Brownie Bark — Warning, it is Addictive.
Last week my friend Nancy (Tag Sale Tastes) and I were discussing our favorite brands of packaged cookies. I told her my favorite cookie was an Oreo, and she told me hers was a thin, crisp cookie called Brownie Brittle. Nancy was so in love with it that she sent me a bag to sample. The whole family loved it.
Rather than drive to Central Market for another bag, I decided to come up with my own recipe. What I liked about the brittle Nancy sent me was that the flavor was very much like a brownie and the texture was extra crispy without being greasy or having any sort of burnt taste. After making 5 different versions, I settled on this one. It’s not the same as the brownie brittle Nancy sent me (which I’ve since seen at Costco), but it’s really good. Since creating this one, I’ve come up with a peanut butter brittle/bark called Monster Bark and a Snickerdoodle Cookie Bark.
- 2 large egg whites
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar plus 1 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoon of Hershey’s Dark cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 tablespoon of nonfat dry milk powder
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour -- make sure to aerate and stir before measuring.
- 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips plus a couple of tablespoons extra
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a heavy duty 13x18 inch baking sheet with nonstick foil or parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy. Gradually whisk in the sugar, then whisk in the cocoa powder, oil and vanilla until smooth. Whisk in the salt and baking powder (making sure the baking powder doesn’t clump), then whisk in the nonfat milk powder. Add the flour and stir until smooth, then stir in ½ cup of the chocolate chips.
- Empty batter onto the lined cookie sheet and spread as thinly as possible using the back of a spoon or scraper. Sprinkle a few more chocolate chips into areas where they did not clump together (the chips tend to congregate). Remember to try to make the bark as thin as possible.
- Bake on center rack for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. With a pizza cutter or knife, cut into pieces without separating – you want shards, similar to what you’d get if making peanut brittle. Return to oven for 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely. Pull apart. At this point, it should be completely crisp. If you are left with a few thick, chewy, pieces, return them to the oven and bake at 250 for 20 minutes, then re-cool. If your batter is thin enough the first time, you should not need the second bake.
If you don't have any nonfat milk powder, just skip it. I think it adds a little crispness, but I forgot to add it to one batch and the bark was fine.
Hello Martha! Thanks for the review, and I’m also glad to hear you made it work with the extra cocoa.
Pleasantly surprised with the outcome since I added 1/4 cup of cocoa versus the required 1 1/2TBL. Ugh! To remedy my error, I decided that I would omit the dry milk powder and removed 1 TBL of AP flour from the 1/2 cup. I only had mini chocolate chips too, and they spread out easily on the cookie sheet. I followed your baking directions exactly, and they turned our great!
Just made this yesterday. Didn’t have any cocoa so I used dark hot chocolate mix instead. Everybody loved them! Thanks for the recipe!
I made this. I used 3/4 cup sugar, no powdered milk, and subbed sweet potato puree for the oil. It worked. The kids ate it up and said I could make it again.
Thank you.
I think it would be fine. Good luck!
I dont think I have nonfat dry milk power, would ordinary powdered milk work?
I make brittle with brownie mix, I use coffee in place of water a little more than called for,
Thanks Anna,
I guess I will be baking several more batches…you and your friends are really creative…my husband doesn’t care…just as long as I keep on baking! (He loves cookies!!)
Last night I went back and read all the posts and got a few more ideas…
This is fun!
Hello Ramona,
Thanks for the update! It sounds like the person that came up with the box mix recipe knew what they were doing when they called for whole eggs. I suppose whatever is in the mix needs that little bit of tenderizing or softening from the yolks. My scratch recipe does not, which is why I used whites. I would love for you to try the scratch version and compare it with the box version. I’m sure they are both good, but I think you’ll find the scratch version to be less crunchy. It it crunchy, but not tooth breakingly hard.
Hi Anna,
I just baked a batch tonight.. based on the amount of flour in the box mix I upped
the egg whites to four..and added more water to the mix..
I ended up cooking them 40 minutes total; two times 20 plus the 5 minutes after scoring..they are real crunchy but are more of a cookie crunch than a bark crunch..
does that make sense?
I may try your recipe next to see what it’s like and then try another store mix that I bought from Sam’s club late last year!
Regardless, my husband likes them!
Hi Ramona,
I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve seen it done. My reason for using the egg whites was for a little extra crunch. Yolks tend to add softness, but I wanted a hard and crunchy bark. If someone formulated a bark recipe with eggs, you might want to go ahead and do it the way that person suggested. If it’s not hard and crunchy enough for you, go with the equivalent amount of whites. Have fun with the boxed version! Let me know how it works out.
I just discovered your recipe here after buying “brownie bark” at our local Food Lion!
We just love it and want to make it ourselves since it is expensive and will be a seasonal thing where we live.
I would like to use a brownie box mix that I have in my pantry as the base for making brownie bark!
Has anyone tried to do this already and what was their results?
The recipe calls for 1-2 eggs and I am guessing to just use egg whites.
I made this recipe this afternoon and it turned out really great. My husband, son and I all LOVE it. I substituted mini m&m’s for the chocolate chips because I had them on hand. My only regret is that I waited so long to try this. Thanks for the recommendation Anna! This is a keeper recipe.
The version of this I made last week using a chocolate cake mix is closer in taste and sweetness to the Shelia G’s version. I find this stuff crazy addictive (especially sprinkled with some Maldon salt before baking).
