Brownie Goody Bars

I enjoy history. I enjoy learning about the origins of things. There’s always good stories to be found in history.

I enjoy Slutty Brownies. I enjoy pondering the origin of them. And I think I may have stubbled upon the “missing link,” if you will, of the modern slutty brownie.

I imagine the origin of these was a church potluck with two nuns, Sister Mary and Sister Grace, unable to decide what to bring. Sister Grace wanted to make brownies, Sister Mary wanted to make rice krispie treats. They both quabled about it, as nuns will do, and started going on their own way, baking their own thing.

Sister Grace’s brownies were cooled and ready to be frosted when she realized she was out of chocolate, thus leaving her with vanilla frosting. The last of the chocolate had been used by Sister Mary, who decided Jesus would be most pleased with chocolate peanut butter rice krispie treats.

Sister Mary, however, soon discovered that her Sister Grace had already used the pan she needed, forcing her to make the rice krispie treats in a larger pan, making them sadly thin. In retaliation, as nuns do, she threw peanuts in Sister Grace’s vanilla icing. “Ha! see how good it spreads over your precious brownies now!”

Sister Grace tried to frost her brownies with the peanut laden frosting, but the peanuts kept ripping up the brownies. She became increasingly frustrated as Sister Mary laughed. Finally, Sister Grace grabbed Sister Mary’s chocolate peanut butter rice krispie treats, flipped over the pan and dropped them on top of her messy brownies. “There! Now if anyone wants to try your rice krispie treats, they have to try my brownies too!” And, the Brownie Goody Bar was born.

The Sisters won a blue ribbon and made up. Jesus was very proud. An angel got its wings.

Before there were slutty brownies as we know them, before there was Pinterest, before blogs… well, before I knew what a blog was, I consulted the Betty Crocker recipe archive for new treats to try. That is when, some seven years ago, I stumbled upon a recipe for Brownie Goody Bars, which somehow made their way from that church potluck into Mrs. Crocker’s hands.

Brownie, icing, peanuts, and a chocolate peanut butter rice krispe covering: what’s not to love?

It had been some time since I’d made these, and upon breaking this gem out of my collection, it dawned on me that these captured the same ease and indulgence of the slutty brownie.

Just throw together a box of brownie mix (or make from scratch if you’re trying to show off), then top with a can of frosting (or make from scratch if you’re a pretentious bitch that is missing the whole point of this recipe), sprinkle on some peanuts and finally top with what amounts to a layer of chocolate peanut butter rice krispie treats.

Oh layers. Layers are important; in hair and in baked goods. Layers are what makes these so good, because you have the crunch of the krispie layer, the creaminess of the frosting and the chewy of the brownie. That is texture harmony right there and that is what could possibly elevate these beyond slutty brownies. But if they were better than slutty brownies, then they wouldn’t be the missing link, they’d be the successor to them, which would kill my above hypothesis and force me to start over with this post. I’m sure you don’t want me to do that. You just want the recipe already.

But wait! Problem solved: my original hypothesis stands because these do not have Oreos in them. That was obviously a recent, brilliant revolutionary gift. Behold, Rehead anthropology!

Brownie Goody Bars
by Betty Crocker

Ingredients
1 box brownie mix (plus ingredients called for on box)
1 container vanilla frosting
3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
3 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 bag (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 13×9 inch pan with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray.

Make and bake brownies as directed on box in the 13×9 pan. Cool completely.

Frost brownies with frosting. Sprinkle with peanuts; refrigerate while making cereal mixture.

Measure cereal into large bowl; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, melt peanut butter and chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Pour over cereal in bowl, stirring until evenly coated. Spread over frosted brownies. Refrigerate 1 hour or until set before cutting.

Tags: Betty Crocker, box mix, brownie, frosting, nuns, peanuts, quick and easy dessert, rice krispie, rice krispie treat, slutty brownie, vanilla