That's Pinteresting

I have recently discovered the wonderful world of Pinterest.  It's a great site where people post pictures of everything from food to photography to DIY ideas.  It's basically a virtual pin board where you can go to share all of your favorite things.  I don't yet have an account on this site but the glory of it is that you don't need one to be able to see the pictures that other people post.  I have gotten so many great ideas from this site of pictures I want to take and projects I want to try, not to mention all the delicious looking foods that I want to make.  About a week ago I kept seeing this same photo over and over of these amazing chocolate chip cookie Oreo brownie bars and I just knew that I had to try them. 

I wanted to make some kind of treat to bring with us camping this weekend so I figured this was a great time to try these bars.  I decided that I wanted something a little more portable so I made them in cupcake tins but the recipe can just as easily be made in a 9x13 pan.  The beauty of these bars is that you can use your favorite cookie and brownie recipes or you can just cheat and use a boxed mix (I borrowed my recipe from dessertedplanet.com).

Chocolate Chip Cookie Oreo Brownie Cupcakes
Cookie Dough
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter softened
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour
12 oz. (one bag) milk chocolate chips

Cream the sugars with the butter and shortening until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.  Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the wet until combined.  Mix in the chocolate chips and set aside.

Chocolate Brownies
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate baking squares
3/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 cup flour
3 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

In the microwave, melt together butter and chocolate stirring every 30 seconds or so making sure the chocolate doesn't scorch.  Mix in the sugars then add the eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined.  Sift together the flour and salt and mix into the batter until combined.

Preheat the oven to 350 and spray two cupcake pans with non-stick spray.  Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop cookie dough into the bottom of each cup.

Then add an Oreo to the top of the cookie dough pushing down slightly to make sure the cookie dough covers the bottom.

Then add a scoop of the brownie batter on top of the cookie.

And since my batter was really thick, I had to spread it out a little so it covered the cookie dough and the Oreo.

Then because I like my cookies and brownies nice and soft, I baked them for 15 minutes but you can do a bit longer if you wish.

This recipe makes about 30 cupcakes (it's supposed to make a bit more but I made mine a little bigger than it called for).  I hope they taste as good as they look.  I had to resist my urge to top them with my Oreo cream buttercream frosting because I'm pretty sure they will be rich enough already.

All that is missing is a glass of cold milk.