Lorraine Pascale's Oreo Brownies

These Brownies are sooo good!! Okay so I thought that some spoil me baking was required and sure why not have a Brownie Bonanza!! I tell you the hardship of food blogging knows no limits (cheeky!!)
My last post was the fudgy and perfect Donal Skehan Super Brownies, which are amazing. To be perfectly honest, these are both really good recipes to have in your repertoire, however I feel they are slightly different animals.
Donal's brownies are what I call an everyday recipe, *sigh* if only! Easy to make using mostly store cupboard ingredients, whereas Lorraine's recipe takes a bit more preparation, skill and effort. Totally worth it if you are out to impress, their (extremely) gooey texture will melt any heart.



So I suggest a compromise, if you need a quick no hassle recipe (school bake sale/unexpected guest/rainy Wednesday) then Donal's brownies are perfect, but if you want to have a, pull out all the stops, smooth velvety dessert at the end of a special dinner, then these will do the trick very nicely. How about you try both recipes and tell my what you think? 

Recipe adapted from Lorraine Pascale's Cookies and Cream Fudge Brownies 

Makes 16

Ingredients

165g Butter

200g Dark Chocolate (I used half  74% and half  55% Dark Chocolate)

3 Eggs plus 2 yolks

1-2 tsp Vanilla extract

165g Soft brown sugar

2tbsp Plain flour

1 tbsp Cocoa powder

Pinch salt
165-200g Oreo Cookies (the more the better)

Icing sugar to dust

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. I used my silicone 22 x 22cm tray on a flat cookie sheet, no need to line it (phew!!) but it sometimes bakes cake quicker so keep an eye on it.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over a low heat, meanwhile chop or grate the chocolate.

When the butter is melted, remove from the heat, tip the chocolate in and stir until it is completely melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, place the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla extract into a food processor with the balloon whisk attachment. Whisk the eggs and vanilla on high for 1-2 minutes. The more bubbles the better as they will act as the raising agent.

Tip the light brown sugar into the eggs. To prevent all the air being knocking out, gently tip it down the side of the bowl.

Whisk the egg and sugar on high for 3-5 minutes until the mixture becomes thick and doubles (roughly) in volume.

Once again add the flour, cocoa and salt to the side of the bowl and slowly fold in along with melted chocolate mixture. This takes a little time but it is worth it, I always have flour lumps in my brownies but it is better than over beating the batter.

Crumble two thirds of the Oreo's into the batter and gently stir in. Tip the mix into your prepared baking tin.

Crumble the remaining biscuits on top and bake in the middle shelf of your oven for 25-30 minutes. 

After 23 minutes or so they should be baked and firm(ish) in the middle. Now these are leaving the sides of the cake tin but because I used a silicone tin it is a bit more difficult to tell :) My brownies sank slightly as they cooled, so perhaps I should have left them a bit longer in the oven.

Cut into squares, dust with a little icing sugar and serve.

The Oreo cookies add real crunch to the gooey brownies! One will never be enough ;)