Madhouse recipe : Brownie-style cookies

Now, these may not look like the most appetising biscuits in the world, but they were great for clearing out the kitchen cupboards and they tasted delicious. They were based on a recipe for Texas Sheet Cake Cookies over on the Little House Big Alaska blog, which I transformed to suit European measurements and ingredients. Hmmm I may have to make some more, as this first batch disappeared very swiftly !

Brownie-style cookies

ingredients :

100g butter + 2tbsp butter

75g caster sugar 

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

135g flour 

30g Cocoa Powder

icing ingredients :

75g butter

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp milk

450g caster sugar (or brown sugar - add sparingly until you reach the sweetness you desire)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Melt 2tbsp of butter, 75g of sugar and 30g cocoa powder together (in the microwave is simplest) and leave to cool.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and vanilla.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

Stir in the sugar/egg mixture ...

... and finally mix in the cocoa mixture.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and divide half of the cookie dough into twelve discs. Bake for 7/8 minutes until just starting to set. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Put on a cooling rack after a couple of minutes.

Put the butter, cocoa powder and milk in a bowl and zap it in the microwave until melted. Whisk together.

Mix in the sugar - I used up a bag of brown sugar but you can use regular white sugar. This is originally an American recipe, so you may find it too sweet - add the sugar sparingly and taste until you hit the right level of sweetness.

Once the cookies have cooled down, dip them in the icing (or spoon some over the top if you prefer).

Put them back on the kitchen paper to set then dig in ! They're not the most good-looking cookies I've ever made, but they tasted delicious and the kids couldn't get enough of them !

These used up some odds and ends from the baking cupboard - notably some brown sugar and cocoa powder - so I'm adding to this month's #KitchenClearout linky.