Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch Brownies

I love brownies.  Especially topped with frosting.  Or ice cream.  And chocolate sauce.
I found this great recipe for easy brownies in bonappetit.  This recipe has you brown the butter! Yes please! These brownies turn out delicious and fudgy. Definitely my favorite from-scratch brownie recipe.  While these brownies are basically perfect, I decided to dress them up with a tasty little treat.

Have you had these Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints?  You really should.  They usually hit the stores around Thanksgiving and you might have some leftover from the holidays (if you do, I can help you eat them)

These Junior mints have a little extra crunch to them.  You still get the Junior Mints taste you love, it's just a little different.  I added some of the mints to the brownie batter and chopped up a few to throw on top.  The mints melted nicely into the brownies, so there was just a hint of mint in each bite.


Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch Brownies
Brownie Base:
from bonappetit
10 Tbsp butter, cut into cubes
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
add in Junior Mints, I used about 1/3 of a 3.5 ounce box.  If you don't have access to the peppermint crunch version, just use regular!


Preheat oven to 325. Line an 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan with foil, leaving 2-inch overhang.  Coat foil with non-stick cooking spray. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat  Continue cooking until butter stops foaming, and you get little brown bits on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add sugar, cocoa, 2 teaspoons water, vanilla, and salt.  Stir to blend and let cool for 5 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time (brownie mixture will still be hot) beating after each addition.  When mixture has thickened, add flour.  Mix with wooden spoon, about 50 strokes.  Bake until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out almost clean.  Check them at 25 minutes, but I usually bake for 30.  Using foil overhang remove brownies from pan.


You can serve the brownies just like that, but I had to add frosting!  I used my favorite buttercream:
1 stick softened butter
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Use your stand mixer or hand mixer to cream butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar (start with 3 cups then add more to taste) milk and vanilla. MIx until light and fluffy.
If you'd like, chop up a few more Junior Mints and sprinkle on top.

This recipe makes a small little square pan....you might want to double it!


Also, I have some winners from the Duncan HInes giveaway on Monday!!
The 4 lucky winners are:
#11: Rachel, #10: Pam, #3 Amy, and #9 Corisa!  I'll be emailing you all to get your mailing info! Thanks for reading and commenting!