Decadent Layered Brownies

• 12 cup butter, unsalted
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)
• 1 cup cake flour (or unbleached white flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 14 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips (dark chocolate)
• 10 double stuff Oreo cookies, chopped into fourths
• 15 Reese's Peanut Butter cups, miniature, dark chocolate, chopped into fourths (or other candy bar of your choice)
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 14 cups sugar
• 34 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 14 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)
• 12 cup unbleached white flour

1. Grease an 8 by 8 baking pan (or line with parchment or line with foil, then spray foil with cooking spray).
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
3. Bottom Cookie Dough Layer:.
4. Heat butter and brown sugar in a large pan until bubbling hot, let cool.
5. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
6. Whisk eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.
7. Slowly whisk cooled sugar mixture into eggs.
8. Then mix in dry ingredients.
9. Stir in chocolate chips.
10. Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly on the bottom of the pan.
11. Middle Chopped Items layer:.
12. Chop the oreos and miniature reese's peanut butter cups into fourths.
13. Spread evenly over the cookie dough layer.
14. Press down this layer with your finger tips so that it is pushed into the cookie dough layer.
15. Top Brownie Layer:.
16. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and continue to cook, whisking gently until it is golden brown (this imparts a lovely "browned butter flavor" to the brownie layer).
17. Remove pan from heat and stop cooking immediately by adding the sugar, cocoa powder, water, vanilla and salt.
18. Stir to blend.
19. Let cool 5-10 minutes.
20. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after adding each one.
21. When the mixture looks thick, shiny and well blended add the flour and stir until you no longer see any streaks of white, then mix vigorously for 50 more strokes.
22. Spread the batter over the chopped middle layer with a rubber spatula.
23. Cook for 40-45 minutes.
24. Let cool completely!
25. (a few hours -- it will be gooey when hot and you want it to set).
26. I often make this the night before and cut it in the morning when completely cooled.
27. **QUICKER BOX MIX OPTION - I use box mixes for chocolate chip cookies for the bottom layer and brownie mix for the top layer.
28. I have done this with the family size brownie mix (9x13) and two boxes of cookie mix and then it makes TWO 9x13 pans of this incredible cookie bar.
29. You just divide up the layers into two pans.
30. I've also done this with a 9x13 box mix of brownies and used the cookie dough scratch recipe above but triple it to make the double 9x13 size batch.
31. And roughly triple the ingredients of the middle layer chopped items.
32. When making the two 9x13 pans I cook them at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes.
33. Again cool completely, very gooey when hot.

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Taken from www.food.com/recipe/decadent-layered-brownies-504517 (may not work)