Who doesn’t want a fudgy brownie and chewy chocolate chip cookie in the same bite, and my gluten-free brookies make it happen in one epic dessert bar. You get signature GF brownie cookie bars with crackly tops and gooey centers swirled together with soft, chewy chocolate chip cookie dough – no grittiness, no greasiness, no disappointments. I’ll show you how with my easy, no-fail gluten-free baking tips.
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Best of the Best – Gluten-Free Brookies Recipe
When you’ve perfected two essential desserts, why not roll it into the best gluten-free brookies? Through many years of rigorously testing and creating tons of gluten-free dessert recipes, I’ve learned some easy hacks for eliminating common problems both in GF cookies and bars.
To make the legit best gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, neither thin and greasy or gritty and dry, I landed on three simple baking secrets – resting the dough, baking at a lower oven temp, and using the “right” gluten-free flour.
For fudgy homemade gluten-free brownies creating a crackly crust, chewy edges, and fudgy center, meant adding a bit of cocoa powder to melted chocolate chips. This helps build up the structure and absorbs excess oil, which GF flour blends have a harder time doing.
Mashing both of these recipes together plays up what makes GF brookie bars great. Both use my favorite gluten-free flour blend to ensure a soft, not gritty, texture. Baking at a lower oven temp gently extends the baking time so the GF starches have extra time to absorb moisture-rich ingredients – melted chocolate chips, butter, and oil.
Finally, I pulled the whole recipe together in a way to maximize efficiency (pretty much also known as my toxic trait). While the warm chocolate butter mixture slightly cools for the brownies, the GF cookie dough is prepped. Then, as the cookie dough rests, the brownie batter finishes. Voilá, perfect swirled brownie cookies, without a moment wasted!
Free Guide! 5 easy tips for baking like a gluten-free pro!
Simple hacks for fail-proof gluten-free dishes every time!
Ingredient Tid Bits
Even though making cookie brownies from scratch means prepping two different recipes, all the ingredients are crossed over in each recipe. Plus, I bet you have everything you need right in your kitchen. You will need two bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
I like using a mixture of regular and and miniature chocolate chips for the cookie dough, but no need to buy a third bag of chips if you don’t have them on hand already. I just like how the smaller chips disperses throughout the cookie dough more.
Let’s Make This Together!
(Below shows step-by-step photos and modified instructions. For the complete recipe, along with ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card.)
Begin with GF brownie batter
Grab a large enough saucepan to combine all the ingredients in for the brownies. Melt together the butter, sugar, and water, bringing to a low boil. Remove from heat and stir in 2 cups chocolate chips until melted. The mixture will have to cool slightly before stirring in the eggs, vanilla, gluten-free flour, baking soda, and salt – the perfect time to start on the cookie dough!
Move on to cookie dough
In a large mixing bowl combine the warm, melted butter, sugars, egg, milk and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, and salt. At this point the dough will be pretty soft, but that’s okay. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Time to bring it all together
I put a lot of thought into the best way to layer brownies and chocolate chip cookies. You could make these into two separate layers, but I like the marbled look and it evens out the baking time, so you don’t have one layer done before the other.
To do this easily, I use a medium cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough at the bottom of a greased or parchment-lined 9X13-inch baking pan. You can use that same cookie scoop in fill in the spaces in between with brownie batter.
Swirly finishing touches and bake
Now take a butter knife and cut through the batter both vertically and horizontally to mix the doughs together. You can sprinkle on more chocolate chips on top (why not?!) and then sprinkle the top with flaky sea salt. Bake in a 325℉ oven for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out without wet dough.
If you’d rather make a gluten-free brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe, that works too. No complaints there! You can play it up even more and brown the butter for the brownie batter before adding the chocolate chips to the saucepan.
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Chewy, Fudgy Gluten-Free Brookies Bars
Ingredients
Brownies
- ¾ cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (76 grams) unsalted butter, cubed
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup (255 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (107 grams) gluten-free all-purpose flour, I recommend Cup4Cup gluten free flour
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Cookie Dough
- 8 tablespoons (113 grams) unsalted butter , melted and warm
- ¾ cup (176 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk, optional, see recipe notes
- 1 ¾ cup (262 grams) gluten free all purpose flour, Cup4Cup gluten-free flour highly recommended
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips, I use ¾ cup regular and ¼ cup miniature
- optional flaky sea salt and additional chocolate chips, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
Brownies
- Grease a 9X13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and preheat the oven to 325ºF.
- In a large saucepan combine the sugar, cubed butter, and water over medium heat. Bring to just a boil, stirring constantly. Immediately remove from heat and stir in 2 cups chocolate chips until melted. Cool slightly, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, move to the cookie instructions and prepare the cookie dough.¾ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons water, 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- After slightly cooling, whisk in the eggs and vanilla vigorously into chocolate mixture.2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Stir in the gluten-free flour, unsweetened baking cocoa, baking soda, and salt to the saucepan.¾ cup gluten-free all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon salt
Cookie Dough
- In a large bowl or stand mixer beat together the warm melted butter, brown sugar, sugar, egg, optional milk, and vanilla until well combined.8 tablespoons unsalted butter , ¾ cup packed light brown sugar, 1 large egg, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon milk
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix on low speed until combined and no flour pockets remain. Stir in chocolate chips or mix in on low speed. The dough will be slightly sticky and soft.1 ¾ cup gluten free all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Assembly and Baking:
- Use a medium cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough all over the bottom of the pan. If you do not have a cookie scoop, use two spoons to scrape off about 2 tablespoon-sized cookie dough blobs.
- Use the same medium scoop to divide up all the brownie batter between the cookie dough. It is okay if the brownie mixture covers some of the cookie dough.
- Take a butter knife and swirl the two mixtures together into a marble-effect. Cut into the dough horizontally, then go back though and cut in lengthwise. If desired, sprinkle the top with additional chocolate chips and flaky sea salt.
- Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs, but not wet dough. Let the bars cool for 1 hour before slicing and serving.
Notes
Optional Milk
Since Cup4Cup has changed their formula I find baked goods to be a little drier. To fix this, add 1 tablespoon milk. This also works well with King Arthur Measure-for-Measure, but isn’t necessary with Bob’s Red Mill, which has a tendency to be looser and spread and lot more.This post contains affiliate links. My opinions are always my own. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link, I make a small commission – at no cost to you. Read full disclosure policy here.
