Oreo Stuffed Brownies

31

July 8, 2011 by Dana

Last week I set the apartment on fire.

Well, not the apartment exactly.  The oven.  Which is part of the apartment.  And you already know I like to be dramatic.  So, yes.  The apartment.

How, you ask?

Why let me start from the beginning.

If you remember from last year, when I asked my stepdad what he wanted me to make for his birthday, he requested chocolate chip cookies.    So I made these.  Which were pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.

Well, my stepdad agrees.  Wholeheartedly.  In fact, not only does he agree, be he would be perfectly happy if those cookies were the only thing I ever made and brought over ever again.

Every time I visit, he asks me where his chocolate chip cookies are.  And every time, I present something else, hoping he’ll forget about those cookies, which take 72 hours to make.  (Well, not really, but you do have to start them 72 hours ahead of time.  Which takes foresight.  And, as you already know, timing is not my forte.)  He never does.

So when his birthday rolled around again this year, I decided to oblige him.  Friday night, knowing I would be visiting on Sunday, I made the dough for these cookies and placed them in the fridge to firm up.

Sunday morning, I woke up early, took the dough out of the fridge, and placed 13 mounds of dough on my cookie sheets.  You’ll notice the recipe yields 18 cookies.  But me being me, I decided I was not in the mood to bake 2 batches, so I just made them bigger and fit them on the cookie sheets I had. Mistake # 1.

I placed the cookies in the oven, set the timer, and went inside to play on the computer study.  About 10 minutes later, I noticed it was starting to get a little smoky.  So I opened the window.  Mistake # 2

Shortly after that, I realized that it was no longer just a little smoky.  I was a lot smoky.  So I went to the kitchen to see what was going on.

I opened the oven, and inside, under all the smoke, was FIRE!

So I did what any rational person would do.  I started screaming for Jake.

He ran out of the bedroom half asleep to see what I was yelling about.  Thankfully, he was able to put out the fire without anyone getting hurt.  Once we were able to look inside, it was clear that I had made the cookies so big that one of them dripped off the cookie sheet into the bottom part of the oven and caught on fire.

Jake was able to open up the inside of the oven so we could get the burnt cookie out.  Once it was clean, I fired the oven back up (no pun intended) and finished baking the cookies.  Luckily they still came out perfectly.

And we all lived happily ever after.  The End.  (Don’t I wish…)

So I took the cookie sheets out of the oven and placed them on top of the stove.  I was afraid that the cookies would keep cooking and get overdone, so I slid the parchment paper with the cookies off of one of the hot cookie sheets onto the cool counter.

There wasn’t enough room for all of them on one side, so I picked up the parchment paper from the other cookie sheet… and promptly dropped it, cookies and all, it straight into the sink.  Which was filled with soapy water.

Luckily, I still ended up with 7 huge cookies, which was more than enough for the four of us, especially with a side of the ice cream cake that my mom bought.

But still.

Needless to say, I was not too happy about my most recent baking experience.  Between setting the apartment on fire, and dropping half of the salvaged cookies into the sink, I was feeling pretty dejected.

So this past weekend, I knew I needed to redeem myself.  I needed to make something great.  Something delicious, impressive, AND hard to mess up.

And then I saw it.  This mouthwatering looking Oreo Stuffed Brownie recipe Amy came up with on Sing for Your Supper.  This was exactly what I needed.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1 package Double Stuff Oreos

Amy came up with this brilliant idea on her own, and used the brownie recipe from King Arthur Flour.  I’m sure any brownie recipe would do (even a box mix if you’re not averse to that sort of thing), but I figured I shouldn’t mess with perfection!

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan.

2.  In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot, but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. (Heating the mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.)

3.  While the sugar heats a second time, beat the eggs, cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla until smooth. Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.  Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth.

4.  Spoon half of the batter into the greased pan. Place the Oreos in even rows across the batter (as many as you can fit). Pour the remaining batter over the Oreos and gently spread to the edges of the pan. Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the brownies for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Oh. Em. Gee. were these things good.  I mean, really, how bad could they be with two layers of brownie stuffed with a layer of double stuff oreos?  But seriously, they were better than I even could have imagined.  Thank you, Amy, for coming up with this idea.  It was the perfect recipe to get me out of my baking funk!

**I'm entering this recipe in the Get Grillin contest: “Get Grillin’ with Family Fresh Cooking 
and Cookin’ Canuck, sponsored by Ile de France Cheese, Rösle,Emile Henry, Rouxbe and ManPans.”