Slutty brownies buns take cookie dough, brownie batter and Oreos, and roll them up inside of a bun and top them with a cream cheese frosting. They’re basically a cinnamon roll, but with slutty brownies inside instead of cinnamon. I mean C’MON.
These slutty brownies buns are DECADENT. If you’ve never had a slutty brownie, they’re a dessert where you layer cookie dough on the bottom of a baking pan, then oreos, and then top them with brownie batter and bake. They’re over-the-top and as insanely delicious as they sound.
Slutty brownies buns — to my knowledge — have never been made before. Basically we take the slutty brownies trifecta of cookie dough, brownie batter and Oreos, roll them into the same dough you’d use for cinnamon rolls, and bake them and top them with cream cheese frosting. They’re nostalgic, surprisingly not too sweet, and are well balanced from the tang of the cream cheese frosting. And let me tell you, my friends’ jaws dropped when they tried these.
These slutty brownies buns stay soft for days thanks to an easy Japanese technique called tangzhong that we use in the dough, so you can easily make these a day ahead. Slutty brownies buns are definitely a baking project, since there are multiple components we need to make in order for them to shine. But they are SO worth it and you’ll feel like a an absolute baking god when you’re done.
This post is all about slutty brownies buns.
Slutty Brownies Buns
What are slutty brownies buns?
Slutty brownies buns are as if slutty brownies and cinnamon rolls had a baby. They take the three components of slutty brownies — chocolate chip cookie dough, brownie batter and Oreos — and roll them up inside of a cinnamon roll dough. There’s no cinnamon in these buns — we are essentially replacing cinnamon filling with slutty brownie filling.
After baking, we top the buns with a cream cheese frosting that adds a little tang to balance the sweetness of the slutty brownies ingredients. We top them with some extra cookie dough (the dough is egg-less, but you can heat treat the flour if you want it to be completely safe to eat) and Oreos, and boom, you have slutty brownies buns.
How to make slutty brownies buns
To make slutty brownies buns, we essentially make a few different components and roll them all together. First, we’ll make a cinnamon roll dough from King Arthur Flour that’s straightforward (and is their 2021 Recipe of the Year, so you know it rocks!). While the dough prooves, we’ll make a small batch of egg-less chocolate chip cookie dough and a small batch of super thick brownie batter (thick so it doesn’t seep out of the buns in the oven).
We’ll then roll the cookie dough, brownie batter and Oreos up into the bun dough, give them a final proof while the oven preheats, and bake them. While the slutty brownies buns bake, we make an easy 5-minute cream cheese frosting to spread on top.
I know these are a lot of different things to prep. If you’d like, you can use storebought cookie dough instead of homemade, but the rest you should really make at home. You can also prep the cookie dough, brownie batter and/or cream cheese frosting a day or two before you want to make these so it’s simpler day of.
I’ve never made cinnamon roll dough before — is it hard?
If you’ve never made cinnamon roll dough before, the number one thing is to follow the recipe. Making yeasted dough for the first time can be a little intimidating, but biting into your own homemade buns is SO rewarding. Follow the process and don’t stress — we’re out here baking to have fun!
Ingredients for slutty brownies buns
This is the full list of ingredients you’ll need for the bun dough, cookie dough, brownie batter and cream cheese frosting. Most are common pantry ingredients, but there may be a few things you’ll need to pick up at the grocery store!
- All purpose flour
- Bread flour (We need this for the bun dough. Bread flour has a higher protein than all purpose, which is important for building strength in yeasted doughs.)
- Whole milk
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- One egg
- Cocoa powder (Dutch process cocoa powder is preferable)
- Chocolate chips (I prefer mini for the cookie dough, but regular chocolate chips or a chopped chocolate bar also work!)
- Kosher salt or another coarse salt
- INSTANT yeast (make sure it’s instant, not active dry yeast!)
- Cream cheese
- Oreos
- Heavy cream (optional, to drizzle over the rolls before baking)
Tips for the best slutty brownies buns
- If you want to streamline the bun making process, you can make the cookie dough, brownie batter and/or cream cheese frosting the day before. There’s time to make them while the bun dough prooves, but sometime it’s nice having a little prep done ahead.
- Properly measure your flour. I always use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients and include the measurements in grams in the recipe so you can, too. You can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale). If you’re using a cup measure instead of a scale, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure.
- Use a ruler to measure your rolled-out dough to get perfectly shaped buns. Keep the edges square and the shape as close to a rectangle as possible to make sure your rolls are even.
- Pour heavy cream over the buns before baking them. This helps them turn out super soft!
- Only frost the slutty brownies buns when you’re ready to eat them. Because these slutty brownies buns stay soft for days, you may want to make them a day ahead, or you may want to eat only a few at a time. It’s best to frost the rolls when they’re warm and you’re ready to eat them, otherwise the frosting will melt a bit when you reheat them.
Slutty brownies buns FAQs
Yes! You can easily double every part of this recipe to make 16 rolls instead of 8.
You can use storebought cookie dough for this recipe. Just be aware that this cookie dough may not be safe to eat, so you may want to forgo the cookie dough balls on top of the dough. I do not recommend using storebought brownie mix, as we add extra flour to this brownie batter so that it’s a bit thicker and doesn’t leak out of the buns while they bake.
