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Slutty Protein Brownies

These slutty protein brownies sandwich real Oreo cookies between a sugar cookie base and a soft, fudgy brownie layer. Basically, they’re what dreams are made of. They’re not the lowest calorie dessert you’ll find on my blog, but each brownie has 10 grams of protein and just 21 grams of carbs.

Since this is technically two recipes in one, it may seem like a complicated recipe at first glance. But don’t let the longer recipe scare you away—it’s an easy one. I’ll walk you through all the steps below, and you can find the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.

One of the best protein powder dessert recipes you’ll come across! These slutty protein brownies sandwich Oreos between protein sugar cookie dough and fudgy protein brownie batter. Each brownie has 10 grams of protein and only 20 grams of carbs!

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Slutty Protein Brownies Recipe Walkthrough

You can split this recipe into two main parts:

  1. making the protein cookie base and topping with Oreos
  2. making the protein brownie batter to pour over the top

We’ll zoom through this part, and I’ll touch on ingredient modifications next.

Step 1: Making the Protein Sugar Cookie Base

The cookie base is essentially my vanilla bean protein sugar cookies recipe cut in half. So if you’ve made that, you’ve got a leg up. If not, you’ll start out by creaming light butter and Swerve (or another sugar substitute) together.

light butter and swerve in a food processor creamed together before adding dry ingredients and vanilla bean paste

Then add some protein powder, flour, baking powder, and vanilla bean paste or extract, mix it up, and boom—cookie dough.

making the cookie dough in a food processor and spreading in a baking dish

You can see in the far left photo that you don’t want to completely pulverize the dough in the food processor. Crumble everything together and then you can form the dough with a spatula or by hand. Over mixing will create a tough or chewy cookie base for your slutty protein brownies.

Side note: If you remember the original slutty protein brownies recipe I made for an old cookbook, the cookie base included chocolate chips. I decided to pull those out and use them inside the brownie batter to make them extra soft and fudgy. This was inspired by my white chocolate raspberry protein cheesecake that uses white chocolate chips instead of eggs. 

cookie dough base in the baking dish with Oreos on top

And that’s it for the cookie base. Spread it out evenly across the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish with a parchment paper sling. The sling will make it easier to remove the brownies from the baking dish after baking for faster cooling.

Don’t forget to top with Oreos. I know I didn’t have to tell you that, but still. Oh, and by the way, if you’re wondering what to do with extra Oreos, check out my Oreo Protein Cake!

Step 2: Making the Protein Brownie Layer

It’s all downhill from here. Begin by mixing some protein powder, flour, and cocoa powder together and adding milk and Greek yogurt. Then microwave some chocolate chips, add butter to them, stir, and add to the dry ingredients.

dry brownie batter ingredients next to butter and melted chocolate chips

Stir everything together until smooth and pour over the cookie base and Oreos. Spread it out evenly and you’re ready to bake!

pouring the smooth brownie batter over the protein cookie base and Oreos

P.S. Don’t forget to spray the exposed sides of the baking dish or you’ll need to use a knife to separate the brownies from the baking dish before cooling.

Slutty Protein Brownies Ingredient Modifications

I’ve made enough protein powder desserts to know the most commonly asked questions. If I miss something, feel free to drop a comment at the bottom of this post and I’ll try to help ya out!

Side note: For a deeper dive on healthy brownie ingredients, check out my low calorie brownie bake-off.

What is Swerve? Can I use any sugar substitute? 

Swerve is an erythritol-based sweetener that measures and tastes just like sugar.

In most recipes, other sugar substitutes that measure 1:1 for sugar usually work just fine. Similar to the protein powder notes below, however, cookie dough can be tricky. The good news is that you don’t need much for these slutty protein brownies so I’m betting you can get away with it.

That said, I’d encourage you to pick up some Swerve to be safe! You can find Swerve, vanilla bean paste, the food processor, and all the other kitchen tools and staple ingredients I use on my Amazon storefront

Can I use a different protein powder for these slutty protein brownies?

I’d advise against it if at all possible. No protein powder is the same and using different products can be tricky with protein baked goods. Substitute protein powder at your own risk!

The recipe calls for PEScience Select, a blend of whey and casein protein. It’s quite a bit thicker in consistency and difficult to match with whey-only protein powder. Usually, adding a bit more protein powder or reducing the wet ingredients fix things. But in a recipe like this with the cookie dough, that might take a bit more tinkering.

You can buy as little as a 5-scoop serving of PEScience Select on their website. That would be enough to try these brownies! And if you decide to pick up a larger tub, you can use my affiliate discount code mason to save 15%.

slutty protein brownies with PEScience Select in the background

Can I use real butter?

Yep. You may want to let it soften to room temp or cut into cubes for starting, though. Light butter is super soft at room temp and even straight out of the refrigerator.

