Mint Brownies

You will be amazed at how much butter goes into these things!

You can use any brownie recipe you like for the brownie part. Here's the one I use:

Quick and Easy Fudgey Brownies

4 bars unsweetened baking chocolate (I always use cocoa and oil, 3 Tbsp. cocoa and 1 Tbsp. oil equal one bar baking chocolate)
3/4 cup butter
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 inch pan. In a large microwaveable bowl, place chocolate and butter. Microwave at high 1-2 minutes or until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Add sugar; stir with spoon until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add flour and nuts; stir until well blended. Spread into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean. Cool on wire rack.

Let brownies cool completely.

Mint Layer:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. peppermint flavoring
2 Tbsp. milk
green food coloring (4 drops)

(These are also fun to make for Valentines Day with pink mint layer!)

Mix ingredients in order. Put mixture on cooled brownies. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Chocolate Layer:

1 cup chocolate chips
6 Tbsp butter

Cool, then spread over mint layer.

Chewiest Brownies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line one 9x13 inch pan with greased parchment paper.
2. Melt the butter really well and then add the sugar, vanilla and eggs. In a seperate bowl mix the rest of the dry ingredients. Now mix the two together.
3. Spread mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

We got invited over to our friends the Beishline's for a good old fashioned Shed Raising! (Rich needed Geoff's help putting a shed together.) And I brought hot wings and these brownies. This was the first time I had made brownies from scratch (I was out of mixes). I may never use a mix again. These were absolutely delicious! I doubled the recipe and added a bag of chocolate chips to the mix.