Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel {Gluten Free}

These Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel are indulgence on top of decadence! Eggless chocolate chip cookie dough balls are dipped in salted caramel, then coated in chocolate salted caramel brownies, and dipped in chocolate. They’re gluten free, so easy to make and absolutely to die for!

Gluten Free Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel - a pile of brownie bombs on a white cake stand, with a bite taken out of the top one

Being a food blogger is hard work. There’s the recipe planing, the recipe testing, the photographing, editing the photos, writing the post. A lot goes into these humble little posts. But I think the hardest part is coming up with the recipe name! Especially for something as over the top as these beauties! I mean, if it’s a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, that’s easy. But when so many layers make up the final product, each as delicious as the next, how do you decide on a name that does it justice and really tells your readers what they’re in for, without writing an essay as a title? I swear, naming a child would be easier sometimes.  Hopefully my final recipe title has captured the deliciousness of these cookie dough brownie bombs that I’m about to share with you!

Gluten Free Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel - A stack of three brownie bombs

These incredible beauties were created for Yum of the Month. In case you have forgotten, Yum of the Month is a monthly challenge with a group of amazing bloggers, each month we choose a theme and see what we can come up with. This month’s theme was chocolate chip cookies – anything goes, as long as it’s based on the humble, yummy chocolate chip cookie. I had a few ideas swimming around, and most of them included chocolate chip cookie dough! These Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel were actually my first idea but I went with another idea to begin with, cookie dough stuffed cupcakes – which would have been incredible if I hadn’t had a bit of accident with my baking powder. I will definitely be revisiting that idea soon! But really the cupcake disaster was a blessing on disguise, because now I have these bites of heaven in my life. Seriously you guys, these are just amazing! I mean there’s chocolate chip cookie dough, salted caramel, fudgy brownies and milk chocolate. It’s everything you love in one ball of decadence! Whoever said you shouldn’t have too much of a good thing had clearly never tried these!

Gluten Free Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel - close up of a brownie bomb with a bite taken out of it

 

These babies are also gluten free, and the best thing about that is they can easily be made non-gluten free if you’re not catering to any gluten-free diets. And that brings us to the reason why I have been a bit quiet on the blog lately! I’ve recently found out that I’m gluten intolerant, for months I was feeling awful every time I ate – I would get dizzy, shaky, extremely tired and basically feel like I’d been hit with the flu. Gluten intolerance didn’t even cross my mind until I spoke to a few friends and they said it sounded like symptoms they had/family members with an intolerance had. It’s been a big transition and, I’ll be honest, I’m not the best at sticking to this new diet! But I am making progress.

Gluten Free Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel - three rows of brownie bombs on a wire rack

The hardest part has been baking. Gluten free baking is VERY different to regular baking, and I really didn’t expect the transition to be so hard. I taught myself to bake about 7 years ago and I picked up the ins and outs pretty quickly. So it’s been frustrating that it hasn’t happened as easily with gluten free baking. There’s been a lot of failures, a lot! But this is my first success! These cookie dough brownie bombs are perfect and not an ounce of gluten in sight! And the best part, it was SO easy! I used Doves Farm Gluten Free Plan White Flour Blend {affiliate link*} which is a 1:1 swap with regular plain (all purpose) flour. I haven’t always found that to be the case, but it worked perfectly for this recipe so it’s on my good side again! For these I adapted the cookie dough balls from my Chocolate Chip Cookie Ultimate Layer Cake (cheesecake layer) and my favourite brownie recipe to make them gluten free. The salted caramel and chocolate are naturally gluten free (make sure you check the label on your chosen chocolate to make sure there’s no hidden gluten though!). And the fact that it was so easy to adapt these to be gluten free, means it’s easy to make non-gluten free, just use regular plain/all purpose flour and bob’s your uncle! 

Gluten Free Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel - a brownie bomb with a bite taken out of it on top of another

These cookie dough brownie bombs are not only incredible delicious and decadent. they’re so easy to make and barely take any time at all. However, they are messy! You WILL be covered in brownie and caramel by the end of it, but it’s totally worth it! There isn’t very much hands on time at all, but you will need to do some chilling. You need to chill them balls after each step, as it makes it much easier to handle and put it all together. And, trust me, whoever tries these cookie dough brownie bombs is gonna be forever in your debt. They’re perfect for parties as you can eat them in two bites, and nobody cares about calories at a party! They would be totally awesome for Christmas too, you could decorate them as little Christmas puddings! Delicious and adorable! Let’s get to the recipe, shall we?

Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel {Gluten Free}

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 18

Edible cookle dough is dipped in salted caramel and then covered in brownies. They are then dipped in milk chocolate. These cookie dough brownie bombs are pure delicious decadence!