Holly, I hope you like it! I’ve made it many, many times since I came up with this version and it’s pretty adaptable to variations. I like it drizzled with melted chocolate. Mine is definitely different than Sheila’s, though. Hers is so thin and light, while this one is crunchier and more cookie-ish.
I used higher quality baking cocoa and Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips that I sprinkled on top. It turned out AWESOME! It also works well on a silicone baking mat so you don’t have to fight with foil or paper.
I had some brownie brittle recently, and loved it, so was very excited to try your recipe. It is delicious! Different, yes, but very good. My kids love it, too. 🙂
Some things I learned from making my second batch:
Foil might be easier to spread upon: parchment paper slides a lot. It is nice, however, to slide it off the pan to cool when it comes out of the oven. (Faster into my mouth. Haha)
Sprinkle the chips after spreading. It makes the spreading a lot easier.
If you mix the ingredients minus the sugar, baking powder and egg whites first in one bowl, then mix the sugar and egg whites until they are at soft peaks, then mix the baking powder into the chocolate mixture and drizzle it into the egg whites while mixing to blend, it will be fluffier and a bit easier to spread. The trade off is another bowl to wash.
When scoring, cut in pretty small pieces (like 1.5 inches square.) It’s much richer than I expected!
Also, I used Ghirardelli cocoa and it was fantastic. I think it would also be really good with a bit of espresso powder to really intensify the chocolate flavor.
Thanks for the great recipe! Not only do we have tasty treats, my house smells AWESOME!!! 😀
OMG Sheila’s Brownie Brittle. It is definitely addicting. I can’t stop sneaking into the kitchen for more. It’s almost embarrassing. Definitely like brownie crack. It’s definitely a Costco find. On line it is $12.99 for a pound not including shipping and only $6.99 at Costco.
Glad the quadrupling worked!
Thanks for this recipe! I had this stuff before a Costco and it was amazing! I quadrupled this recipe and it turned out great!
Thanks for the variation! Good to know for people who out of or don’t want to buy the dry milk.
Hi Anna,
Loved the idea, and just pulled mine out of the oven. After reading the comments, i used 3/4 cup sugar, and no powdered milk. I must say they are VERY GOOD! Thank you for sharing!!
Hi Robin,
You could try adding more mini chocolate chips, that might help. Personally, I thought they had enough chocolate and I’m a chocoholic. Sheila’s seemed sweeter to me, and definitely lighter textured.
Made these today. Came out great but any way to make them more chocolatey like Sheila G?
Omg this are the best you can buy them at Costco
I just bought a 4 oz. package of this Brownie Brittle at Wallly World on sale for under $2.00. It’s awesome!
Heh..heh…took my large bag from Costco to a dog agility trial I was competing in as it was WAY too dangerous to have at my place given I live alone…all that tried it agreed a better name for it would be Brownie Crack as it is INCREDIBLY addicting!
Hooray! Glad you like it!!! I bought a bag of Sheila’s today and did a comparison. Mine is much thicker and more like a cookie, while hers is sweeter and brittle. It fits its name. I liked both. About that oatmeal version, I think I saw it in a Helen Corbitt cookbook, so I’ll go dig it up. Helen’s is more like an oatmeal lace cookie brittle and definitely more of a brittle than a bark.
Hi Anna — this is fantastic. I think you have the correct ratios… it’s not too sweet, nice texture, good intense chocolate flavour… Thank you for another winning recipe! I’ll see if I can hunt down an oatmeal version.
Hi Carolyn, I’m really looking forward to your opinion! Let me know if you think it needs to be thinner/crunchier/sweeter/less sweet, because there are lots of different ratios that can be used. Oatmeal bark would be fun! I’ve seen versions of it here and there (maybe called oatmeal brittle?) but I don’t remember trying it.
I have this in the oven as I write this. Thinking that this could be good at Christmas with the addition of a bit of mint extract.
Anna…. would an oatmeal cookie bark be possible?
Thank you for feeding my cookie passion with so many yummy recipes?
Oh what a great idea! Brownie Bark! Brownies are my favorite treat, so I can’t wait to try this. And I love Martha’s idea to make this a Halloween treat with drizzled orange and white chocolate.
At my Costco Brownie Brittle was on an end display by the Ghiradelli brownie mix….not anywhere near the other packages cookies or bakery stuff!
I’m going to have to check Costco again. I did find it at Central Market here in Austin, though.
For Halloween, I think after breaking up the bark, you could drizzle on melted orange-colored white chocolate for a holiday look. Then all you need are some clear Halloween-decorated bags & you’ve got great goody bags.
Hi Ela,
Yes, it stayed crispy. I think the lack of egg yolks helps in that department.
This is something new to me. Did it remain crispy even after a day? Thanks.
oh my gosh how creative and delicious!
This I have to try!!!!! I don’t have Hershey dark cocoa but I think when I make it I will use a touch of the chocolate extract that you, Anna, MADE me get! LOL.
Great idea – looking forward to trying it!
Rhonda, I’m so glad you liked those! Did you use grapeseed oil or another type of vegetable oil?
Good luck with the bark. Also, if you just want a small batch, the recipe halves well.
We like the one bowl oatmeal cookies from last week so much, I baked a second batch yesterday.
This one looks good and maybe I can bake it while my grand daughter naps this afternoon. I’ve never heard of anything like them before.
I can’t wait to try this recipe this weekend! They look fabulous!
Sue, I have a really good cookie brittle in The Daily Cookie, but I didn’t think of doing a brownie version. If you try this, let me know. I’ve made it 5 times varying the amount of ingredients, but there’s always room for improvement. I’m hoping people experiment and post results.
What a good idea!!