Brownies with espresso cream cheese frosting, crushed oreos, and sea salt

I die. Who's the culprit? 

exhibit A: the sea salt top. Could it be the ones so carefully sprinkled over the brownie? The saline biting my palate with saltiness? Or could it be.....

exhibit B: the crumbly oreos. They're definitely suspect. Come on, now. Cookies on top of a brownie? That's awfully dangerous. But perhaps it was.....

exhibit C: the cream cheese espresso frosting. And with the espresso powder perfectly accentuating the chocolate flavors above and below its creamy layer? It's killer. Or is it.....

exhibit D: the ooey brownie goodness. Now I turn to our last, and possibly most dangerous, of our suspects. You all know I'm a huge fan of brownies. This is, like, a top 5 favorite food type-of-deal. This recipe comes from Alton Brown and I've got to say, they're pretty rad. Definitely not as ooey as my plumb good brownies, but still great in all their moist cakeyness.

Who knows what put me 6 feet under. With such plausible subjects, maybe it was a group homicide.

Morbid, I know, but these brownies kill me. They're that good.

Makes 18 brownies

For the brownies:

1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs
8 ounces melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon iodized salt
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee powder

For everything else:

6 oreo cookies, crushed
Espresso powder, for dusting
Sea salt, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Grease a 9 1/2" x 11" pan.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

While the brownies are cooking, prepare the frosting. In a medium bowl, use a spatula to combine all ingredients for the frosting together. Once roughly combined, use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat the frosting until smooth, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

Once the brownies are cool, remove them from their pan and place on a cutting board, face up. Cut the width into sixths and the length into thirds. Keep brownies together so it is easy to spread frosting. Spoon the frosting out onto the brownies and spread evenly, coating out to the edges.

Sprinkle crushed oreos over the frosting, again coating evenly. Then, dust more instant coffee powder over the top. Finally, sprinkle a good amount of sea salt over the entire thing. Carefully pull apart and enjoy!