I have a list of links bookmarked on my computer that’s a mile long. Yes literally, a whole mile. That’s super long. The biggest category is labeled “recipes to try” and there are some that have been there for years. This one is one I always see when I’m scrolling through the list because it’s been there for like, 5 years. I thought I should finally make it just so I could delete it and let something else win the title of longest time on the list. Because I’m all about equal opportunity. These ooey gooey brownies have the look of a gourmet concoction, but they start off with a shortcut and are thrown together in no time. You’ll use a devil’s food cake mix (we like Duncan Hines) and turn it into a brownie. The middle layer boasts fluffy, melty marshmallow cream and dots of peanut butter morsels. Sounds like a winning combination, right?? It totally is.
Start by mixing part of the sweetened condensed milk with the cake mix, butter, milk, and egg white. It doesn’t look like a cake batter, it’s super thick like this:
You’ll need to pat part of this mixture into a 9×13 inch pan. You can either flour your hands, or spray them with cooking spray to avoid big goopy chocolate hands. That layer gets popped in the oven for about 10 minutes.
While it gets baked up, grab the marshmallow cream and scoop it all out into a bowl.
Add the rest of the sweetened condensed milk and stir it up till it’s nice and smooth
Lovely, isn’t it?
Then, we add peanut butter chips. Mmmm…peanut butter chips.
What a beautiful invention.
You can certainly measure them out. Or you can dump them in and accidentally dump way more than the recipe calls for. I won’t tell.
Stir them in
Then pour the marshmallow mixture over your pre-cooked brownie mixture. The marshmallow mixture is nice and sticky so just be patient and spoon it on a little at a time and very gently spread it around.
Then take the rest of that brownie dough and use your fingers to sort of smoosh it out into flat pieces and lay them on top.
Ready for the oven! Bake for another 30 minutes and wa-lah…
(And if you’re about to send me a rude grammar-correcting email or comment, I will just tell you now that I already know that’s not the correct spelling of wa-lah and I’m using it anyway. Because it’s my blog and I feel like it. And I don’t like writing in French because people won’t pronounce it wa-lah in their heads they will say viola.
And that just sounds lame. Seriously. Stop the emails. I’m sure you have better things you could do with your time. Like make brownies!)
It will kill you to not cut into these right away, but trust me, they are much better after they’ve cooled down. You can leave them slightly warm, or cool them completely to really taste all of the flavors. They’re awesome in big squares with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top too.
Or just stuffed in your face. Your call.
A few of you readers in the comments were surprised to note the source of such a naughty looking recipe: Cooking Light Magazine! I noted that the great thing about Cooking Light is that they skim calories where they can, but without sacrificing the recipe. So while these brownies are totally drool-worthy, they use non-fat milk and non-fat sweetened condensed milk, only 1 egg white in the whole recipe and only 4 tablespoons butter. All things considered, that’s a pretty great line-up for a treat as decadent as this! So go ahead; eat one more 😉
Ooey-Gooey Peanut-Butter Brownies
Ingredients
- 3/4 C sweetened condensed milk divided (fat-free is fine)
- 1/4 C butter melted and cooled (1/2 stick)
- 1/4 C non-fat milk
- 1 box devil's food cake mix 18.25 oz
- 1 large egg white lightly beaten
- cooking spray
- 1 7 oz jar marshmallow creme about 1 3/4 C
- 1/2 C peanut butter morsels not gonna lie, I used a very "heaping" 1/2 cup :
Instructions
- With an electric mixer, combine 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk, milk, butter, cake mix, and egg white. Mixture will be very thick. Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Use either floured hands, or spray your hands with cooking spray in order to press it down without having it stick to your fingers. The layer will be thin. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Combine 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk and marshmallow creme in a bowl and combine until smooth. Stir in PB morsels. No one will tell if you stir in some extras.
- Spread marshmallow layer over brownie layer in pan. Carefully drop remaining brownie batter by spoonfuls over marshmallow mixture. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. (The original recipe calls for 30 minutes, but many readers have noted that 20 minutes was perfect, and I usually only bake for about 20-25). Remove from oven and cool before cutting into squares.
Questions & Reviews
I have a list of bookmarked recipes that I want to try, too. But when I saw this it jumped to the top of my list. They’re currently cooling in my kitchen and I can’t wait to take a bite!! And I may have put just a tad bit more than half a cup of peanut butter chips.. An additional half cup qualifies as a “tad bit” right?
OHHHHH, MYYYYY! How I want to try these! Am trying to take off another 20 pounds right now, so they’ll have to wait, but they are DEFINITELY on my ‘list to try’ once these pounds are gone!
I will definitely be making these. YUM! They look fantastic.
I wish I hadn’t looked up the calorie count on Cooking Light.. Definitely not “diet” food at 176 calories per tiny piece (they want you to cut these into 24 pieces… REALLY? Who could do that?). I will calorie splurge on these soon. Did I already say YUM?
Hey, I never claimed they were diet food. But that’s not a bad calorie count for a brownie like that!
These sound SO flipping good! Will have to make them very soon! And I am so excited to see you in Seattle. I will be in Edgewood on Friday!!!!
Made them tonight! They are yummy and they live up to their name…”Ooey-Gooey..” Loved them with vanilla ice cream!
these look Aaahhh-MAZING! Mmmm! i cannot wait to try these out in 2 weeks for our next get-together with friends. i’m gonna be one popular gal that day…LOL! hugs y’all!
This was published in Cooking Light some years ago and I’ve been making these ever since – they are so easy and always a hit!
Ok. I am going to make these, they look yummy. Silly question: DO you make the devils food mix, as it says on the box and add or just the mix from the box not adding everything else? Thanks. Want to make sure I do it correctly.
