Crunchy Brownie Bars

Submitted by karen

"My mom made these brownies when I was a kid. They have a great oatmeal crunchy layer on the bottom topped off with frosted brownies. They look great on dessert tray too!"

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• Crunchy Layer

• 3⁄4 cup flour, sifted
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1⁄2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 3⁄4 cup brown sugar
• 3⁄4 cup butter, melted

• Brownie Layer

• 1 (18 ounce) package brownie mix (family size)
• 1⁄4 cup water
• 2⁄3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs

• Frosting

• 1 1⁄2 unsweetened chocolate squares
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, sift if lumpy
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 tablespoons hot water

directions

1. Crunchy Layer:

2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in oats and brown sugar. Add the melted butter.
3. Pat mixture in the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. At this time, the crunchy layer will not be completely baked.

5. Brownie Layer:

6. While the crunchy layer is in the oven, prepare the brownies as directed on the package (either fudge or cake style). The water, oil & eggs listed with the brownie layer here were for the Duncan Hines fudgy brownies. Adjust the ingredients to match your brownie mix.
7. Spread batter in pan over crunchy layer after it comes out of the oven.
8. Bake brownies for 40-45 minutes for fudgy style or 35-40 minutes for cake style. Do not overbake.

9. Frosting:

10. Wait to prepare frosting until brownies are cool. In a small saucepan, melt together chocolate and butter. Remove from heat.
11. Immediately add powdered sugar, vanilla and 2 tablespoons hot water. Stir until smooth.
12. Add remaining tablespoon of hot water to make a soft, pourable consistancy.
13. Spread over brownies while frosting is still hot.
14. Let set until firm. Cut into bars.

Reviews

[BakerNurse]

These were very good - a different twist on a brownie. It is hard to get the bottom layer out (and I even greased the pan) - but the crunch is worth it. I used 2, 20 oz pkgs of Hershey's triple chocolate brownie mix (just because it said to use two for a 9 x 13 pan) and I followed the package directions for mixing - the brownie turned out nice and high. In the original recipe, the amount of butter was missing (thank you Karen for emailing me back and editing the recipe) - so I guessed - wrongly- on the amount of butter and had to add more powdered sugar to thicken it up - but it turned out ok anyway - It's nice to get a different twist on a brownie.