Better-Than-Crack Brownies.

August 9, 2010 · 436 comments

I’m sorry for doing this to you.

I really am.

But see, last Friday while I was on a 10-hour road trip heading for vacation, I received this recipe from a reader named Liz.

Liz, I love you. That’s all I have to say.

I was tortured by this recipe for a full 8 days before I could make it. I wanted to make it while I was on vacation, but couldn’t drag myself up off the couch to do so.

So it was the first thing I made when I returned home.

These are an absolute sin.

I really don’t have any words, other than you must try them. They will change your life.

They may also change your waistline too.

But that’s okay.

It’s all in the name of chocolate.


Better-Than-Crack Brownies

1 batch brownies (boxed mix or oooey gooey brownies)

1/2 cup salted peanuts (if don’t have salted, add sea salt)

1 cup chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups

1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

Mix brownies according to directions, and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Remove and top with peanuts and peanut butter cups, and bake for 4-6 minutes more.

While they are finishing baking, melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Stir in cereal. Remove brownies from oven and evenly pour chocolate mixture over top.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.



Mr. How Sweet says these are healthy since they have peanuts for protein and good fat, and since the back of the Rice Krispie box says the cereal is a “healthy snack.”

I love the way this man thinks.

{ 311 comments… read them below or add one }

Ari December 3, 2011 at 8:56 pm

Okay, I’ve had more then a couple people ask me for this recipe, so; here it is!If you need to use an alternate name for the fam or younger children, my mom calls it “Drizzle Cake” in polite company. :) Feel free to tag anyone else you know who might want this.

What You Need:

German Chocolate Cake Mix

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 jar Caramel Ice Cream Topping

1 bag Heath bits (can be found with the chocolate chips in any store)

1 large tub of Extra Creamy Cool Whip

What To Do:

Grease a 13×9 pan and set it aside. (Trust me, use 13×9. Anything smaller won’t be able to hold all the toppings and will overflow into a HUGE mess.)Preheat your oven as directed on the cake box, and follow prep instructions for the cake.

After you remove the cake from the oven, put the pan in the on the stove top or a baking rack to cool. Wait approx. 15 minutes and then, with the end of a mixing spoon, poke sporadic holes in the cake about 1/4 inch apart.

While the cake is still warm, drizzle the whole can of sweetened condensed milk, and the whole jar of caramel over the cake; filling the holes and leaving a layer on top of the cake. Then sprinkle about half the bag of heath bits onto the cake.

Let the cake cool for AT LEAST an hour. Then put the cool whip on like frosting. Just use half the tub at first, just in case the cake hasn’t cooled enough and the cool whip ends up melting into it. (I like to put half on while the cake is luke warm, and then let it sit overnight and put the rest of the cool whip on in the morning. It gives everything tie to soak in and makes it THAT much better.)

After you apply the second half of the cool whip, top the cake with your remaining heath bits. (I usually don’t use the entire bag, use your own personal judgement.)

Finally, ENJOY!!!

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mattison April 5, 2012 at 11:32 am

I made these last night and they are amazing!! I can’t stop eating them!!

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Lori December 4, 2011 at 12:59 am

Shockingly, I wasn’t crazy about these…they were actually too sweet and tasted more like a candy bar than a brownie. I felt like I was eating a giant Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. I think I might try them again but use a double amount of brownie mix, skip the peanuts and use 1/2 the amount of peanut butter, chocolate and rice krispy topping (like a thin layer on top).

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Kevin March 27, 2012 at 12:15 pm

Just double the brownie mix and skip the peanuts and use coco krispies instead. They are so good….

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Andy December 4, 2011 at 11:13 pm

I used cocoa crispies and double fudge brownies. Made it at work and they disappeared in ten minutes!

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Charmaine January 9, 2012 at 3:10 am

@Andy I like the way you think!! Going to try the cocoa crispys great addition.

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texas food and travel December 7, 2011 at 1:27 pm

wow these look great! thanks for sharing

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Kirsten December 8, 2011 at 8:10 am

Oh my! These look amazing!