You do you! You can eat slutty brownies buns for breakfast, a midday snack or dessert — whatever you feel.
These slutty brownies buns take 2 1/2 – 3 hours to make start to finish, including proofing time. You can either make them right before you’re ready to eat, or you can make them the day before and then warm and frost the rolls before eating. Because these buns use the tangzhong technique, the dough stays super soft for days.
You can also make the cookie dough, brownie batter and cream cheese frosting ahead of time and keep them in the fridge for easier assembly.
These slutty brownies buns can stay out on the counter the day that you make them. If you have any left over, they’ll keep in the fridge for 4-5 days. You can also freeze any unfrosted buns to eat later.
Looking for more great recipes?
- If you’re now in your bun / cinnamon roll era, check out dirty chai cinnamon rolls and carrot cake cinnamon rolls.
- If you now want to eat cookie dough by the gallon, try edible chocolate chip cookie dough for 2 and edible peanut butter cookie dough for 2.
- If you’re craving more nostalgic desserts, check out birthday cake blondies, almond frangipane blondies (they swirl the filling used in almond croissants into blondie batter) and BIG chocolate chip cookies.
Did you make these slutty brownies buns? Please leave a rating and review below and tag me on Instagram or TikTok at @loaves.and.such!
Slutty Brownies Buns
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Bun dough from King Arthur Flour
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Ingredients
- For the bun tangzhong
1/2 cup (113 grams) whole milk
3 TBS. (24 grams) bread flour
- For the bun dough
2/3 cup (151 grams) cold whole milk
2 1/2 cups (300 grams) bread flour
1 tsp. (6 grams) kosher salt or another coarse salt
2 TBS. (25 grams) granulated sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast
4 TBS. (57 grams) unsalted butter, softened
Heavy cream
- For the cookie dough
1 1/2 sticks (12 TBS., 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup + 2 TBS. (226 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
1 TBS. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. kosher salt or another coarse salt
Scant 1 3/4 cups (203 grams) all purpose flour
Chocolate chips to taste (mini chocolate chips are great here!)
- For the brownie batter
2 TBS. unsalted butter
3 TBS. (.66 ounces) chocolate chips
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. kosher salt or another coarse salt
1 1/2 TBS. cocoa powder (preferably Dutch process)
1/3 cup (40 grams) all purpose flour
- For the cream cheese frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBS. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 TBS. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 heaping cup powdered sugar
Directions
- Make the tangzhong. Add the milk and flour in a saucepan and whisk until you have an even liquid with no lumps of flour. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously with a small spatula. Somewhere beween 1 and 3 minutes, the mixture is going to thicken to a paste. When that happens, remove from the burner and scrape the tangzhong into a large mixing bowl.
- To your large bowl, add the milk and then the rest of the dough ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, yeast, salt). The heat from the tangzhong will help warm the milk.
- Mix the ingredients together using the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer, or by stirring together with a spatula. Then knead the dough until it is smooth and tacky to the touch. This should take either 15 minutes by hand or 10-12 minutes on the medium-low setting of a stand mixer.
- Shape the dough into a ball in the bowl and cover the bowl wth plastic wrap or a reusable cover. Let the dough rise until it’s puffy and at least doubled in size, about 60 to 90 minutes. If you have a warmer kitchen, the dough may be proofed quicker, and if you have a cooler kitchen it may take more time.
- While the dough is proofing, make the cookie dough and brownie batter. To make the cookie dough, mix the melted butter and sugar together in a medium-sized bowl until combined. Stir in the milk, vanilla and salt, then fold in the flour and chocolate chips.
- To make the brownie batter, melt the butter and chocolate chips together in a microwave or on the stovetop over very low heat. Add to a medium-sized bowl, and mix in the sugar. Let the mixture cool slightly so it doesn’t cook the egg. Then mix in the egg, vanilla extract and salt. Stir in the cocoa powder and then fold in the flour.
- When the dough is done proofing, spread it on a lightly floured surface and roll into a 12×15-inch rectangle (30.5 x 38cm), with the short side as the bottom. Use a ruler for reference and try to get real rectangle corners rather than shaping it like an oval in order, so that you get evenly shaped slutty brownies buns.
- Sprinkle the cookie dough and brownie batter evenly across the dough, leaving a 2-inch gap at the top, which will help seal the buns. Roll the dough into a tight log from the bottom up. Using a knife, score out the log into 8 rolls. Then cut the rolls using a sharp knife or a serrated bread knife.
- Evenly space the cinnamon rolls into a greased 9×13 baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let them proof a second time until they’ve puffed up. This should take 30-60 minutes.
- When the rolls are almost done with their second proof, preheat the oven to 375°F. When the rolls are ready, pour a little bit of heavy cream in between and over the rolls (this helps keep them super soft). Then bake the rolls, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes. They’re done when the tops of the buns are golden brown and don’t look very raw/doughy.
- While the rolls are in the oven, make the cream cheese frosting. Whip together the room temperature cream cheese and butter on medium until fluffy, then mix in the milk, vanilla extract and powdered sugar on low until combined.
- Once the buns have cooled slightly, spread the cream cheese frosting over each roll. Sprinkle crushed Oreos on top and place a ball of cookie dough in the middle of each roll.
Enjoy!