Rainbow Brownie Cookies

These brownie cookies combine the fudgy chew of a brownie with the convenience of a drop cookie, then dress each one up with pastel-tinted frosting and colored sugar crystals. The dark chocolate base against those soft, rainbow-colored tops makes them a showstopper on any cookie tray.

The cookie dough is essentially a brownie batter made scoopable: brown sugar, cocoa powder, and a full bag of semisweet chocolate chips packed into a shortening-based dough. Baking for only 7 to 9 minutes keeps the centers soft and fudgy. These should look slightly underdone when you pull them out. They firm up on the sheet as they cool.

The frosting is a simple shortening-based buttercream divided into four bowls and tinted with a single drop of food coloring each. Pastel shades work best against the dark cookie. Bold, saturated colors look garish on chocolate, but soft pinks, blues, greens, and yellows look like spring.

Kitchen Tips

• Do not overbake. The recipe says it twice for good reason. The line between fudgy brownie cookie and dry chocolate disc is about 60 seconds.
• Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to foil. They’re too fragile to handle when hot.
• One drop of food coloring is usually enough for pastel frosting. Start with one and add more only if needed. You can always add color but you can’t take it away.
• Bake one sheet at a time for even heat distribution. Two sheets at once means the bottom one overbrowns.

Variations

• Holiday colors: Tint the frosting in seasonal colors: red and green for Christmas, pastels for Easter, orange and black for Halloween.
• Cream cheese frosting: Swap the shortening frosting for cream cheese frosting for a tangier, richer topping that pairs beautifully with chocolate.