Saturday, December 20, 2008

Kneader's Double Chocolate Peppermint Brownie


I wish I could take credit for this, but thanks have to go to Kneaders in Utah. I found it at ABC 4.

Brownie
1 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Melt the chocolate and butter in a 2 quart bowl in the microwave on high for 3 minutes, stirring every 20 – 30 seconds until the chocolate is melted. Cool slightly.
Add sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix well with a spatula.
Add the flour and stir to combine.
Stir in chocolate chips. Spread into a buttered 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking pan.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Do not overcook. Cool.

Filling
½ cup softened butter, margarine, or shortening
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 drops mint flavoring or to taste
1 drop pink food coloring

In a small bowl, beat the confectioners’ sugar, butter and mint flavoring until smooth.
Add food coloring to make a light pink.
Spread evenly over cooled brownies and then chill.

Chocolate Ganache
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup heavy cream
crushed peppermint (red and white)

Put the chocolate chips and cream into a small bowl.
Microwave on high for 1 minute stirring every 20 – 30 seconds until chocolate is melted. Do not over heat.
Immediately pour over the brownies.
Decorate with crushed peppermint.
Do not refrigerate. Mixture will set up on brownies in about 15 – 20 minutes.

2 comments:

Allison said...

Okay, I have some feedback on the mint brownies! My sister and I are just two, so we decided it in our best interests to NOT make ALL of the recipes at once. Too many sweets for 2 girls! So we tried this one first and were not disappointed in the least. We did make some changes though. We loved the brownie recipe, and didn't change a thing. We doubled the icing recipe, but otherwise didn't change it and it is terrific too. We did make the chocolate with butter in stead of heavy cream, since we didn't want a ganache, so much as we wanted a hard chocolate layer. So we iced the brownies (and put a few drops of green food coloring in the icing) and topped it with the melted chocolate and popped the whole thing in the freezer. We took it out and let it thaw a few minutes before we cut it up. It was really delicious. This recipe suggests ice cream, but we didn't use that. We are fans of the three layer mint brownie: chocolate, mint, chocolate. Nothing more or less, so we tailored it a bit to our liking and found it to be fantastic. Thanks for the recipe Cecily. I will post feedback on the others as I try them out as well. For now, I will wait, as I am still trying to come out of my sugar-induced, sleep-deprived, post-holiday coma! :)

aubrie said...

These were amazing! I added a little salt to the brownie base, and also added a couple tablespoons of milk to the mint frosting (with about 1 1/2 tsp. mint extract). I thought they were even better a couple of days after making them. Thanks for sharing!