Saturday, July 28, 2012

Sweets: Hot Fudge Sundae Oreo Brownies


Wow. I've been meaning to post this for almost two weeks now. Guess who procrastinates? This girl!

I had my six-week post-partum OB back on the 16th. Guess what that meant. A pap smear and cervical check including the spread-you-device and something clamping down on my cervix. Yeah, you heard me. So I think that I am perfectly justified in my baking exploits that evening. Even if it means the product was taken from the oven at 12:30am.


You could not consider me brownies' biggest fan. I like them, of course. And who doesn't love a well-made brownie à la mode? I like mine with chocolate and caramel sauce. But I will often pass if the offered treats are brownies and I don't usually care about making them myself. I'm also one of the weirdos that prefers them room temperature rather than warmed up. They're too dark when they're warm. (My mom isn't sure I wasn't switched at birth. The only thing that keeps her faith in me is my love for buttercream icing. Because that shit is special.)


So you ask now, then why did you make the very first post in this blog a brownie recipe? Because this looked like a spectacular recipe, duh. I found this a while ago and saved it in my Scrivener recipe book, but the computer crapped out and I hadn't backed it up. I found it again. My very favorite baking blog is
Buns in my Oven, written by a woman named Karly. I don't usually follow food blogs because to be perfectly honest, I'm a super picky person. I don't care for most foods and desserts in a lot of the food blogs I've seen, so I'll just pin individual recipes or put them in my Scrivener recipe book (that I am currently working on turning into a real recipe binder). But the overwhelming majority of what she makes, at least on a dessert level, looks appetizing to me. And if not me, I think someone in my family might enjoy it.

This recipe is for her Hot Fudge Sundae Oreo Brownies. It's a fingerful to type out too many times, so we're calling them Oreo Brownies from here on. They made brownies sound like a good idea. Besides, my parents, who I'm staying with right now, are going to sell their house soon and want to eat down the pantry. Win win for everyone, right? Especially for my mom and brother who love brownies.


The recipe isn't overly complicated, but you don't follow the box instructions. You need to add a few extra things. Delicious things. Like Oreos.



And ice cream and hot fudge sauce. 
I particularly liked that part.

Is it just me or does the ice cream look gross here?
So first thing's first. You heat up the oven and then have to go about measuring everything out. I suck at this. Not measuring, but thinking ahead. Often I get to the end rush part of a recipe - any recipe - and start flailing because why the hell haven't I measured the milk yet, or something like that. And baking is worse because you have so many things coming together at once throughout the whole thing and you have to have everything ready.

I did a good job this time. I measured everything. I heated the fudge up at the right time and had the ice cream out and measured. I had the eggs I needed and the pan greased. I only wish I'd softened the ice cream a bit because it was a teensy bit hard to mix at first. However, cookies and cream has never been something I've considered a very hard ice cream, so it worked fine how it was.


So after you get everything measured out perfectly, you get your bowl and mixer ready. I suppose you could use a stand mixer, but what is the point of hauling one of those out for brownies? My mom keeps hers on the counter and it's still too much of a pain in my ass. I just use the hand mixer for anything but cookies. Cookies need the heavy duty equipment.

You put in your box of mix with the oil and eggs it calls for. You omit the water or milk called for on the box. You add a quarter cup hot fudge sauce (don't overheat unless you're fond of burns cause it
hurt) and six ounces of cookies and cream ice cream. If you're like me, you'll have to reference the markings on the measuring cup to remember that's three-quarters of a cup. I just saved you the confusion.

There are eight ounces in a cup. There you go.

Now, I've been told it's perfectly acceptable to use regular chocolate ice cream sauce if you can't find/don't have hot fudge sauce. It just probably will result in less fudgy brownies. I used the Chocolate Fudge variety because it's what my mom had in her pantry, but I still used hot fudge after I found it hiding in the back of the fridge.

Does hot fudge have an expiration date?

Next you mix mix mix until it's... well, until it's mixed. I know how regular brownie mix is supposed to look. I guess I ran the risk of over mixing to try and get the ice cream incorporated, but it still ended up looking the way it's supposed to, where it looks like tiny bubbles or clumps or something are floating all over in it? Yeah that. It looked right.

...and delicious. Mmmm... Salmonella... Come to mama!
Yeah, I licked some batter. What of it?

