White Chocolate Oatmeal Crunch Brownies are from The Baking Bites Cookbook, Nicole Weston's first book. This post originally was part of a giveaway of the book, but alas a decade has passed and I do not have a free book to offer. You can find it on Amazon, though!
When I first baked these I noted that they were buttery and rich and regretted not sending them to the office with my husband. Because they are so rich, they can be cut very small. To make them fancy, put them in little cupcake wrappers.
Here's the recipe and an excerpt from the book.
White Chocolate Oatmeal Crunch Brownies
It might seem like a strange idea to add a cookie base to a pan of brownies, but it's actually a great way to introduce some texture to brownies. These white chocolate brownies are not too sweet and have a wonderfully milky vanilla flavor to them. It pairs perfectly with the oatmeal cookie crust, which is chewy and just crispy enough to provide a great base for the brownies. The crust has both coconut and oatmeal in it, both of which go well with the chocolate, but still stand out on their own because the white chocolate doesn't have as strong of a flavor as a darker chocolate would.
Crust:
⅓ cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup oatmeal
⅓ cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
⅓ cup butter, melted and cooled
Brownies:
⅔ cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 ½-oz white chocolate, chopped
¼ cup butter
⅔ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Make cookie base: Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, for easy removal later.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, oatmeal and coconut. Pour in melted butter and stir to combine. Pour into prepared 8-inch square baking pan (pan can be ungreased if not using foil). Bake for 12 minutes.
Make brownie batter: Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
In another small bowl, melt white chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Set aside to cool.
Whisk together sugar and egg until light colored. When butter mixture is no longer hot, stir it into the egg mixture. Stir in the flour mixture, milk and vanilla extract, whisking until no streaks of flour remain.
When cookie base comes out of the oven, gently pour brownie batter on top and spread it out carefully with a spatula or the back of the spoon. The crust will not be set yet, so try to be gentle as you move the batter towards the corners of the pan. Return to oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
Makes 20 brownies.
Kristina says
When you say oatmeal in the crust, do you mean oats or actual cooked oatmeal? Thanks! These look amazing!
Chaya says
You have the best recipes on this blog. There are so many, I would like to make. This is a great source of ideas.
sara nell says
These are so good! I was really tempted by this recipe and happened to have all the ingredients, so I cooked them this afternoon. I DID think they were super sweet (as anticipated from looking at the recipe), but I like that in a dessert so I loved them! So yummy. I topped the brownies with chopped milk chocolate (somehow to me a brownie needs at least a little of the brown sort of chocolate!), which was a good addition - if you wanted them less sweet, I think dark chocolate chips would be good too.
Deborah: I think you could replace the coconut with finely chopped pecans and it would still be really good. I also didn't think the coconut flavor was super prominent if you use unsweetened coconut (which I did) - to me it was more about the texture. I do think someone who isn't a huge fan of coconut would still like these.
Jackie says
Hi Anna
My favorite chocolate is Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate.
Anna says
Deborah, I'm not sure. You might want to just try a different white chocolate brownie recipe. The coconut seemed like a pretty important component, but I've only made the bars once.
BTW. Todd took these to his office today and people loved them!
Deborah says
Do you think they would be as good without the coconut? I like coconut but my other half doesn't...
susan from food blogga says
I'm not a big fan of white chocolate, but these brownies could definitely convert me.
Connie says
I love the dark stuff
Dolce says
I had not realized this was a recipe from Nicole cookbook 🙂
Jennie says
Yum! These sound delicious! I love different takes on brownies and now I have to try these out soon!
Patty says
These sound very rich and delicious!
Lourdes says
Valrhona for baking.
Jean Paul Hevin ( paris) for eating
Rawley says
Does Nutella count?? 🙂
Jen T. says
These sound like they would be great with dark chocolate, too!
Anna says
They were sweet and buttery. I didn't think they were overly sweet, though.
Celaina says
Absolutely without question Scharfen Burger (sp?) for eatin'!
Louise says
Although Nicole says otherwise, these look like they would be very sweet. What do you think?