With the holidays coming up, I have started to see recipes with peppermint. One of the traditional candies of the Christmas holiday is the peppermint candy cane. This candy first started out all white and strait. They were bent to use to decorate Christmas trees. The red color was added along with peppermint flavor. As years passed, they always reappear around the Christmas holiday, sometimes found on Christmas cards or handed out to children.
Since I do not favor the hard peppermint candy, that discounts quite a number of recipes. However, I love peppermint patties. Once I came across this recipe, I could not pass it up. Fudgey brownies filled with a peppermint patties makes for an extra special treat. Beware though, they are very rich so a little piece goes a long way.
If you love mint patties like I do and are looking for brownies with a little something extra then this is the recipe for you.
Palm Beach Mint Brownies
adapted from Maida Heatter via recipelink.com
Ingredients
8 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 (11.5 oz) bags peppermint patties
5 eggs, room temp.
1 cup or 2 sticks butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tbs plus 1 tsp espresso powder
3 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup flour
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
Set up a double boiler and fill top pot with chocolate and butter. Let water simmer in bottom pot and stir chocolate mixture occasionally until all is melted and blended together. Set aside.
Fill the bowl of a stand mixer with eggs, vanilla, almond extract, sugar, espresso powder and salt. Using the paddle attachment, beat the mixture on high speed for 10 minutes. During this time, the mixture will get pale and triple in volume.
As the mixer is running, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare a 9 X 13 inch pan by lining with foil and greasing the interior with butter or non stick spray. Take out a bowl and unwrap mints, leaving about 15 still wrapped which you will not be using.
Once the 10 minute beating time has expired, remove bowl from mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in chocolate mixture (it may still be warm, but it is ok) until fully blended into batter. Then fold in flour, making sure no dry streaks remain. Lastly, fold in chopped walnuts.
Using a measuring cup, reserve out 3 1/2 cups of the batter. Take this reserved amount and fill the prepared pan, smoothing the surface. Then layer each of the mint patties on top, having the edges touch each other but not overlapping. Cover the whole surface. Then top with the remaining batter, smoothing it out evenly over the patties.
Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove foil and refrigerate overnight before cutting into bars.
Tips and Notes:
1. The original recipe did not state the size of the bags, but the smallest size I found was 11.5 oz.
2. I got a large bag of peppermint patties so I did not test the size and the noted leftovers in the recipe.
3. The original recipe states the chocolate and butter can be done in the microwave, but since there was no specifics on time I just went with the safer method of a double boiler.
4. There is mention that the edges may bake up to hard and that area may be trimmed off. I ate edges and all, but I did find it a little hard.
**LAST YEAR:Apple Spice Ice Cream**
