You know, of all the things I’ve baked, of all the recipes I’ve ever tried, I do not believe I have ever actually attempted to make my own chocolate chip cookies. There have been, of course, the many occasions that I’d make the store bought, frozen dough kind or just use the cookie dough that my mom made for us to eat, but I can’t recall ever actually making my own cookies. I suppose it’s because I always thought that chocolate chip cookies were too generic. How unoriginal and boring of me to make chocolate chip cookies, right? Everyone and their dog makes chocolate chip cookies so why should I? Well I obviously had no idea just how great Alton Brown’s recipe for “The Chewy” was because if I had I for sure would have made these a long time ago! I don’t know why it took me so long to jump onto “The Chewy” bandwagon given the recent significant increase in chocolate chip cookie posts thanks to Joy’s experiment and the NY Times’ article. I’m so glad I finally made these too because they are FANTASTIC!

Now of course, knowing me and my baking addiction, I couldn’t possibly just stop with cookies. I had to make something else, something to add to my chocolate chip cookie theme. That’s when it hit me! Why not try my own version of the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes? They’d been on the top of my ‘Future Things to Bake’ list for ages so this was the perfect opportunity to finally commit to baking them. I already had the cookie dough so all I needed was to find all of the extra components that I would need in order to make things happen.

My first thought was to make brown sugar cupcakes because the dough of chocolate chip cookies uses mainly brown sugar vs. white, granulated sugar. Not only did brown sugar cupcakes sound enticing, but these cupcakes would also remain very moist for a while due to the molasses in the brown sugar trying to draw in moisture. This is baking science 101, kids, and very handy at that!

Now what was next to figure out? Oh, yes! What kind of frosting would I use? Well, I had seen on sites such as How To Eat A Cupcake that they actually combined cookie dough into a vanilla flavored frosting. How ingenious was that! As Jamieanne from The Cupcake Review had noted, the frosting seemed very similar to that of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and was a perfect way to compliment the brown sugar cupcakes. Of course, fearing for disease from raw egg in cookie dough that would be sitting out on cupcakes, like any right minded person should, I went and made an extra cookie dough that contained no eggs at all. No eggs, then no worries! All that was left was to bake mini versions of “The Chewy” to place on top of every cupcake in order to give them that last perfect touch.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Alton Brown’s “The Chewy”

(Recipe from Alton Brown)

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2-1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1-1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Note: You can actually watch Alton Brown’s chocolate chip cookie episode on youtube to see how a few changes to one recipe can produce either a thin, crispy, or chewy cookie: Part 1 | Part 2

**The dough placed in the cupcakes MUST be frozen in order to produce that nice gooey cookie dough center. You DO NOT want the dough to actually bake into a cookie.  Also remember to save some of the dough for your mini chocolate chip cookies to be used as decoration at the end!**

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
   
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
   
3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

For the dough center: Place dough in the freezer until it is firm enough to be rolled up into nice little balls. Take dough out, roll them into whatever size you desire (mine were probably as large as How To Eat A Cupcake’s) and then place back into freezer until completely frozen (I believe I did this step the night before when I made the dough).

For cookies: Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container. (For the mini cookies, I literally rolled up unbelievably tiny balls of cookie dough and then watched them like a hawk while baking. I cannot recall how long they took, but it shouldn’t have been too long.)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

(Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop. Makes about 12 cupcakes)

• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
3. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds after each.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
6. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
7. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
8. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
9. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
10. Place previously prepared frozen cookie dough ball (mine were fairly big) into cup liners, then fill about half to three-quarters full of cupcake batter.
11. Bake for 20-22 minutes until golden and the cake springs back when lightly touched. (Testing by using a toothpick would be insufficient because of the gooey cookie dough in the center).

Cookie Dough Frosting

(Recipe from The Cupcake Review. Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes.)

• 1-3/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Eggless cookie dough (recipe below)

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
2. Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
3. At this point you can mix in the eggless cookie dough. Mix in enough cookie dough to suit your taste. Any cookie dough leftover you can gladly eat! There are no eggs in it so it is safe. Yum!

Eggless Cookie Dough

(Recipe from How To Eat A Cupcake)

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Stir in mini chocolate chips (optional).
   
2. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
   

Complete Assembly

This is just a little summary of what you should have done:

1. Make cookie dough balls and place them in the freezer until ready to be used.
   
2. Insert a ball of cookie dough into each cupcake liner before baking.
   
3. Mix vanilla buttercream frosting with eggless cookie dough to create cookie dough frosting.
   
4. Allow cupcakes to cool, then pipe on cookie dough frosting.
   
5. Decorate by sprinkling on mini chocolate chips and topping with a mini chocolate chip cookie.
   

Viola! Cupcakes that not only taste like cookie dough, but also have the look of a cookie! These cupcakes can store for multiple days and will remain moist due to the brown sugar, but I’d still suggest eating them as soon as possible. Then again, who couldn’t resist gobbling these blessings up as soon as they can? They’re much too good to just stare at it! Definitely make these for your friends and loved ones and they will LOVE YOU forever!