Turn Boxed Brownies Into A Luxurious Treat Inspired By One Of America's Best-Selling Candy Bars

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The key to delicious boxed brownies isn't just about choosing the very best brownie mix brand. You can bring a creative and homemade twist to them by adding yet another beloved dessert: Snickers bars. A quick glance at best-selling products on Amazon puts Snickers as the number 2 and 3 best seller for candy bars; the number 2 spot is a mixed bag of Snickers and other candy bars while number 3 is just the Snickers bars. The milk chocolate, crunchy peanuts, chewy caramel, and soft nougat bring nuanced textures to pair with a gooey brownie crumb. Peanuts and caramel are ingredients that are also individual upgrades to brownies, making this a perfect match.

There are a couple of ways to incorporate Snickers into your next batch of boxed brownies. The simplest one is to add chopped up Snickers bars or even whole bite-sized mini Snickers bars to the brownie batter, ensuring that they're evenly dispersed before pouring the mixture into a greased baking dish to bake. To create a layered candy brownie, first make the brownie mix and add half of it to a greased pan. Then cut four King Size Snickers in half length-wise to create eight planks, lining them over the base layer of brownie mix before covering with the other half of brownie mix and baking. For both methods, we suggest reserving some Snickers to chop and sprinkle over the top as a garnish before — or just after — baking. Once you taste the results, you may need to start buying Snickers bars in bulk.

Snickers bars provide a crunchy, chewy texture and luxurious flavor upgrade for boxed brownies. But there are many tips to make the most of the brownie mix itself. For example, swap oil for butter and water for milk to create a richer flavor brownie. The other ingredient needed for chewy and rich boxed brownies, however, is sweetened condensed milk. That said, do adjust the cooking time of your brownies as sweetened condensed milk adds a few extra minutes on.

Regardless of ingredient swaps, a watchful eye and using the right baking pan for brownies are two important tips for achieving a moist and fudgy texture. While many brownie mixes specify a 35 to 40 minute baking time at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, you might want to ignore the box instructions and opt for less time. Pull the brownie bake out of the oven between 5 and 10 minutes before the specified baking time to check doneness. 

Be sure to use the correct-sized baking dish, too, as that's one of several common boxed brownie-baking mistakes. Using a large 9 x13 baking dish for brownie mix that should go in a smaller 8 x 8 will result in super thin, hard brownies. A metal pan is also the ideal baking dish material as the material is a better heat conductor than glass for even baking. Another common mistake is overmixing the brownie batter. This is best avoided as it creates too many air bubbles, resulting in an overly cakey or sunken brownie.