I made these last night for my family and they were fantastic!! I even forgot to put in the egg white but they still turned out. Thanks for the great recipe!!
hey..do you have any recepies for using cake mixes to make cookies?
mhm and i confused- after the marshmellow whip layer and then you put the second layer on is that layer the raw batter and then baked or is it baked and then added so you just sorta reheated?
I think I have the same question… in the first part where you walk through the steps it looks like you’re adding bits of already-baked (or semi-baked) brownie on top, but then in the recipe it says put the raw batter on there?
This is my basic cake mix cookie recipe- and you can use any flavor and add any mix-ins:
https://ourbestbites.com/2008/06/cake-mix-cookies/
And to answer your question (and yours too Rachel) you are putting raw brownie batter on top. Part of the batter goes on the bottom of the pan and gets baked for 10 minutes. You then put your marshmallow layer on top of that and then the rest of the uncooked brownie batter that is still left in your bowl. Make sense?
Do you have to use non fat milk? I’m evil and only keep full fat milk in my house…would that mess these up too much?
Lol, you’re funny. Use any kind of milk you want!
I haven’t read all the comments, so I’m not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet. I made these tonight and realized at the end that I never used the milk. In the “print out” recipe version the milk is not included in the chocolate batter. I wondered why mine was VERY thick and dry, but you mentioned it should be thick so I figured that it was okay. Anyway, they still tasted good of course…and will probably be even better when I do it correctly. Love your blog!
Sorry Katie- that’s been fixed, but you must have printed it out before! I’m glad they still turned out great 🙂
Oh my goodness. I think I just died and gone to heaven. THese look incredible!!!
This sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing!
By the way, I made your banana cream pie from your cook book & posted it here–
http://southernlovely.blogspot.com/2011/06/banana-cream-pie.html
It was absolutely delicious! Something we will be making again & again! Can’t wait to try out more recipes from the book!
Wonderful Lindsay, thanks for sharing!
I can’t believe this recipe is from Cooking Light!! Awesome!! But I guess I still shouldn’t eat the whole pan right? 🙂
These look yummy! I have been a long-time reader and just ordered your cookbook with my birthday money from Amazon. Well done, girls! Also, over Memorial Day, my aunt was raving about this fantastic blog that they use all the time to get recipes from. I said, “I have one too!” Yes, we were both talking about your blog. Keep up the great work!
This is definitely going in my gotta try it bookmark list too! Only problem is I know my husband and none of my boys will eat it so I am going to have to find someone to share it with so I don’t eat the whole thing!
Made this for FHE treats tonight. YUMMO! My batter wasn’t very thick, though, it was more crumbly, but I didn’t notice the milk thing either so maybe that was the problem. But still turned out good! I only had to bake mine for 20 minutes and it was already a little overdone. My oven must be hot.
Are you doing book signings in Boise again? I missed you last month!
These looked so good, and I had all the ingredients, so I had to make them. Unfortunately I don’t see where in the directions that I should add the 1/4 cup non-fat milk. Of course I didn’t notice that I left that out until I had already baked the first layer. So my batter was extra thick. They still taste good. 🙂
Oh so sorry Leia! It does say it in the post when I walk through the recipe, but looks like I forgot it below! Glad they still turned out!
No problem, I figured I just missed it somewhere. I’m sure next time they will taste even better!! Thanks for all the amazing recipes. My family had the asian bbq chicken with the cilantro-lime rice with pineapple for dinner tonight. It was amazing!
Do you hate me? I saw these and gained 10 lbs. just by looking at them.
I just started a strict soup diet this week, but you can bet I’ll have a pan of these made NEXT week! Thanks!
Oh, yay! This has truly been my go-to recipe for brownies since it was first in Cooking Light (maybe 2001?). And you’re right, these completely change taste and texture when cooled (although let’s be honest, I *always* have one right out of the oven- who can resist warm chocolate?) If you’re a blondie fan, try this recipe with a yellow cake mix and butterscotch chips, it’s A-MAZING (oops, there’s a pesky non-word again!)…
So I ran out to the store and got what I needed and made them and they ROCK the house! Just have to take some over to a friends house or I might have to eat the entire pan. So everyone who said they wanted to try them should definitely try them. SO GOOD!! I’m at high altitude and they came out splendidly as written, which is lovely. A keeper for sure.
If I happen to get off work early on Friday, I’ll head over to Edgewood. I would to meet you two!
would LOVE. I’m having issues.
This recipe comes from cooking light?! That’s hilarious! I would absolutely LOVE these, but my poor son is allergic to nuts (so sad for his peanut butter-loving mom). It would be so mean to make them. But I did see the previous comment about subbing mint or chocolate chips. I’ll have to try that. I love this site!
These look awesome… I don’t like peanut butter though. Would chocolate chips work well? Should I do milk choc or semi-sweet?
I would use semi-sweet or dark. The brownies are super sweet already, so you’ll want to balance it out with a less-sweet chocolate. (And how can you not like peanut butter, crazy girl??! 😉
Mmmm…yes…this with MINT chips! I know there are other recipes for that sort of thing on this site, but I like the cake mix/marshmallow creme variations. Fun recipes – thanks, gals!
wow! I want those now! Duncan Hines is seriously the best cake mix around!
OH these must be unreligous!!!! A sin indeed…a must try…I had to laugh at your list on your computer…sounds a bit like me!! But this one will definately be a doer!!! I want to try your strawberry syrup too..its that season again…
These look fabulous! I use to bake at a restraunt and we made something like this only we used caramels instead of marshmallow fluff and mini-chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips. YUM! Can’t wait to try these.