Oreo brownies are rich, thick and topped with an Oreo buttercream frosting that tastes just like the inside of an Oreo! This recipe is made in a bread loaf pan to make a small batch of brownies for two! Use any flavored Oreos you like–birthday cake Oreos are especially great here! Don’t miss the how-to video!
Oreo Brownies for two
I’m really excited to share my Oreo brownies for two with you! These brownies are quick and easy, and so is the creamy frosting on top. You read that right: these brownies have a frosting that tastes like the inside filling of an Oreo! It seems impossible, but we did it by using shortening instead of butter in the frosting. It’s your choice–you may use either and both results are delicious.
These brownies are more on the cakey side, not the fudgey side, because I use a small amount of milk to soften them. The centers of the brownies still have a good fudginess to them, though!
If you’re new here, I make small batch desserts, which means that I use fewer ingredients and I bake a small batch of brownies for two in a bread loaf pan. Brownies baked in a loaf pan give you two large bakery-sized brownies. In real life, I like to slice these Oreo brownies into 4 to 6 pieces–they’re just so rich! My small batch brownies are the perfect size for small households!
Flavored Oreo desserts:
It had been nearly 18 years since I had enjoyed an Oreo before I made this recipe–isn’t that insane? However, I keep seeing all the new flavors of Oreos come out, and now, I have to try them all! I started with birthday cake, mint, tiramisu, red velvet, carrot cake, strawberry shortcake, chocolate marshmallow and caramel coconut. It was a great day in the grocery store, hah!
After much deliberation, I finally settled on Birthday Cake Oreos for these brownies, but if you haven’t tasted any of these new flavors, you should probably hop, skip and jump down to the store and buy every flavor of Oreo and taste your way to a winner. Almost any flavored Oreo is welcome in these brownies, especially mint, coconut caramel, and chocolate strawberry. The only flavors that give me pause here are citrus Oreos, like key lime pie, pina colada, lemon twist, or gingerbread sound a little funky. But it’s your brownie, make it your decision!
Of course, regular plain original Oreos are totally delicious, too! The only kind of cookies I wouldn’t use are my easy homemade Oreos. The flavored buttercream filling would leak out everywhere.
Oreo Brownies Ingredients:
This is a basic quick and easy brownies recipe, with six Oreo cookies dotted on the top. To make these brownies from scratch, you’ll simply need:
unsalted butter
unsweetened baking chocolate: this is found in the baking aisle in a bar. It’s chocolate without sugar, and it makes the richest brownies! Don’t worry, we’re adding sugar to the recipe, so it will taste great!
granulated sugar
egg
vanilla extract
all-purpose flour
baking powder
milk
salt
Oreos: Plain Oreos or double-stuff Oreos are great here, but so are any flavored varieties.
shortening: I really believe that shortening mimics the flavor of the filling inside an Oreo. However, if you are shortening-adverse, simply use butter. Read below on why I use shortening.
powered sugar: Also called confectioner’s sugar.
There is no cocoa powder in these brownies, I don’t think it is necessary for this recipe, the unsweetened chocolate provides plenty of chocolate flavor without cocoa powder. You will also notice that this recipe only uses 1 egg.
If you are looking for dairy free, unfortunately, this recipe contains both butter and milk. But I do have a dairy free brownie option that is vegan, too!
How to make Oreo brownies, step by step:
Gather ingredients: You need all of the ingredients listed above, except the shortening and powdered sugar are only for the buttercream frosting. Then, line a 9″ bread loaf pan with foil, and set the oven to preheat at 350-degrees F.
Place the unsweetened chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on LOW for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each time. It will take 3-4 pulses. You can remove it from the microwave before all of the chocolate melts, and let the residual heat from the bowl finish melting everything.
Once the butter and unsweetened chocolate mixture is melted, stir in the sugar and vanilla. Stir this mixture very well to help cool off the chocolate before adding the egg.
Once the batter has cooled, stir in the whole egg until combined. Finally, stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. To make your brownies extra chewy, give the batter 50 strokes to activate the gluten in the flour. We would never do this to a cake batter–we want cakes to be light and fluffy, but we want chewy, dense brownies. Stirring activates the gluten and causes delicious brownies!
Scrape the brownie batter into the prepared pan, and dot 6 whole Oreos on top of the batter. Bake for 21 minutes. Let the brownies cool for 5 minutes in the pan before lifting them out and letting them cool on a wire rack.
Make the Oreo buttercream by beating together the shortening (or butter) with the powdered sugar and vanilla. When light and fluffy, stir in crushed Oreos by hand. If you beat the Oreos, the frosting can turn grey, so just stir them in by hand to see black specks.
If you’re looking for a way to use leftover Oreos, try my Oreo Balls recipe! You can choose the amount of oreo truffles to make based on the number of cookies you have!
Why I sometimes use shortening instead of butter:
So, there’s something we need to talk about when it comes to these Oreo brownies–it’s the Oreo frosting.
