Mint Brownies

Friday, December 11, 2009

While I absolutely LOVE Ina’s Outrageous brownie recipe (especially the Oreo variation), it is a somewhat demanding recipe. It requires a over a pound of chocolate, a pound of butter, and 7 eggs. I don’t always have all of those ingredients on hand. While it’s definitely my favorite brownie recipe for special occasions, I think I’ve found a more suitable recipe to use when the craving for a great brownie hits. The recipe uses cocoa and other ingredients that I always have in the house.

I’ve actually made this recipe before. I’ve jazzed it up with some peanut butter earlier this year and more recently with a cookie dough topping. This time I decided to add a mint flavor since I had some Andes baking chips in the cabinet. I guess I’ve never actually made this brownie recipe as-is, but after making all these variations of the recipe, I can vouch that it’s a great recipe.

Mint Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups Andes baking chips

Directions:

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, and vanilla.

Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.

Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. My chips started to melt a bit while I stirred them in. That's ok though.

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

Bars and Brownies, Dessert

6 comments »

11 Responses to “Rocky Road Squares”

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1

The Hungry Mouse — November 4, 2009 at 5:02 pm

Drooling now! I’ll take two, please.

+Jessie
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2

Erin — November 4, 2009 at 5:56 pm

Love them and will be making them this weekend!
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3

JanuskieZ — November 4, 2009 at 6:00 pm

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4

nutmegnanny — November 4, 2009 at 10:48 pm

I’m totally drooling over these bars! I can’t believe how easy they are:)
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5

We Are Not Martha — November 5, 2009 at 2:14 am

How delicious do these look?!?! I might have to try these…

Sues
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6

Amy I. — November 5, 2009 at 6:38 am

The ease of prep to impressiveness ratio of these bars looks extremely high 🙂 Added them to my to-do list…thanks for the inspiration!
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7

biz319 — November 5, 2009 at 2:36 pm

Wow, how easy is that??!! I may make those for our cookie exchange this year! 😀
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8

stephchows — November 5, 2009 at 3:22 pm

those things look jam packed with tastiness!
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9

Erin — November 5, 2009 at 11:34 pm

It’s nice to have an easy dessert recipe to turn to! I’m so glad you liked them!
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10

Kristy — November 9, 2009 at 12:19 am

Ummm.. AMAZING! I might have to try those ASAP!
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11

Mermaid Sweets — November 10, 2009 at 3:13 am

Thanks for posting, looks like a good and easy holiday addition.

Mint Brownies