Mint brownies

This mini-TV hiatus is really getting to me. I don't watch the Olympics much anymore, not since I stopped watching figure skating a long time ago. Instead, I'm just sitting around, waiting for my shows to get back on air.

I guess the consequence of this is that I end up watching either the weirdest things (live stream of 100K people playing the same game of Pokemon) or just marathon a show I've seen before. In the past two weeks, I've watched seasons 5-8 of How I Met Your Mother. I remembered those seasons as being pretty bad, but honestly, when you watch them all in a row, they all meld together and end up being okay.

But back to Part 2 of my baking night: mint brownies! Unlike the oatmeal cookies, these were not planned and were just something I whipped up on the spot. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I've marked a bunch of recipes in my various cookbooks. I even devised a marking system, where I divide the recipes into ones that I have the ingredients for already and the ones that I will need to go shopping for.

For tonight's surprise baking, I simply grabbed a cookbook and found a recipe that I had marked for having all the ingredients. That way, I could avoid any runs to the grocery store and finish these all faster!

I decided on mint brownies, because I knew I had a bag of Andes mint chips sitting in my baking cupboard for awhile and I wanted to use them up. I also wanted to make something chocolate, since the oatmeal cookies were chocolate-free, but didn't want to make cookies again.

These were super easy to mix up and bake - a great recipe for anyone wanting a quick last minute dessert! I absolutely love mint and chocolate flavors together,  so for me, these are the perfect sweets.

Happy double baking night!

Mint Brownies (makes 2 dozen brownies)

Recipe adapted from Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes

• 1 1/4 cup/150 g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (unsalted)
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 1/2 cup/10oz of Andres Mint Chocolate Chips
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Toss the flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
3. Heat the sugar, butter, and water over in a small saucepan on low heat. When melted, increase to just a boil and then remove from heat. 
4. Place 1 cup of the mint chocolate (leave the other 1/2 cup for later) in a heatproof bowl. Pour the hot butter mixture over it and stir until smooth. 
5. Stir in vanilla.
6. Beat in eggs, one at a time until well-mixed. 
7. Add flour mixture and stir until just incorporated (do not overbeat). 
8. Stir in remaining mint chips.
9. Pour into a greased 7x11 baking plan
10. Bake for 25 minutes or until the center is set. 
11. Let cool on a wire rack and then cut into pieces.