Thin Mint Brownies

I absolutely love Girl Scout Cookie season. This year we stocked up on my favorite Samoas and Thin Mints. We bought plenty to eat straight from the box and enough to throw into delicious baked goodies. If you happen to have some Girl Scout Cookies lying around your house you need to make these now…trust me. 😉 Don’t worry if you don’t have any thin mints, any mint cookie will do. I adapted this recipe from one that called for a boxed brownie mix. Homemade brownies always taste so much better than boxed ones so I decided to use my favorite brownies from scratch, almost a whole box of thin mint cookies, and a splash of peppermint extract to get more of a minty flavor. The results were incredible! Chewy, fudgy double chocolate brownies studded with chunks of Thin Mint Cookies. So rich, so chocolately, so irresistible!

One Year Ago: Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti 

Thin Mint Brownies

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Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon table salt
• 24 thin mint cookies (about 1 box), crushed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9×13 inch metal baking pan. Put a long piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, letting the parchment extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. Place another piece of parchment paper in the same manner, perpendicular to the first sheet. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Butter the parchment.
2. In a large bowl, whisk cocoa, espresso powder, and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. Add eggs, yolks, vanilla, and peppermint and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in crushed cookies.
3. Transfer the batter to prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool 1½ hours.
4. Using parchment overhang, lift brownies from pan. Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.

Yields: 24 brownies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 30 minutes

Source: inspired by Little Brownie Bakers, brownies adapted from Cook’s Illustrated’s Chewy Brownies, March 2010