Thick Mint Brownies
If you like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, you'll love these deeply chocolate, strongly mint brownies. The slash of white filling through the center is striking; and the rich, thick chocolate ganache topping is spectacularly delicious!
Mint Filling
4 cups (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter
6 tablespoons (2 5/8 ounces) vegetable shortening*
1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil, or 1 to 2 teaspoons peppermint extract (to taste)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or Signature Secrets Culinary Thickener (3/4 ounce)
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) heavy cream
Brownie Batter
1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
1 pound (about 2 generous cups) brown sugar
1 cup (4 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips
*Usually we don't use vegetable shortening due to its trans-fat content; but in this case it's necessary, to keep the filling from melting into the batter as the brownies bake.
To make the mint filling: Beat the filling ingredients together till they're cohesive; the mixture will be the consistency of stiff cookie dough. Spread the filling, on a piece of lightly greased plastic wrap, into a rectangle just slightly smaller than a 9" x 13" pan; this is most easily done on the outside bottom of a 9" x 13" pan that you've covered with plastic wrap. Cover the filling with wrap, and refrigerate overnight, or till thoroughly chilled.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly greased a 9" x 13" pan.
To make the brownie batter: In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, till it's very hot, but not bubbling; it'll become smooth and shiny looking. The sugar and butter will separate; that's OK, just stir till some of the butter has been reabsorbed. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies; very attractive, should you choose not to cover the brownies with ganache.
Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, stirring till smooth; then add the flour and chips, again stirring till smooth. Spoon half the batter (about 28 ounces) into the prepared pan. Using the plastic wrap as a sling to move the filling, slide it atop the batter. Top with the remaining batter.
Bake the brownies for about 40 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a tiny amount of crumb clinging to it. Remove the brownies from the oven, and cool them completely before icing with ganache. Allow the icing to set before cutting and serving the brownies. Yield: 2 dozen brownies.
Chocolate Ganache Icing
Heavy cream. Chocolate. That's it. You can't go wrong.
2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips or chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
1 cup (8 ounces) heavy cream or whipping cream
In a microwave-safe bowl, or in a small saucepan set over medium heat, heat the cream till it's very hot. You should see wisps of steam beginning to rise from it, and some very tiny bubbles around the edge. Add the chocolate to the cream, and stir till smooth. Don't panic—at first, the mixture will look disarmingly soupy, but just keep stirring. Very shortly it'll become a rich brown, thick, shiny spreadable icing. Yield: 2 cups icing.
Reviews
02/07/2009
The preparation was fine, or so I thought, the taste, for me turned out terrible. The white filling bubbled up on the sides and became gritty, the chocolate portion never became as high as the picture. I believe the white melted and cooked into the chocolate and made the chololate horrible.The texture of the whole thing was terrible, nothing I would serve to anyone I wanted to impress. I did make the brownies alone and I love that recipe, without the white filling. I think I've found my new favorite brownie recipe, even without the icing.
I am sorry you had some trouble with this recipe. I wonder if you did not properly combine the ingredients in the mint filling. If there were lumps of butter or shortening, these lumps would have a tendency to run into the batter. EFB @ KAF
02/20/2009
I had a similar experience to Pat's The filling melted out the sides and was grainy. I did not like the flavor, finding the cookie part bitter and the whole thing too sweet. Since I have another favorite brownie recipe, I'll stick with that. I wonder if the problem with the filling might be that I used flour. Perhaps your culinary thickener gives better results. I also think that the filling would probably be wonderful in a sandwich cookie in which it wasn't baked. It's similar to the Oreo filling.
07/25/2009
These brownies were delicious! I made them around Christmas time and came back today to get the recipe again! I got several comments that they tasted just like Girl Scout Thin Mints! Absolutely sinful, if you ask me. Those of you who have had problems with the white filling oozing out, be sure to "seal" the edges after add the top batter layer. Also, be sure to use Dutched cocoa, it's less bitter than regular cocoa. Absolutely great recipe!
08/09/2009
I'm afraid to say that I had the same results as the first two reviewers -- I made sure the frosting had no lumps and that the top brownie layer was "sealed" on top of the mint layer, but the frosting still bubbled out the sides, creating a huge mess in the oven and rendering about half of the pan inedible (and forget about the ganache topping -- the top of the brownies was so buckled and cratered it would have been impossible to put it on). The brownies in the middle of the pan turned out okay -- they tasted good, but most of the mint filling had cooked out and they basically tasted like regular brownies. I think all these problems could be avoided if you simply baked the brownies first, THEN put the mint frosting on top -- wish I'd thought of that before I ruined the whole pan. Sorry, guys, I think your recipes are great, but I don't see what I could have done wrong!
Thanks for posting Jessica. We are requesting a test review on this recipe based on the comments received. We appreciate your taking the time to review the recipe and offer feedback for us. MJR @ KAF
12/14/2009
How were the results of the test review for this recipe? I printed this recipe off your site many, many months ago before there were any reviews. All of my baking endeavors have come out great using King Arthur recipes, but I knew something was not right when I took the brownies out of the oven. I quickly went to your website and looked up the recipe again and then read the reviews. I had the same results as the 1st, 2nd, and 4th reviewers. I am tempted to try again because these brownies look amazing, but I think I'll wait until the test results get posted. Hopefully there will be some tips, tricks, and other bits of helpful insight soon regarding this recipe.
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