Mint Chocolate Brownies/Cupcakes

My dad's favourite ice cream is mint chocolate chip so in honour of him, I decided to make mint chocolate brownies for Christmas dessert!

I've made brownies before in my very distant past but never mint chocolate brownies! Sounds delicious right?

Life Designed

Well it is. But let me tell you...it is rich. Almost too sweet? Can such a thing even exist??

Even my dad from whom I've inherited my sweet tooth said it was too sweet! 

This brownie consists of two minty frosting layers.

The first one is a powered sugar and butter frosting with peppermint extract.

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At first I couldn't find my food colouring so I almost gave up and used it as is...It's not bad looking...just not very minty looking.

And then at the last minute! It was found! Hurray! Much more festive!

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3 drops gave me very light mint green. Perfect.

Then came the top layer. I was supposed to use milk chocolate chips, butter and peppermint extract but I found peppermint chocolate chips at Super Store. Hey...anything that will save time and I was thinking... the less butter the better!

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Life Designed

So what I thought was a brilliant idea (using peppermint chocolate chips) might have been my downfall...Maybe the milk chocolate chips with butter would have been less sweet? I'll try that next time and see if that's better because the extra sweetness came from all the chocolate as opposed to the butter/sugar frosting.

This was a small 7.5" square pan so with my left overs, I made little cupcake brownies:

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I would definitely make this again! It would be delicious with coffee and/or vanilla ice cream!

I just need to adjust the sweetness a little bit but overall, the mint flavour really shines through which I love! Like father like daughter I guess!

Here's the frosting recipes if you're interested and if you know of an alternative way to tone down the sweetness factor, let me know!

(Use any basic brownie recipe for the cake part)

Frosting:
1/2 cup softened butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 drops green food colouring

Combine until smooth. Spread over cooled cake.

Chocolate frosting/topping:

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
6 tablespoons softened butter
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract 

In a saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate chips and butter. Stir until smooth. Stir in extract.Spread over frosting

Refrigerate until set.

*Like I mentioned, for the chocolate topping, I just used 1 1/2 cups of peppermint chocolate chips that I melted in the microwave.

This was enough for one 7.5" square pan and 9 cupcakes...so I imagine it would be enough for two 7.5" square pans or one 9x13 pan.

Happy Baking!