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Kate December 8, 2011 at 3:09 pm

jizzzzzz

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Sarah January 17, 2012 at 12:21 am

Seconded!!

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Elisha January 18, 2012 at 1:02 pm

thirded!!!

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steven January 23, 2012 at 4:27 am

fourthed

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Andrew January 23, 2012 at 11:39 pm

Fifthed!

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Mara March 28, 2012 at 9:58 pm

sixth, and seventh, and eighth…

and ninth…

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matt December 14, 2011 at 3:28 am

you obviously never had crack

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dee December 14, 2011 at 7:06 am

lol..i agree:)

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Kelly March 8, 2012 at 12:41 pm

Aw come on…nothing is better than crack. :)

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Mellisa December 18, 2011 at 1:58 pm

Oh dear god these sound good!

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Jenn @therebelchick December 19, 2011 at 5:37 pm

I think I gained 5 lbs just reading this blog post! I definitely have to try making these!

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Danuta December 21, 2011 at 7:37 pm

very well said, grammie2maddie.

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AshAsh December 24, 2011 at 2:24 am

I highly doubt these brownies are better than crack no matter how you slice it. They do look amazing though.

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dena December 25, 2011 at 7:09 pm

Omgg! Made these brownies for christmas today and EVERYYONEE loved them. They’re delishh<3

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Briana December 28, 2011 at 6:04 pm

These brownies were the best! Me and all my friends love them :)

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Diana December 29, 2011 at 11:34 am

Well I just gained 5 lbs by looking at it !LOL

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kelly January 1, 2012 at 5:16 pm

Just made these crack brownies! They look dangerous! I will be sharing them with a group of friends tonight….cause I would not eat these alone!!! I could but I won’t!!

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Rick January 3, 2012 at 1:39 am

so what happens if you actually put crack in them? better than heroin brownies?

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Gryphonisle January 6, 2012 at 2:38 am

You’d have to smoke them. Can’t say they’d taste good that way, but if you used enough crack you might get that momentary mind blowing buzz.

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Casey January 12, 2012 at 6:12 pm

What kind of people are reading food blogs nowadays!?! oh my goodness, lol

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Allison February 5, 2012 at 1:02 am

RIGHT!

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Sarah April 27, 2012 at 9:00 am

I agree with…what is with all the crack comments??

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cookthegood January 4, 2012 at 2:31 pm

Well the graduated illustration you gave is marvelous, that really made your recipe easy to prepare.

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Gryphonisle January 6, 2012 at 2:34 am

Of course they’re good, several corporations invested most of the effort and chemical mixes to ensure they would be. Now let’s come up with a version of the recipe without all the food products, and instead rely on actual food. Cooking from packages, combining brand name food products is more Science than Cooking, how it tastes is irrelevant. If you can waste time making this, you can make it better using food and dumping the food products.

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Sue January 18, 2012 at 7:56 pm

YES!! Preach on!!!

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donutqueen January 19, 2012 at 8:03 pm

who said they wanted food? We are talking about brownies

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sedated January 7, 2012 at 11:39 am

The dish looks so yummy that i can’t control myself

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Kelly January 9, 2012 at 2:55 am

My boyfriend and I made these and he brought them into his work; that night, while on a date, he got a text from his boss saying that she couldn’t stop thinking about the brownies and when would he bring in more? Everyone I’ve made them for has raved about them. I’ve even heard from several people that these brownies were the best thing they’ve ever tasted. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

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Linda January 11, 2012 at 7:52 pm

Will these brownies be just as good if I make them the day before?

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Elisha January 18, 2012 at 2:39 pm

Do everything else the same. Just use a mixture of white, dark, and milk chocolate chips….YUM.

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Alexandra January 21, 2012 at 1:37 pm

You obviously never had crack…JK JK these r amazing i loved them! :)

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Julie January 22, 2012 at 12:13 pm

Tried these last night and they are to die for! I would actually increase the peanuts and Reese’s cup layer in the middle though, it seemed drowned out between the brownie and top layer! Peanuts with sea salt really gave it a good contrast within all the sweet!

