Thursday, December 1, 2011

Three Layer Mint Brownies

This, my friends, is one my very best recipes. I got the recipe a LONG time ago from a friend in college and it's been part of our Christmas tradition ever since. They are delicious any time, though. In fact, I made them for Michelle's reception (in pink, of course!) BYU is famous for their mint brownies, but I promise these are better. Now, like most recipes I've had for a long time, I've made changes. The bottom layer especially has undergone revisions over the years. I think the end result is, like I said, one of my very best recipes:

Three Layer Mint Brownies
1st Layer
Line a 13 x 9 pan with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray. (I like to spray the pan, too to hold the parchment in place.) Leave ends out so you can pull the brownies right out of the pan when they are done.
Preheat oven to 350.
4 bars (4 ounces) unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into pieces
3/4 cup (or 1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces
Put chocolate and butter into a glass bowl and melt in the microwave until mixture is smooth when stirred. Check often and be careful not to burn it! Depending on your microwave, it should probably take about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.

Add:
2 cups sugar
Stir with a spoon until well blended, then add:
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
Blend well, then add:
1 cup flour
Mix and spread into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

2nd Layer:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
6 T. milk
4 T. instant pudding, vanilla (if you're making the frosting green. If you're making pink frosting, butterscotch pudding is delicious- it makes it taste kind of like those butter mints)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. (or less) mint flavoring
Few drops green or red food coloring
Mix well with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer. Spread on completely cooled 1st layer. Put in fridge until well set.
3rd Layer:
Melt in microwave:
3 squares(3 ounces)  unsweetened or semi-sweet chocolate 
4 T. butter or shortening  
Again, melt until you can stir it until smooth, but it needs to be liquid. Pour over 2nd layer tip pan and gently spread until covered and even. Put in fridge until set. Pull the whole block of well chilled brownies out with the parchment paper. Cut into squares. Store in airtight container. You can layer them between waxed paper. They also freeze very well. Merry Christmas!!!

* When I'm in a hurry, I use two really good brownie mixes made according to directions in place of the brownie layer.  It's almost as good.  

5 comments:

Shonna said...

These are delish! And I love that you can put in food coloring and make the mint frosting part any color. I made pink and green layers of frosting for a friend's baby shower. They turned out great!

Michelle said...

Oooooh man .. . my mouth is watering. These are delish.

ajolovaskatona said...

It looks and sounds delicious, but unfortunately I do not know what the following means: in "6 T. mild" the mild. I think 4 c. stands for 4 cups, but how much does a square of chocolate weigh?

Kay Hinton said...

Sorry for the typo. I've fixed the mistakes, I think. That was supposed to be milk. Each chocolate square is one ounce. Enjoy!

Mrs.R . Cole said...

I've just made these for the first time & think they came out okay.Next time I will use dark unsweetened chocolate for the brownie part as mine did not bake up dark enough. Otherwise ,I believe these are some of the yummiestšŸ˜‹ brownies ever.