Everything Brownies

Xavier loves to bake with me, so a couple of weeks ago we paged through my baking cookbooks for ideas.  We came across this recipe in my "Bake Sale Favorites" Cookbook, and Xavier was quite persistent that we make these.  I adapted the recipe a bit and came out with these ridiculously ooey-gooey and sinfully scrumptious Everything Brownies.  We just loved them!  In fact, we loved them a little too much.  I had to get rid of some so we wouldn't scarf them all down in 2 days!  I dumped off a plate of them to his principal for some extra "brownie" points! :-)

Everything Brownies

2-3/4 C quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats

1/2 C whole-wheat flour

1/2 C AP flour

1 C golden brown sugar, firmly packed

1 C walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 t baking soda

2 sticks butter, melted

1-3/4 C mini M&Ms

1 package fudge brownie mix (I used Ghiradelli), prepared according to package directions

Preheat oven to 350F.  

Combine oats, flour, sugar, nuts, and & baking soda in a large bowl.  Add butter until mixture forms coarse crumbs.  Mix in M&Ms.  Set aside 3 cups of this mixture.  Pour the remaining mixture into a 15x10x1 dish and pat down to form a crust.  (For brownies and bar cookies, I line the dish with foil with about 2-3 inch overhang so that I can just pull the whole thing out when it cools.  This makes it easier to cut into bars.)  Pour prepared brownie mix over the crumb crust, carefully spreading into thin layer.  Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over brownie mixture and pat down lightly.  

Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.