Cookies and Cream Brownies

I made these for work before the school year ended. Now, several weeks later, I'm finally posting this super easy way to dress up some plain brownies.

Cookies and Cream Brownies

Ingredients:
1 batch of brownies for a 9 x 13 pan
1 can of cream cheese frosting
10-15 Oreos
about 1/2 cup of Wilton chocolate candy melts or semisweet chocolate chips

Make the batch of brownies. When they cool, frost them with the cream cheese icing. Place the Oreos in a sealed plastic bag and crush them with a few passes with a rolling pin. Sprinkle the crushed cookies on the brownies.

In a disposable decorating bag, melt the chocolate candy melts or chocolate chips in the microwave. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the brownies. Keep refrigerated.

Cookies and Cream Dessert

Confession: I think I've become addicted to the Kraft food website. That's where I found the recipe for this dessert. They call it "Cookies and Cream Freeze."

This is the second dessert I made while down in Atlanta. The original recipe called for a loaf pan. Since we didn't have one down there, I improvised a smidge so that I could use a lovely white bowl my sister-in-law had. The base of the bowl was a square perfectly sized to fit 9 Oreos. I think you could use whatever size pan or bowl you'd like, just make sure you adjust the proportions accordingly and remember that the bottom of this dessert will become the top since it gets flipped upside-down before you serve it.

Cookies and Cream Dessert

Ingredients:
about 14-20 Oreos
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tub (8 0z.) Cool Whip, thawed
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

Line your pan with foil. Leave enough to hang over the edges. Then put one layer of Oreo cookies on the bottom. As you can see from the finished product, I made 3 rows of 3 cookies each because that's what fit this bowl. If you use a loaf pan, you'll probably use 4 rows of 2 cookies each.

In a mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Fold in Cool Whip. Take out 1-1/2 cups of the cream cheese mixture and reserve it in another bowl for the chocolate layer.

Spread remaining cream cheese mixture over top of Oreos as shown in picture to the right.

Crumble 8-12 Oreos and sprinkle over cream cheese mixture. (The original recipe called for only 6 Oreos, but I think I could have used a bit more cookie in my dessert!) Press down lightly so that cookie crumbs sink slightly into cream cheese.

Melt the four ounces of chocolate and stir into the reserved 1-1/2 cups cream cheese mixture. Spread over cookie crumb layer.

Freeze for at least 3 hours.

Remove from freezer 10-15 minutes before serving. Invert onto serving plate and remove foil.

Serves 8-10.

Mississippi Mud Cake

While down in Atlanta, my sister-in-law came in the house after picking up the mail and called to me, "I have something for you!" It was a recipe card she had received free in the mail from Southern Living magazine. After a trip to the grocery store the next day, we had the goods to make this very sweet treat.

We decided it was more of a brownie than a "cake." :)

Mississippi Mud Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter
4 oz. semisweet chocolate baking bar, chopped
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp salt
1 10.5 oz. Bag miniature marshmallows

Place pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 min or until toasted.

In a large bowl, microwave butter and chopped chocolate for 1 min, stirring every 30 seconds or until melted and smooth. Stir in sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs, vanilla, and salt. Pour into greased jelly roll pan.

Bake at 350 for 20 min. Remove from oven, and sprinkle evenly with marshmallows. Bake 8-10 more minutes or until golden brown. (Note: It will seem like too many marshmallows, but go ahead and put on the whole bag. I mistakenly only put on some of the bag. They did cover the cake as seen in the picture below, but afterward my sister-in-law and I agreed that it could have used more marshmallow.)
While the marshmallow layer is baking, you can make the chocolate frosting.

For that, you'll need the following:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 milk
1 16 oz. package powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Stir together first three ingredients in medium saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted. Cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes. Remove from heat. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla.

Drizzle frosting over warm cake. (You may have more than you really need. Save the rest for some other cookies.) Sprinkle with toasted pecans.

This dessert makes enough to serve at least 16 people.

Fudge Butterscotch Cake

This recipe is a variation of the Betty Crocker poke cakes. You can find many poke cake recipes here.

Fudge Butterscotch Cake

Ingredients:

1 German chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil, and water as specified by recipe on box)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar of fudge sundae topping
1 tub of Cool Whip, thawed
1 cup butterscotch chips

Bake the German chocolate cake in a 9x13 pan as directed on box. Allow to cool for twenty minutes. Then poke top of cake with end of wooden spoon. Holes should be about 1 inch apart.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over top of cake. Allow to soak in. Heat fudge topping and drizzle over top of cake. Refrigerate cake for two hours.

Spread thawed Cool Whip on top of cake and then sprinkle with butterscotch chips.

Date, Walnut & Chocolate Cookies

My mom makes a dessert that she calls "Date & Walnut Dessert," or something like that. It's basically a 9 x 13 chocolate cake with lots of yummy goodies like dates, chocolate chips, walnuts, and extra sugar on top. I decided to try to make a similar sort of cookie, so here's what I developed:

Date, Walnut & Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped dates

Cream the butter with both types of sugar. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly blend flour mixture into butter-sugar mixture.

Stir in oats. Then add chocolate chips, walnuts, and dates. Refrigerate dough for an hour.

Then preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Scoop dough onto cookie sheets. Baking 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on sheets for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks.

These cookies are great warm!

Yields: about 3 dozen cookies