Ingredients

For the brownies:

  • 115g (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 150g (5.5oz) dark chocolate (divided intil 100g (3.5oz) and 50g (2oz))
  • 50g (1/4 cup) white sugar
  • 125g (1/2 cup packed, + 2tbsp) brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 115g (3/4 cup + 2tbsp) gluten free plain flour blend*

For the cookie dough balls:

  • 115g (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 110g (1/2 cup packed + 1 tbsp) brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 140g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) gluten free plain flour blend*
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 100g (2/3 cup) mini chocolate chips

For the salted caramel:

  • 225g (1 cup) white sugar
  • 90g (6 tbsp) salted butter
  • 125ml (1/2 cup) double (heavy) cream
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)
  • 1 tsp sea salt

For the coating:

  • 500g (18oz) milk chocolate
  • chocolate chips or sprinkles for decorating (optional)

Instructions

Brownies:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a 9 x 13" brownie pan with parchment paper.
  2. Melt the butter, 100g of the chocolate and sugar together in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stir in between. Once melted and smooth, leave to cool slightly.
  3. In a large bowl, add the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and melted chocolate mix and beat together with a wooden spoon.
  4. Sift in the cocoa powder, and add the baking powder, salt and flour and beat to combine.
  5. Break the remaining 50g chocolate into small pieces and fold into the batter.
  6. Spread the batter into your prepared pan and smooth to an even layer. It will be quite a thin layer of batter.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out with moist crumbs. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
  8. While the brownies are baking you can make the cookie dough balls and salted caramel.

Cookie dough balls:

  1. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamed.
  2. Add the milk and vanilla, and beat to combine.
  3. Stir in the flour and salt until it forms a soft dough. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  4. Roll into 18 balls, about 1 tbsp per ball. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the fridge to chill.

Salted caramel:

  1. Put the sugar in a medium sized heavy bottom saucepan. Put on a medium heat and cook sugar until it's melted and a deep amber, do not stir while it melts.
  2. Once the sugar has melted, add the butter and stir in until butter is melted. Be careful, as it may bubble and splutter.
  3. Slowly pour in the cream and stir in, be careful as again it may bubble and splutter.
  4. Add the syrup and stir. Leave to bubble for 60 seconds.
  5. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt
  6. Carefully pour into a heat proof bowl and leave to cool for at least 20 minutes.

To assemble.

  1. When the salted caramel is cool enough to handle, take the cookie dough balls out of the fridge.
  2. Dip each ball into the salted caramel and cover it completely. Replace onto the baking sheet and stick in the freezer while you prepare the brownie layer (keep them in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes). You will have salted caramel left, approximately half of the batch - don't worry if its a bit more or less. You'll be using this for the brownie layer.
  3. Break up the brownies and put in a large bowl. Use your hands to turn them into crumbs. Pour in the remaining salted caramel and stir to combine.
  4. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Take the dough balls out of the freezer and here comes the really messy part. Take about 1.5 tbsp of the brownie mixture and flatten in your palm so you have a large, dense disc of brownie. Place a caramel coated cookie dough ball in the centre and wrap the brownie around the ball, and roll around in your palm gently to help it all get coated and keep a ball shape. Place on the new prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all cookie dough balls are covered.
  6. Place bake in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.
  7. Put the 500g milk chocolate in a heat proof bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals to melt, stirring in between each interval, until melted and smooth.
  8. Put a long sheet of parchment paper on your work top and place a wire cooling rack of the top.
  9. Take your cookie dough brownie bombs out of the freezer. Dip the bottom into the chocolate and place on the wire rack, then spoon chocolate over the top and use the spoon to smooth it around the sides of the ball, until all covered in chocolate. Repeat with all balls. Sprinkle chocolate chips or sprinkles over the top.
  10. Transfer back to the baking sheet and place in the fridge or freezer until chocolate is set.
  11. Enjoy!

Notes

*gluten free flour blend can be subbed with regular plain/all purpose flour, using the same measurements. Please note that the cups measurements have not been tested for this recipe, these are standard conversions. Weighing is always more accurate. If using cups, please click here for my measurement conversion page for more info on how to measure correctly using cups

Gluten Free Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs with Salted Caramel - a group of brownie bombs, the focus is on the middle brownie bomb

I hope that you’re as excited about these cookies dough brownie salted caramel bombs as I am! Because I know you’re just gonna love these, how could you not! I had so much fun making them too. Oh, it’s good to be back!

So, what did our fellow Yum of the Monther’s make for this month’s theme?

Amy from Accidental Happy Baker made this gorgeous Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie – everything you love about a gooey chocolate chip cookie warm from the oven in a delicious pie! Hand me a slice please!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie by Accidental Happy Baker

And Wajeeha from I Knead To Eat made a Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed with Peanut Butter Cups and I am in heaven! Because what’s the only thing better than a chocolate chip cookie? A giant one with added peanut butter!!

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed with Peanut Butter Cups by I Knead to Eat

 

{*If you purchase through affiliate links I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping continue to share these recipes with you!}

26 comments

  1. jane @ littlesugarsnaps says:

    I’m so pleased you are back. Your recipes are always outstanding and well, I can’t begin to imagine learning to bake all over again with a new set of rules. I’m in awe. It’s also great that you are making progress and getting back to health. I’ll be hanging on for more GF goodies from you to surprise a friend next time he visits.

  2. Michele says:

    I love small bites of deliciousness…. and the fact that has brownies, caramel and so much chocolate? Winning! Well except for my waistline, but Im willing to take one for the team and eat more than anyone else! Pinning!

  3. Amy @ Accidental Happy Baker says:

    Michelle, your photos are always so fantastic! I have a coworker who is gluten intolerant and I always fee so bad that she can rarely have the snacks brought to work. So glad to see this recipe, I know that she would love it if I brought a stack of these in.

  4. Caroline says:

    Oh my, these sound amazing! Sorry you have been ill but glad you found the reason, even if adapting to being gluten free can be a bit challenging (I am sure I would find it a little tricky, although I have made a number of gluten free things – feel free to take a look for ideas 🙂 ) And welcome back at FF!

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