Oreo Pudding Brownie Poke Cake

 We were looking for a different dessert idea to bring to our friend's house a few weeks back.  We had made poke cakes before but never one with a brownie base!  We decided to give it a try.  We found this delicious recipe and only made 2 minor changes-- we under baked our brownie just a bit so it was nice and fudgy and we kept the whole thing inside the pan for easy transport. 

I just love poke cakes! They are so versatile; you can swap out the cake layer with any flavor cake, use different pudding or even gelatin flavors, top with some cool whip or whipped cream and a candy topping or two and you have a really delicious low-fuss dessert.  

The only thing we all agreed on was that next time we'd use a larger pan (13x9) so the brownie layer wouldn't be as thick.  Made in an 8x8 pan this was a really decadent treat. 

For the Brownie: (You could easily used a boxed mix here and save yourself a few steps!)

1 cup butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 2/3 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt. 

For the rest of the poke cake:

1 small box instant pudding

1 1/2 cups cold milk (whole works best but any will do)

A dozen or so Oreo cookies

Cool Whip topping - We didn't even use a full 8 oz. container

Hot fudge for drizzling; optional

Preheat oven to 350 and make sure the rack is in the middle. In a small glass bowl Alec microwaved the unsweetened chocolate until melted then stirred in the melted butter and the sugar.  Once the sugar was mixed in he added the eggs, flour, extract, baking soda and salt; mixing until he had a nice thick brownie batter.  He poured that into an 8x8 pan he had sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  

We baked the brownie for 40 or so minutes until a toothpick inserted 1/2 way between the edge of the pan and middle came out clean. We cooled the brownie for just a few minutes and then used the back of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over.  The brownie had a nice crispy layer over the top and a fudgy interior. 

Once completely cooled, Alec mixed together the milk and the chocolate pudding and poured some of the pudding over the cake.  He tried to get the pudding into the holes.  

We added about a cup of cool whip topping to the pudding along with a 1/2 dozen or so crushed Oreos and then spread that over the top.

Finally we topped our dessert with a layer of Cool Whip.

We crushed up another 1/2 dozen or so Oreo cookies and drizzled hot fudge over the whole thing.  We prepared our dessert a day ahead of time so we wrapped it with saran wrap and placed it in the refrigerator. 

It was so easy to serve; we made 9 servings but they were rather large and could have easily been cut into 12 instead. 

The layers and tastes all paired together perfectly. 

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