All purpose flour substitutes

Similar to protein powder, the cookie dough makes it a little tricky but since you don’t have to handle the dough, you can get away with more. I bet almond flour would work fine, and I’ve others have used Bob’s Red Mill GF 1:1 flour successfully in recipes like my Greek yogurt biscuits.

That should cover it! If you have a question about these slutty protein brownies, drop a comment below or join my Facebook group with more than 10k healthy home cooks that would love to help you out! 

3 slutty protein brownies stacked on one another

Slutty Protein Brownies

Yield: 9 Brownies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Oreos sandwiched between a protein sugar cookie base and fudgy protein brownies.

Ingredients

Protein Cookie Base

  • 1/4 C (56g) Light Butter
  • 1/4 C (48g) Swerve Granular
  • 1 scoop (31g) Vanilla Protein Powder*
  • 1/4 C (30g) All Purpose Flour
  • 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste (or vanilla extract)
  • 9 Oreos

Protein Brownie Layer

  • 2 scoops (62g) Vanilla Protein Powder
  • 1/2 C (60g) All Purpose Flour
  • 3 Tbsp (15g) Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder
  • 3/4 C (180mL) Unsweetened Cashew Milk (or your choice of milk)
  • 3 Tbsp (42g) Vanilla Fat Free Greek Yogurt
  • 3 Tbsp (42g) Dark Chocolate Chips
  • 3 Tbsp (42g) Light Butter

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 350F and line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper sling. Spray the edges with nonstick spray and set aside.

For the Protein Cookie Base

  1. Using a food processor, stand mixer, or whisk, cream the 1/4 C of butter and 1/4 C of Swerve together until light and fluffy.
  2. Add the 1 scoop of protein powder, 1/4 C of flour, baking powder, and vanilla bean paste and mix until a the mixture is crumbly and can be shaped into a dough. (I used 5-6 pulses in a food processor.)
  3. Spread the cookie dough across the bottom of the baking dish in a thin layer and top with the Oreos.

For the Protein Brownie Layers

  1. Mix the 2 scoops of protein powder, 1/2 C of flour, and cocoa powder together in a large bowl.
  2. Add the milk and Greek yogurt, stirring to fully incorporate.
  3. In a small bowl, microwave the chocolate chips for 45-60 seconds until melted. Add the butter and stir until smooth before adding to the batter. Stir well.
  4. Pour the brownie batter on top of the cookie base and Oreos, spreading it to the edges.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until there's little wiggle when shaken. (You want the brownies slightly gooey in the center as they'll firm up a bit once out of the oven.)
  6. Let the brownies cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack using the parchment paper sling. The brownies will be easier to cut when cooled for at least 30 minutes.

Notes

Each brownie has 6 Smart Points.

The recipe makes 9 large brownies. If you'd like to cut smaller brownies, the entire recipe has 1,800 calories, 91 grams of protein, 187 grams of carbs, and 86 grams of fat.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 9 Brownies Serving Size: 1 Brownie
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 200Total Fat: 9.5gCarbohydrates: 20.7gProtein: 10.1g

Nutrition information does not include carbs from the zero-calorie Swerve.

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More Protein Powder Recipes You Might Like

You’ll love these brownies with Oreo cookies baked between layers of protein cookie dough and fudge brownie batter. Every brownie has 10 grams of protein with just 20 grams of carbs!

Amanda Chandler

Wednesday 15th of April 2020

These are awesome! I used a dairy free coconut yogurt and dairy free chocolate chips as a replacement, and they turned out perfect!

Alex

Monday 25th of November 2019

So delicious! The cookie layer was super thin which I found a little weird and thought i didn’t make enough/the correct amount but it came out so good! I use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and I know whole wheat tends to weigh more so I may add a bit more next time

Erica

Monday 25th of November 2019

These are by far some of the best brownies I have ever tasted. I used oreo thins instead of a 'real' oreo and they came out perfect the first time I made these. I also tried a girl scout shortbread cookie instead of the oreo the second time and they came out just as good. So it looks like it doesn't matter what cookie you use. I highly recommend giving this recipe a try. I made them for myself and my mom and she loved them just as much!

Casandra Custer

Monday 25th of November 2019

Made this tonight....amazing! So tasty and almost guilt free. Love the brownie with the extra crunch of the Oreo and the dense cookie on the bottom. Have made many recipes by mason and keep coming back for more.

Tamis_fitlife

Sunday 24th of November 2019

Can I use almond flour instead of regular flour do you think it might work?

Mason Woodruff

Sunday 24th of November 2019

I haven't tested them with almond flour but like I mentioned in the notes, you might be able to get away with it since you really don't have to handle the cookie dough.

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