Creme de Menthe Brownies - These Might Cost You Mint - But It's Worth It

When I first got my hands on this recipe (collected at the Hopwood Soup Swap), I was excited - in my opinion the combination of mint and chocolate is only second to the peanut butter chocolate combination. I wasn't too excited about the brownie recipe - it looked really cakey with 4 eggs and I was skeptical about the chocolate syrup. I just had watched the movie The Informant and was imagining lysine floating around in my brownie rather than pure rich cocoa powder. I couldn't find any documentation of what exactly is in Hersey's chocolate syrup to support my lysine theory - but I'm a bigger fan of the fudge brownie so I searched the wonderful world wide web and found an irresistible brownie base from Paula Deen. Irresistible in the fact that it had Andes Candies mixed into the batter! I know, I know, Andes Candies are probably 75% corn by-product, but their melt-in-mouth yumminess forced me to look the other way.

As I purchased all of the ingredients for the brownies, I realized that this could be a costly dessert. My Nana used to write the cost of recipes on the bottom of the recipe cards and would update it every 5 to 10 years so you could see inflation in action. Her "White Fruit Cake" recipe notates these costs: $3.28 in 1965, $4.10 in 1975, $5.32 in 1979, $6.59 in 1987, and $9.15 in 1991. Notice there hasn't been an update since 1991 - I think that's when she realized no one in my family liked her "White Fruit Cake."

These minty brownies cost about $11.50 in 2009 - calculated using the price of the bag of Andes Candies, 1 pound of butter, 1/2 bag of Nestle chocolate chip, 4 eggs, and the proportion of flour, sugar, confectioner's sugar, and Droste cocoa used in the recipe.

Let's talk about cocoa - what kind should you use? I'm a fan of Droste, which doesn't have a product website, but does have a sparse Facebook page with 90 fans, go figure. Am I one of their fans on Facebook? No. Droste came in second during Cook's review of cocoa products, which included a taste test of natural and "dutched" products. Dutching is a process of soaking cocoa nibs in a basic (or alkaline) solution, to raise the pH. With a higher the pH, the acids present in natural cocoa are neutralized, and the harshness of natural cocoa is tempered. After reading how cocoa powder is actually "chemically" treated, I guess I just need to give up on being purist...I kinda knew it was a lost cause to begin with.

Some other general comments before we get started:

• This batter is really tasty. So beware, you will need strong will power to avoid too much taste testing. It was so good I was reveling in a daze after a few tastes, and poured the batter into the pan without adding the Andes Candies!
  
• I brought these brownies to a frisbee tournament - Goose of The Popcorn Trick commented "These are like biting into a rainbow of flavor." Obviously, we are talking mint and chocolate flavors and these brownies are NOT like a pack of skittles, all fruity rainbow flavors - but the brownies are like a rainbow as there is something distinct about each layer. Each layer comes together to form something wonderful and make you feel all happy inside with each bite.
  
• Did you pick up on the fact that this recipe uses nearly a pound of butter? Yep, butter, makes everything better and so does salt and bacon.
  
• I'll give props to another useful kitchen tool. I'm not sure of it's formal name, but I call it the Frosting Knife. As you can see, it's a skinny knife with a spatula-like dent. It makes frosting things easier. It came into my life during a cake baking kick in college.  
  

So here you go, prepare for the rainbow of happiness....

Creme de Menthe Brownies

Brownie Base

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 (10-ounce) package Creme de Menthe baking chips (Andes recommended, I bought at Target) - reserve 1/3 cup for final layer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Using an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, mixing well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Gradually stir into butter mixture. Fold in mint chips. Spoon into greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

While brownies are baking, prepare mint frosting. When brownies pass the toothpick test (place a toothpick in the center and then remove - brownies are done if toothpick is clean), remove pan from the oven and allow brownies to cool in pan on wire rack.

Mint Frosting Center

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup softened butter or margarine

3 tablespoons Creme de Menthe

Combine until smooth. Spread over brownie base. Chill. You may need to add extra confectioner's sugar - to your taste for sweetness or frosting consistency, but 2 cups is a good start. If you add too much and the frosting becomes too dry, you can add a little milk to smooth it back out.

Chocolate Top

6 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 cup chocolate chips

Combine in a small sauce pan over very low heat until melted. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Pour over chilled dessert. Sprinkle the 1/3 cup of reserved mint pieces on top. Cover and chill at least 1 hour before serving. 

If you leave the brownies in the refrigerator overnight, bring them to room temperature before cutting.