Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

In case you were wondering, a Dum Dum idea is NOT, in any way, shape, or form, a dumb idea.  It’s practical brilliance.  Have you heard the story behind mystery-flavored Dum Dums?  When they’re switching from one flavor to another in the mixer, they don’t clean the last of the first flavor out; they just add the new and label the pops that have a bit of both flavors with mystery wrappers.  No ingredients get wasted, no labor is spent cleaning out the old flavor–brilliant, right?  Money-saving marketed as fun.  What’s not to love?

Okay, so it’s not a perfect analogy–there’s no money saving involved in this recipe for Almond Joy Brownies.  There is, however, an inspired idea.  Just as the guy who came up with the Dum Dum idea must have wowed somebody with the sheer brilliance of it, the person who first thought of using a brownie mix as a base for a Hello Dolly bar should be publicly celebrated.   What’s not to love, right?  In all fairness, it does change the texture quite a bit–it becomes a Hello Dolly brownie–but still.  Brownie, sweetened condensed milk, toffee, chocolate chips, coconut…you really can’t go wrong.

In the interest of full disclosure, I substituted walnuts because that’s what I had; I wish I’d used almonds, though.  Other than that?

Gooey goodness.

Mmmmmmm.