Desserts are my weakness, and Trader Joe’s, which is a cousin to Aldi, sells some tempting desserts. My family likes their Hold the Cone! Mini Ice Cream Cones, their Sublime Ice Cream Sandwiches, their macarons, and their Danish kringle, among other products.
Trader Joe’s recently announced the winners of their 14th Annual Customer Choice Awards, and their mini ice cream cones took first place in the dessert category. One of the runners up was a product I’ve heard about, but I had not yet tried it: the Brookie. I figured it was time to fix that, and I picked up a Brookie on my next Trader Joe’s run.
The Brookie is a play on words, a combination of a brownie and a cookie — two of the most popular desserts around. It comes in two varieties, both featuring a brownie base topped with a cookie layer. You can choose a classic chocolate chip cookie version or a peanut butter cookie version. For review purposes, I went with the chocolate chip cookie version.
The Trader Joe’s Brownie + Cookie = Brookie, or Trader Joe’s Brookie, cost $4.49 for an 11-ounce package at the time of publication. The package describes this as “fudge brownie batter topped with chocolate chip cookie batter baked together for a sweet combination of two favorite treats.”
Trader Joe’s stocks these among their baked goods. The Brookie I purchased had a best-by date of about four days out, so you’ll want to eat this soon after buying it.
This is kosher. Trader Joe’s website states this is made by an Ohio baker.
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains milk, egg, soy, and wheat. The rest of the ingredients are fairly straightforward for a baked dessert, although this does contain some processed ingredients such as natural flavor and soy lecithin.
Nutrition information and ingredients, part one. (Click to enlarge.)
Nutrition information and ingredients, part two. (Click to enlarge.)
One container has eight pieces, and they are pre-scored so it’s easy to break off one piece at a time. Each piece is considered one serving, although you may view two pieces as a more realistically sized serving. One piece has 160 calories, 8 grams of total fat (10% DV), 3 grams of saturated fat (15% DV), 125 mg of sodium (5% DV), 22 grams of total carbohydrates (8% DV), and 14 grams of added sugars (28% DV).
Two servings.
Trader Joe’s indicates you can eat this straight out of the package as it is, or you can warm it up and serve it with scoops of French vanilla ice cream. As much as I like ice cream, my family sampled this without any accompaniments so we could really taste the Brookie.
We were surprised by how soft this is for a store-bought brownie/cookie. The brownie portion is fudgy and chewy and chocolaty, while the cookie portion everything we want in a chocolate chip cookie. This disappeared quickly.
While this wouldn’t be hard to make at home using a boxed brownie mix and homemade chocolate chip cookie dough, TJ’s takes the work out of it. The small portion sizes also help if you’re trying not to overindulge. (If you do want to make something like this at home, Aldi sometimes sells a chocolate chip cookie brownie bar mix that is really good.)
I can see why this is a favorite among Trader Joe’s shoppers, and while I don’t typically make a habit of buying ready-baked brownies or cookies, it’s worth trying at least once. I might have to go back to get the peanut butter version.
The Verdict:
The Trader Joe’s Brookie features a brownie base topped with chocolate chip cookie, all baked together for a mashup of two popular desserts. This is so popular it was a runner up in Trader Joe’s recent Customer Choice Awards. It was softer and fresher than we expected for a store-bought baked good, and it made for a satisfying after-dinner snack. Could we make a version of this at home by baking our own brownies and cookies? Sure. But then we’d be tempted to eat the entire pan. At least this comes in a small enough package that you hopefully won’t do too much damage to your healthy eating plans.