The Oreo buttercream in this recipe uses shortening, not butter to come together. I do this for a few reasons:
Shortening is a flavorless ingredient. When I’m adding other rich flavors, often butter can stand in the way.
Oreos are actually made with shortening, not butter. Well, it’s probably some other type of hydrogenated oil, but rest assured that butter isn’t being used in your Oreos. It’s one of the cool reasons Oreos are shockingly vegan! (I should note that the company does not state they are vegan simply because they may have come in contact with milk during the manufacturing process, but there are no actual animal products in Oreos).
Shortening is fluffy at room temperature, and slightly fluffier when cold. If you have leftover Oreo brownies and you store them in the fridge, they won’t be as hard when you pull them out.
Overall, the Oreo buttercream on these brownies is so good, you’ll want to double it and smear it between two chocolate cake layers, or on top of cupcakes! Speaking of, have you seen my cookies and cream cupcakes?
Oreo brownies with a rich oreo buttercream frosting on top!
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time22 minutes
Total Time47 minutes
Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
7 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk
pinch of salt
6 Oreo cookies
For the frosting:
3 tablespoons butter (or shortening)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla
3 Oreo cookies, crushed
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Line a 9" loaf pan with foil or parchment paper, leaving enough hanging over the edges to form handles. Push the foil or parchment firmly into the corners of the pan so your brownies will have neat edges.
Place the butter and chopped chocolate in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave on low in 30 second intervals, stirring frequently until the mixture is smooth.
Stir in the sugar and vanilla, then let cool for 30 seconds. Then, stir in the beaten egg.
Sprinkle the flour, baking powder and salt evenly on top.
Stirring a few times and then add the milk. Mix together well until flour is no longer visible in the batter. Pour into the loaf pan and press 6 Oreos on the surface of the brownies.
Bake for 21-22 minutes.
Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before lifting the brownies out and allowing them to cool completely.
To make the frosting, beat together all ingredients except for the cookies until light and fluffy. Finally, stir in the crushed cookies.
Frost the brownies and serve.
Notes
unsweetened baking chocolate: this is found in the baking aisle in a bar. It's chocolate without sugar, and it makes the richest brownies! Don't worry, we're adding sugar to the recipe, so it will taste great!
Oreos: Plain Oreos or double-stuff Oreos are great here, but so are any flavored varieties.
shortening: I really believe that shortening mimics the flavor of the filling inside an Oreo. However, if you are shortening-adverse, simply use butter. Read in the post on why I use shortening.
powered sugar: Also called confectioner's sugar.
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Christina Lane is the author of 3 cookbooks all about cooking and baking for two. She has scaled down hundreds of recipes into smaller servings so you can enjoy your favorite dishes without the leftovers! Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday.
I completely understand how you feel about the preference for packaged oreos when you have the love and ability to bake delicoius things. My husband requires that for his birthday I make a BOXED yellow cake with CANNED chocolate frosting. We’ve actually had arguments about my desire to at least make the frosting myself. I can’t help put feel sincerely insulted about his preferences…
These look great–can’t wait to try them! About the shortening, I used to used Crisco for years, but one day my pie crust didn’t turn out very well. I looked on the label, & it is now made from soybean oil. Have you noticed a difference?
That is so interesting that you say that, because I noticed last year that my favorite old-fashioned cake recipe tasted ‘off.’ I wonder if it was the shortening?!
These look great but you can you use cocoa powder instead of the unsweetened chocolate I don’t always have unsweetened chocolate always have Oreos though
I am also thinking of substituting cocoa powder but I’ve never worked with unsweetened chocolate so I’m unsure what would be a comparable ratio. Any help/insight would be much appreciated!
Oh delicious Oreo’s!
I love rich. These brownies look PERFECT!
I completely understand how you feel about the preference for packaged oreos when you have the love and ability to bake delicoius things. My husband requires that for his birthday I make a BOXED yellow cake with CANNED chocolate frosting. We’ve actually had arguments about my desire to at least make the frosting myself. I can’t help put feel sincerely insulted about his preferences…
These look great–can’t wait to try them! About the shortening, I used to used Crisco for years, but one day my pie crust didn’t turn out very well. I looked on the label, & it is now made from soybean oil. Have you noticed a difference?
That is so interesting that you say that, because I noticed last year that my favorite old-fashioned cake recipe tasted ‘off.’ I wonder if it was the shortening?!
These look great but you can you use cocoa powder instead of the unsweetened chocolate I don’t always have unsweetened chocolate always have Oreos though
I am also thinking of substituting cocoa powder but I’ve never worked with unsweetened chocolate so I’m unsure what would be a comparable ratio. Any help/insight would be much appreciated!
If I were to use butter instead of the shortening, would I do 3 tbsp? Thanks in advance!!
Yes, equal amounts :)
I do not have unsweetened chocolate, only semi-sweet. How should i reduce the sugar?