Cookies and Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies

If there's one thing I love more than cookies, its brownies. The perfect brownie - moist, fudgy and oh-so chocolatey. We've made a lot of brownies over the years as you can probably tell, some were awesome, some were not so. My favourite is probably the Chewy Gooey Chocolate Brownies, though the results with that recipe can be quite variable. But this was the first time I saw brownies with OREOS in them. And not only does it have Oreos, it has ice cream (!!) and chocolate fudge sauce, hence the name. The pictures look amaaaaaaazing, so me and NisNis (lol) had to try it. Since I sadly don't have an oven at my place, we had to wait till I visited her. So here we go!

What you need:

1 box brownie mix

Eggs and oil (as called for the brownie mix)

1/2 cup of cookies and cream ice cream

1/4 cup hot fudge topping
Oreo cookies

What you do:

1. Preheat oven and grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Combine brownie mix, eggs and oil as directed by the box but do not add the water.
3. Add ice cream and fudge to the brownie batter. Stir to combine. 
4. Pour half the brownie batter into the prepared pan and layer with Oreos, then top with the remaining batter.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or as directed by instructions.

The one thing that I did not like about this recipe is that it uses a brownie mix. No matter how good the brownies look on the picture, they never taste as good as one made from scratch. We were quite tempted to use a different brownie recipe and just layer in the Oreos, but were not sure how to substitute in the ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce, haha. So in the end, we went with the mix....

And how did it turn out, you ask? I still had my reservations after opening the box, did not smell like chocolate at all! But what to do right? You gotta do what you gotta do. So we tried our best to make the brownie batter the correct consistency - probably added a bit too much ice cream there, haha. And in the end... well, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. =(

Partly because of the brownie itself, made from scratch really is better. This tasted artificial, too sweet and nothing like chocolate. It looked good on the outside, but ... taste could have been much much better. And not only that, we overbaked it a little (ahem) and I'm pretty sure that made the Oreos a bit too dry. >.< Not to mention you could hardly taste the Oreos under the "flavour" of the brownies.

I do think that there's potential here - there's Oreos involved, how can there not be? If ever I get the time, I'd make this with my usual brownie recipe. Not sure how to put in the ice cream and fudge, but part of the fun will be finding that out. :P

Quote of the day: Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better.