#42: Gooey Pumpkin Butterscotch Brownies

Well it's a good thing I have devoted myself to working out again, because this brownie will tighten your waistbands, let me tell you. Delicious though. It is my goal to try all of the recipes in my Pinterest which contain pumpkin prior to the Christmas holidays... since it is my belief that Christmas cookies should be full of peppermint and chocolate, rather than pumpkin. I might be alone in that, but with it being said, I decided to take on my fall FAVORITE recipe I have gathered. I had originally wanted to make this last weekend with Stephen to eat while we were carving pumpkins and watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas," but it didn't happen (probably for the best- the Crown Burger trip we had probably had us loaded up on enough calories to last a week, let's be honest). So I opted to make it this weekend instead.

This is a good one. EXTREMELY gooey. So much so, I made a mess of my parent's oven (oops). The Bairds have gotten me into a bad habit of putting brownies and cake into a bowl, and surrounding it with milk prior to eating it with a spoon... and this is a GOOD ONE to do just that with. TRY ME... at least after your Thanksgiving dinner. Seriously.

#42: Gooey Pumpkin Butterscotch Brownies (as found on pickypalate.com)

Ingredients:

1 family size brownie mix (I used Pillsbury Family Size Chocolate Fudge)
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 bag butterscotch chips (it was a struggle not to eat what was in the bag before using them for the brownies...)
1 small box instant butterscotch pudding mix (it's the box that says it contains 4 1/2 servings in it)
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (of course, now I have like 1/2 a cup of unused pumpkin sitting in my fridge)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butterscotch ice cream topping (I used caramel... explanation to follow)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl mix brownie mix, water, oil, eggs, chips, pudding, pumpkin and cinnamon. Mix until well combined. 

I HAD to put this on the blog... because even though these brownies are delicious, they look like a messy situation prior to baking. But the batter is AWESOME! Reminds me of Mexican hot chocolate.

2. Pour half of mix into a 11×7 inch baking pan that has been lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. 
     - Heads up, that step about making sure you coat your pan in foil AS WELL AS cooking spray is important. These brownies will stick to everything, including the pan. In fact, when I was ripping them out of the pan, the foil actually got stuck to the sides. I am currently soaking the baking dish trying to remedy this problem.

The next following steps= pure, unadulterated food porn

Ugggggh.

3. Pour 1/2 Cup butterscotch ice cream topping over brownie mix. Pour remaining brownie mix over top and bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes mostly clean from center. Let cool for 1 hour before removing from pan and cutting into squares.
     - All right, first thing, I used caramel topping because it was about a $1.50 cheaper than the butterscotch. NO IDEA WHY. They both contained the same amount of topping, maybe it's because the caramel was Smucker's and the butterscotch was Mrs. Richardson's? Who knows... second thing, place a cookie sheet below the baking dish. When I opened up the oven after an hour, the caramel had overflowed the sides of the pan, getting all over the bottom of the oven. The resulting mess was filling my kitchen with smoke... luckily the brownies were done. And delish. And that's what's really important here.

Here you be. Try not to drool all over your laptop, eh?