Merry Christmas and Peppermint Brownies with Chocolate Ganache
First of all, I want to say Merry Christmas Everybody! I hope everyone is having a great holiday. I wanted to show off a picture of our tree. This is the first year we’ve done a tree in Boston because there isn’t a whole lot of room for one. Last year I didn’t even decorate because we were traveling so much with the holidays. But this year, we got a real tree! I was very excited. It’s about 5’8″ tall and it fits on top of our end table since we have really high ceilings.
Once we got it into the stand, we realized that our box of ornaments had been stored at Hubby’s mom’s house since we had never planned on needing ornaments here in Boston. So we went to the dollar store with $20 in our hands and came out with the decorations you see here. It’s just red and silver bulbs with white lights. And, Hubby fashioned a star out of a coat hanger that I wrapped in foil. Ta-Da! Here’s what our tree-on-a-budget looks like. I love it!
Peppermint is by far my favorite holiday flavor. Something about it just makes me feel like it’s wintertime. It reminds me of snow. It’s well known that I love fun sprinkles. When I saw these at the store, I had to have them. Not only are they shaped like candy canes, they have a peppermint flavor to them. I also have some fun snowflake sprinkles that are obviously only useful in the wintertime. Hubby and I were trying to figure out what to take to a holiday potluck and I knew I wanted to build a dessert around these festive sprinkles.
So I knew there would be peppermint involved, and I wanted to pair it with chocolate. I’ve been doing a lot of bars recently so I thought I’d make peppermint brownies, drizzle them in some ganache and highlight the fun candy cane and snowflake sprinkles. I also added a bit of peppermint extract to the white chocolate and bittersweet chocolate ganache.
To kick things up even more, I was thinking about another of my favorite peppermint treats. The Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe Joe’s. They’re dangerous to have in the house because I tend to pop one or two when the box catches my eye. So I combined all of these things together by adding the candy cane Joe Joe’s to the brownie batter prior to baking the brownies.
I cut these into small brownies so they are more like little bites of peppermint brownie deliciousness. These little brownies were a huge success at the party. If you’re looking for a festive wintery dessert to make, definitely give these a shot.
Peppermint Brownies with Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients:
For the White and Bittersweet Chocolate Peppermint Ganache
3 oz bittersweet chocolate
3 oz white chocolate
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
6 Tbsp heavy cream
For the Peppermint Brownies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa
1 tspsalt
1 tspbaking powder
1 tspespresso powder, optional
1 tsp peppermint extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
~25 peppermint sandwich cookies, such as Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe's, cut into chunks
Directions:
For the White and Bittersweet Chocolate Peppermint Ganache
Break white chocolate into chunks and place in a bowl. Break bittersweet chocolate into chunks and place in another bowl.
Bring heavy cream and peppermint to a boil.
Pour half of the cream over the white chocolate and half over the bittersweet chocolate. Let set for a minute then whisk each until smooth.
For the Peppermint Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan
In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it's hot, but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, if you've heated it in a saucepan. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, peppermint, and vanilla.
Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.
Add the flour and cookie chunks. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan.
Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool completely prior to cutting.
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Yum that looks delicious and welcome back to my hometown! Cincinnati’s actually a great town that grows on you and has been evolving quite a bit in the time that you’ve been away. I suspect given your profession and work location history that we probably work for the same company as our day jobs ;).
beantownbaker — January 23rd, 2013 @ 8:30 am
Yes, Cincinnati has changed a LOT since we moved away in 2007.
I would suspect you’re right. There’s enough info to know where I work, especially if you work here too 😉 Going to go check out your blog now. I would love to meet some other Cincinnati area bloggers!
beantownbaker — January 23rd, 2013 @ 8:31 am
Ok I work for the *other* big company in town (just checked your About page).
Isn’t the KA ice cream attachment the best thing ever? I am always making ice cream, even in the wintertime, but I never thought of using canned coconut milk as the base. I’ll have to try this out soon!
beantownbaker — January 23rd, 2013 @ 11:37 am
Absolutely. I didn’t think I could love my KAM any more than I already did. The ice cream attachment proved that I can.
I have lots of cans of coconut milk laying around and I know they make a good ice cream! Adding this one to my list 🙂
I bought myself KA ice creamer maker for my birthday this summer and I adore it! I’ve been thinking about making non-dairy ice creams, but the recipes all sounded strange. It’s great to see a recipe from a trusted source. Can’t wait to try.
beantownbaker — January 23rd, 2013 @ 10:28 pm
Let me know what you think if you try it. I am going to be experimenting with different milks since I can’t have cow’s milk…
love coconut milk based ice creams!! this one looks fabulous, and good call throwing in those oreos 😉
beantownbaker — January 24th, 2013 @ 12:05 pm
It’s ALWAYS a good idea to throw oreos in 🙂
My brother’s favorite thing to get at Coldstone is chocolate oreo ice cream. Too bad I don’t have an ice cream maker, or I would definitely try this!
beantownbaker — January 29th, 2013 @ 7:51 am
I’ve been told you can make ice cream without an ice cream maker. I never tried it before I got mine though…
I just made your recipe and luckily I tasted it before I cooled it. The ratio of sugar to cocoa powder is off. You should use at least twice the amount of sugar to cocoa powder in order for it not to have a horribly bitter taste. After adding more sugar it had a nice sweet to chocolately balance. Thanks for the recipe, my daughter is lactose intolerant and she will enjoy it.
beantownbaker — January 31st, 2013 @ 2:03 pm
I am glad you were able to adjust this recipe to suit your needs. Hubby and I both enjoyed the sweetness level of this recipe. I’m sure different cocoa powders have different levels of sweetness. I plan to try this recipe without the cocoa powder to make vanilla ice cream too. We loved the creaminess of it!
This look yummy and chocolate ice cream is one of my favorite. Thanks for sharing the directions and ingredients.
I just opened a can of coconut milk and it looked extremely curdled. I shook it a lot but it was still completely curdled. Is that how coconut milk is supposed to be out of the can? Are there any brands that you specifically like to use?
beantownbaker — April 24th, 2013 @ 1:44 pm
Hm. It doesn’t usually look curdled, more just separated. Did you try shaking it up? I use Native Forest since that’s what they sell in my grocery store. It looks like this: http://www.amazon.com/Native-Forest-Organic-Classic-13-5-Ounce/dp/B001HTJ2BQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366829034&sr=8-1&keywords=coconut+milk
Oh how I wish I could try this.. I am currently gluten and dairy free.. However this being dairy free is is not gluten free with the oreo’s… Bummer!!
beantownbaker — October 23rd, 2013 @ 12:28 am
I’ve made this recipe again without the Oreos and it’s really good. Not quite as good as with the Oreos, but if you wanted to make it gluten free, just leave them out.
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