Oreos, Peanut Butter and Brownies, Oh My!

Janet here: College kids are not known for their culinary taste — Ramen noodles anyone? — but when I mentioned to S, who is at his second year at Wake Forest University, that I was planning to send him another installment of the ridiculously easy brownies I made last week (see recipe here), he said a variation on this theme had appeared on his school website.

Apparently the author of this recipe had heard about the Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip phenomenon started by Picky Palate (and blogged about here), and decided to try her version. It involves less from-scratch baking — we are talking college students here my friends — but I made them anyway and am happy to report, they are, as S would say, dank — and that is the supreme college compliment.

So if you're looking to whip up something for a care package or just need a fast dessert for a bake sale, consider these. I guarantee you'll get comments.

Wake Forest Oreo, Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes
makes 12

ingredients
1 box brownie mix
24 Oreos
1/2 cup peanut butter

method
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line the cupcake tin. Make the brownies as directed on the box.
Smear about 1 teaspoon peanut butter onto an Oreo, stick another Oreo on top of it and place the stack in the bottom of each cupcake hole.

Add brownie batter to each cupcake spot about two tablespoons at a time, giving the batter a chance to dribble over the sides to fully cover the Oreos.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25- 30 minutes, depending on your brownie mix directions.

Yup, that's it.

Amazing Oreo Cheesecake Bars

I'm so glad Rachel kicked off the week here with her very healthy looking salad so I could have complete license to take us down, down, down into the sugar gutter.

My hankering for something wildly fatty and sugary started with a major jonesing for cheesecake. I wanted it and I wanted it bad. And then I started thinking about Double Stuffed Oreos (did you know you can follow Oreos on Twitter? What exactly would that mean? What does an Oreo have to tell us about its day?). Anyway it wasn't long before a moment of brilliance struck: Why not combine the two into a sinfully delicious dessert?

And so I did.

The result, I am happy to report, is a new favorite concoction. It's also ridiculously easy to make, i.e. you can have all the creamy wonderfulness of cheesecake without all the time-consuming prep. About the longest anything takes here is the time it needs to cool in the fridge — assuming you can wait that long. :)

Oreo Cheesecake Bars

ingredients
12 ounces of softened cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

for the crust
1 1/2 cups crushed Oreos
5 tablespoons of melted butter

method
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Crush the Oreos with a pestle in a bowl. Melt the butter and then pour into the bowl and mix well. Press into an 8" X 8" baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper.

In another bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamy. I used a hand mixed and it took a few minutes.

Pour into the pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until set and just starting to get brown on the edges. Let cool for about 15 minutes. Then place in the fridge for a couple of hours to completely set.