Peppermint Patty Brownies

Ze-Ra spends the entire year asking for things to eat on her birthday.  She sees something new just about once a week that she wants to eat on her birthday.  Then as the day gets closer and closer she gets overwhelmed with the possibilities and she tells me to just surprise her. :)

This year at Halloween she was lamenting about how she didn't get any peppermint patties....well, I thought with the help of some Peppermint Patty Brownie inspiration from Table For 7, I'd fix her right up! :) 

I didn't have any brownie mix in the house, so I had to improvise and use a brownie recipe I've had for awhile now...not sure where it came from, but if it's yours, let me know ;)

These are the best homemade brownies I have ever had - give them a shot, even if you aren't down with the peppermint patty business...just leave them out! :) 

Homemade Cocoa Brownies

What's In It:
10 T butter
1 1/4 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa, heaping
1/4 t salt
1/2 t vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c flour
1 bag peppermint patties (optional) 

What To Do With It:
Gently melt butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and allow to cool until warm but no longer hot.  Stirring by hand, add vanilla and then the eggs one at a time - mixing well after each addition.  Stir in the salt and the flour until the flour is no longer visible.  Then stir vigorously for 50 strokes.  

Normally you would pour the batter into a greased 8x8 pan and bake for 20-30 minutes or until set, but I wanted to make a larger pan, so I used a 11x7.   I know that is a wide range of time, but I have used many ovens over my nomadic years and until you know how long yours needs, it's best to start at the lower end and go from there.  

Here's where things get tricky.  You're supposed to pour 1/2 the batter into the pan, place the patties, then pour remaining batter on top.  Well, I didn't have enough batter for that, so I did the next best thing.  

Pour in all the batter and press the patties into the top then bake.  It took me almost 35 minutes to get them to set, so be prepared to go that extra few minutes.  

Worked great.....except for the sink holes when it was finished! Ha!

No problem, we're icing it anyway, right? ;)

Peppermint Frosting

What's In It:

8oz cream cheese, softened

3-4 c powdered sugar

2 t peppermint extract

1/2 stick butter, softened

What To Do With It:

Cream butter and cream cheese until combined.  Add in extract.  Add powdered sugar until desired consistency.  

Frost onto cooled brownies.  

Look how the frosting pooled into the little cubbies made by the sunken patties.  YUM!   Yay for unintended awesomeness. :)