Next, spread it. You only want to put in half the batter at this point. You still need to put in your cookies. Spread the mix evenly in the pan (and she's not kidding that the mixture will be thick).

Now, let me stop here to note that Karly uses parchment paper for most of her recipes. I did one time when I made dog biscuits and I was glad for it, but I went ahead and just greased my Pyrex like the box told me to and like I would normally do anyway. However, later on there was a lot of sticking to the glass. I don't know if that's because I should have used the paper or I didn't grease it enough (I used cooking spray) or it was just stickier from the fudge and/or ice cream in the mix. I don't know. I might try paper next time.


After you pour the first half of your batter, add your cookies. Push them in, but try not to touch the bottom of the Pyrex. I used exactly fifteen Oreos. It was a good number. You could probably use twelve, ten, or even eight if you want giant brownies, but I thought they were pretty big enough as it was. Another idea: if you want very small brownies, maybe try doing this with the mini Oreos. I have no idea how that'll turn out, though.

Now, I think I ran into my first problem here. I used the Double Stuf Oreos. I
love the Double Stuf ones and they happened to have a family size pack that was cheaper than two packs because now they make the packs stupidly tiny and I was going to need more than one pack. however, do you see how high they're sticking up above the mix? I had a really hard time covering them. I know from her pictures that it was easy to see where the Oreos were when she did it, but I think mine was ridiculous. I think it also had a negative effect on the outcome.

Now as you probably already figured out, the next step is to cover the Oreos with the rest of the batter. This is very difficult. The batter is thick, which helps it cover the top without running off, but it also makes it very hard to spread without removing from the Oreos you already covered. I think using the Double Stuf was also a part of the problem, as I've mentioned.

Once you have them covered, it's into the oven with them. They have a very long cook time compared to normal brownies. You're supposed to bake them for 40 to 45 minutes. Until the toothpick comes mostly clean.


That was the trick for me.


The mostly clean part. I didn't read that carefully and baked them for a whole 47 minutes. I probably should have stopped by 43 at the latest. But I kept sticking the toothpick in looking for perfectly clean, which never happened. I gave up at 47 before realizing my mistake.

So then they had to cool. They smelled and looked delicious. Being able to see the Oreos gave me guidelines for cutting them, even though they had ended up not perfectly straight anymore once I poured the second half of the batter. I couldn't wait to divvy up and dig in. It was almost one for goodness sake!



See how hard my dog begged? They smelled that good. (Then again, he begs for everything.)



Looked good, too, right?



Not as much now, though, I think, but you can see how wonderfully moist they were. So chewy, too.


This is where my story doesn't have a happy ending. I genuinely think it was my fault. Between the Double Stuf Oreos and cooking them too long, I think I screwed up.When I ate the brownies, the brownie part was spectacular and the cookie turned soft like Oreo cookies need to do before you can eat them. (See here for a tip on dunking them without getting your fingers wet. It's genius. I also have a girl crush on Karly.) However, the cream became hard. It seemed to shrink, too, which you can't really see in the picture. 


It didn't hurt your teeth or anything, but it was noticeable and made for a rather unpleasant experience with what should have been
orgasmic wonderful.

Overall verdict? I don't know how soon I'll try these again. But when I do, I'll use regular Oreos. And I won't wait for a squeaky clean toothpick.


These have probably become my new method for regular brownies, though. The ice cream and fudge, at least. I liked that. I'll probably crush up Oreos and mix them in as a compromise since my mom wasn't a fan. We'll see!


That's it for my experimenting. Mom's destroying the kitchen with her preliminary packing and it's too hot to turn on the oven again, so it may be a while before I make something food-y again. Brooke made snickerdoodles yesterday, but she neglected to photograph.


What a whore.


Until next time!




2 comments:

  1. Those browines look amazing! One of my fav brownie recipes is somewhat similar...chocolate chip cookie batter on the bottom(make it a bit thinner than usual or it wont spread right), oreos in the middle and brownie on top. Bake until the toothpick is mostly clean and let them stand for 10mins. Cut and serve topped with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and/or caramel sauce. Yum!

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  2. I apologize that I didn't see this until now. I know what you're talking about! They (or something similar) are called slutty brownies. I've never tried them, but they sound amazing.

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