Double Triple Oreo Brownies

Double Triple Oreo Brownies - made September 1, 2014, recipe adapted from Yammie's Noshery

Although I've been getting some intermittent baking in, unless my freezer is stocked with cookie dough and slabs of brownies or individually wrapped slices of cake residing in freezer bags, I feel unprepared. Unprepared for what, I'm not exactly sure. Armageddon? I'm sure we're all going to need sweets then. I know I will. Still, I like having a well-stocked freezer for when I have social occasions and I need to pass out goodie bags or if I'm moved to send a care package.

When that happens, the best thing to do is find a brownie recipe that makes a 9 x 13 pan. That yields plenty of brownies for future needs. I also happened to have a package of Double Triple Oreos that's been sitting in my pantry begging to be used. In case you've never heard of the Double Triple Oreo, it's a three cookie Oreo with two cookies sandwiching the original vanilla cream filling and the third cookie enclosing a chocolate creme layer to make one fat cookie. These Oreo people are brilliant. I bought the package in a moment of weakness, thinking I'd try them out before baking with them. Then I forgot about them for awhile. Until now.

The original recipe only called for chocolate chips to be added to the brownies but I conveniently ignored that for my Oreo add-in. You actually can't tell by looking at the picture that I put in the Oreos but they're there. The chocolate cookie part is evident to the sharp eye but the particular pieces I took a picture of didn't have the vanilla creme filling in the visible edges of the brownie. I only had a small piece of this to taste test and I didn't really get an Oreo chunk in it so I don't know if my experimental add-in really added anything. The brownie itself is good although, with the chocolate coming from the cocoa and the chemical leavening being baking powder, it was lighter and more cakey than I preferred my brownies to be. It was still good though and my freezer temporarily held some advance preparation for the end of the world.

I say temporarily because they're gone now. I decided to frost them with Nutella and, because I don't believe in being subtle, I sprinkled the remaining Double Triple Oreos over them and brought them into work today. So they're really gone. Armageddon will have to wait.

2 sticks of butter
2 1/4 cups of sugar
4 large eggs 
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 "sleeves" of Double Triple Oreos, cut into chunks

1. Grease a 9x13 in. pan. and preheat the oven to 350º.
2. Mix together the butter and sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave, stirring about every 30 seconds, until the mixture is bubbly and smooth (you can also do it on the stove top if you want). Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. 
3. Mix together the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and flour and add to the butter mixture, mixing until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. 
4. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for about 28 minutes.