If I could, I would eat chocolate for every meal. I’d throw some chips on my cereal in the morning, have a big cookie for lunch and a slice of cake for dinner. Sadly (or is it luckily?), veggies make it on to my plate more often than chocolate. That just means that when dessert time finally does roll around, the more chocolate I can get, the better!
These brownies are the definition of an indulgent dessert with crunchy walnuts, white chocolate pretzels, sandwich cookies and peanut butter cups baked right in. It doesn’t get more decadent than that!
Here’s how you can make them at home:
Step 1: Gather your ingredients
First, you’ll need to pick your mix-ins. I went with white chocolate covered pretzels, sandwich cookies (the birthday cake variety, of course!), peanut butter cups and lots of chopped walnuts. You can choose anything you want, just include about 1 cup of each.
You’ll also need:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ cup flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Step 2: Pre-heat and prepare the pan
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and very liberally grease a 9×13 inch baking dish. Don’t skimp on the butter – the mix-ins have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan.
Step 3: Mix it up!
First you’ll whisk the eggs to break the yolks, then incorporate the cocoa powder. Add the melted butter and sugar, then whisk it all together. Pour in the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir until a glossy batter forms.
Step 4: Add the good stuff
Chop up all of the mix-ins and set aside a small handful of each. Gently mix the rest into the batter.
Step 5: Bake away!
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and then press the reserved mix-ins on top. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is crusted and shiny.
Step 6: Slice and eat
When your brownies are done, let them cool in the pan for about 1 hour (if you can wait that long!), slice them into 12 squares and serve with a giant glass of milk.