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Ally January 24, 2012 at 9:39 pm

when do you put in the reeses?

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Maggie January 31, 2012 at 4:12 pm

My boyfriend says these are the BEST thing that I bake him. haha. Nothing else has beaten it!!

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Jennifer January 31, 2012 at 10:41 pm

Wonder is crushed pretzels in with the peanut layer would add another dimension… oh my yum…

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Maddie February 2, 2012 at 10:04 pm

You know that episode of Sex in the City, where Miranda for the life of her can’t stop eating that chocolate cake so she ends up throwing it in the trash? Then she ends up pouring soap all over it because she ends up eating it anyway? Yeah that just happened.

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meg February 2, 2012 at 10:20 pm

Too late to make these tonight, but tomorrow…. I’ll be eating these!!!!!

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paula February 5, 2012 at 12:00 am

Another way to make these brownies is to make the brownies, then put cream cheese icing on top of the brownies (leaving off the peanuts and pb cups), then adding the chocolate, pb, krispy mix on top. They are fantastic!

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Kelli February 10, 2012 at 12:00 am

I absolutely love the humor in the recipe

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Madelyn February 13, 2012 at 7:22 pm

Made these for a school play and they got RAVE reviews, one from the school director himself! :)
The only downside is they take quite a bit of time to assemble, but if youre a huge fan of chocolate and you’re trying to impress someone who is also a huge fan, then these are the brownies for you :)

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Kathy February 15, 2012 at 6:44 pm

Just made these crack brownies! They look dangerous! I will be sharing them with a group of friends tonight

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Meghann February 16, 2012 at 3:22 pm

Love this recipe – have made it a couple of times now and always a hit. In honor of Girl Scout Cookie time – I swapped out the reeses for crushed up tagalongs or whatever the peanut butter sandwich cookie is. Still added the peanuts – but since the cookies were not as sweet as the reeses it balanced them a bit more. Now, I am thinking about what other salty sweet options I can get in there.

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Savvy February 16, 2012 at 11:31 pm

These were honestly the best brownies I’ve ever had in my life….. too goood!!!

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ATasteOfMadness February 27, 2012 at 2:21 am

I made these brownies, and I’ve got to say that they were one of the best things I have ever made, bar none. I even gave a plateful to my boyfriend (reluctantly though I would have felt far too guilty eating them all. Don’t get me wrong, I could definitely do it) and he loved it. “This is the last one I’m eating today” only stops when all the brownies are gone.

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alan March 3, 2012 at 6:31 pm

hi i liked your site barbecue goes great with brownies and chocolate.

best wishes
alan

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umer March 14, 2012 at 2:36 am

This is certainly something I would make and enjoy! thanks for sharing …

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Lena March 15, 2012 at 9:47 am

I’ve made a cake that’s called “better then sex cake”. It’s the exact same recipe… and it looks nothing like these pictures. There is no way the pictures on here, is the same as this recipe. I would however like to know what the recipe is, for whatever those pictures are of. I see nuts in that picture and what looks like nestle crunch bar on top… so.. what is it?

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Lena March 15, 2012 at 9:49 am

I dont know if my last post is on here or not.. but Now the recipe is right. Is pinterest messed up or my computer? sorry.. Its all good now.

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Denver Realtor March 27, 2012 at 1:51 pm

I just made these, they are absolutely INCREDIBLE! Scared to think of the calories, haha! Oh well!

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nat March 30, 2012 at 10:34 am

did you use a boxed mix for yours? or the home made ones?

have you made them w/ double the brownie mix as suggested by some posters? (and do you have a preference?)

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Wodnik April 4, 2012 at 8:05 am

Wow, it looks so lovely! :)

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Samantha Wian April 15, 2012 at 5:13 pm

I make these for every occasion that I have to bring a dish. The recipe I use has white cake frosting on top of the brownies instead…we do call them crack brownies!

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Cindy Coniglio April 23, 2012 at 2:41 pm

i cant even look at these, im salivating.

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