use dark chocolate, which is Dutch processed with alkali, the cookies will be flat due to the baking soda in the recipe.
Does using dark chocolate cocoa powder make the cookies taste like dark chocolate?
No, I feel it just gives them a richer chocolate flavor. You can use regular cocoa powder if you prefer!
Just curious if this is your picture because someone on Etsy is selling this recipe along with the picture that you have posted.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SaraWorldShop?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1708202455&from_page=listing
yes 🙁 Thank you for letting me know!
I just bought the recipe off ETSY and it has the exact same picture and the exact same recipe. The name on the website is SaraWorldShop. I feel really bad about this. Laura
Mine came out super hard and flat. Any idea where I went wrong ??
I made these exactly as listed, and they looked PERFECT when pulled out of the oven and cooled. I was so excited! But they ended up being really dry/hard and flavourless 😫 Any suggestions?
Were they over baked? These cookies are very soft so they wouldn’t come out dry unless they were baked too long!
i followed the recipe to a T and results were amazing. my family and friends loved these cookies. thanks for sharing the recipe
Followed the recipe and they turned out perfect! I will say they are made for a chocolate lover, very rich! This was my first time making a ganache and it was
literal perfection!
Instructions were easy to follow and very detailed! Cookies have a nice crunch to the outside but gooey inside – delicious!