“Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories”. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched and recited this line, in perfect unison, with Deborah Kerr from the classic An Affair to Remember. I love watching old movies for the feeling of nostalgia and reminder of simpler times, simpler lives (plus, it’s Cary Grant, for goodness sake). When it’s brrrrrrr cold outside, time spent in our kitchen increases exponentially – soups stewing, lamb braising, bread baking, holiday music blaring and the hot oven warming our souls. With a hot oven, hotter desserts are never far behind.
These Ultimate Peppermint Ganache Brownies are no joke. There’s heaps of chocolate, cocoa and cream involved. Look up rich and decadent in the dictionary and you’ll see a photo of these brownies. But ganache happens to be one of my all time favorite words. Ever. Just saying it out loud makes me happy. Ganache. Ganache. Ganache. Ganache. Ahhhhhhhh. These babies are a bit labor intensive, but in a good way. You’ll get to spend precious hours in the kitchen with the ones you love, creating your own warm memories, playing with candy and fighting over who gets the last licks from the chocolate laden bowls and spatulas.
Besides being curled up, under a blanket, in flannel pajamas, next to a roaring fire, with eyes glued to Terry and Nickie bantering away for 2 hours, I can’t think of a better way to spend the day, when it’s cold outside. Winter feels warm today. More memories hatched. Serve along side a tall glass of homemade soy milk for Santa. Hope you have a joyous, sweet, and wonderful holiday!
ULTIMATE PEPPERMINT GANACHE BROWNIES
Tweaked from Sunset Magazine, yields about 30 small brownies (small goes a long way with these)
Don’t let the brownies sit out on the counter or serving tray for too long as the lovely peppermint tops will slowly start to melt. Enjoy!
Music Pairing: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordon, Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Ingredients
- 8 tbsp butter
- 6 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, broken into large chunks
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 tbsp vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 40 or more Starlight mints (melting varies depending on size)
- 1/3 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 3/4 cup whipping cream
Method
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 9×13 inch baking pan. In a medium saucepan, stir butter and bittersweet chocolate over very low heat with a heatproof rubber spatula until just melted (do not let simmer or boil). Remove from heat and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Slowly pour chocolate-butter mix into egg mix, whisking constantly. In separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. With a clean rubber spatula, gently fold flour mixture into egg mixture until just combined. Spread batter evenly in baking pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until brownies are firm, beginning to pull away from sides of pan, and a toothpick inserted in center emerges with only a few crumbs clinging to it. Let brownies cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
Reduce oven temp to 300°. Line a level, rimmed 11 1/2×16 inch baking sheet with parchment. With a pencil, draw a grid of 1 1/2 inch squares on parchment, leaving about a 1 inch border, and turn parchment over. Place a mint in the center of each square. Bake 15 to 25 minutes, or until completely melted into 1 large sheet, but remove before candy begins to turn yellow. Immediately score peppermint squares with a pizza cutter, using pencil lines as your guide. If scored lines don’t hold, rescore quickly. Let candy cool completely. Gently break into squares along score lines. (You may want to make a test batch with 12 mints to see if you need to adjust oven temperature or spacing of candies).
In the top of a double boiler, combine chopped semisweet chocolate and whipping cream. Cook, stirring often, until melted and blended. Remove from heat and let ganache cool until just warm. Pour ganache over cooled brownies in pan and allow to set until firm, about 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Place peppermint squares bottom side up on ganache, leaving enough room between squares to cut brownies. Cut brownies into squares along edges of peppermint tops, wiping knife clean between cuts. Remove brownies from pan, eats scraps, and return brownies to pan. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure wrap does not touch peppermint, and refrigerate 3 hours (to soften candy a bit). Serve slightly chilled with a tall glass of homemade soy milk.
Wow. You have left me speechless. All I can say is wow.
oh these look delish!!! Love the peppermints on top!
Ok please stop. I’m supposed to be done all my holiday baking and you are not helping. These look ridiculously amazing and I can’t handle it. I love the little squashed mints!
I think these will just have to become my first baking project of the new year – the resolution breaking one;)
xo
This is a stunning bite of chocolate brownie! It sounds like quite a delicate process. You’ve completed it beautifully!
Just a got a chill reading that Deborah Kerr line! And then when he comes to see her and she can’t get off the couch…oh sweet Lord, I’m tearing up.
I love your photos of these brownies–so lovely! Peppermint and chocolate is so perfect right now.
Happy Holidays!
i saw these in sunset, so gorgeous! cheers to you for giving them a try, far too intimidating for me ;)
Really just beautiful. And a perfect brownie is my ultimate dessert. Chocolate cake is nice but I prefer just something simple and rich. Amazing job here.
Peppermint. Chocolate. Yes please. These are so stunning.
Oh how I love peppermint and chocolate. What a brilliant combination in my book. I love that movie too and think you are right there is nothing better than snuggling with some good food and bevie and watching a brilliant old movie – they certainly don’t make them like that any more.
brilliant!! Don’t know how you do it each time…would love to just pluck that peppermint ganache brownie right off the screen!
Perfection~
Oh my! That brownie look absolutely delish!! And those mint photos are gorgeous!
Great post! :)
Goodness! These are gorgeous! I adore anything chocolatey and pepperminty and ganachey…..
Couldn’t be more beautiful! Happy Holidays.
KMS always makes beautiful goodies. Merry Christmas to you and your hubby!
So, so delightful! You’re amazing. Those photos are out of this world. Merry Christmas to you!!!
I’m with Shannalee. Utterly gorgeous. No words needed.
Wow! these look absolutely incredible!!
We made brownies last night. Joy of Cooking Book Club brownies. I think brownie might be one of my all time favorite words…
This website is absolutely breathtaking. I love it!
My Santa drinks soy too! GREG
That is SUCH a cool way to use up mints.
UNBELIEVABLE !!!!…i just wish i had more time…..
These look delicious — and your blog is lovely.
those are wicked awesome!
Wow! I’ve always loved peppermints and the peppermints on top of your brownies are just gorgeous! I’ve never seen anything like it!
I love the song, too! I was just listening to it last night, on the drive home!
Such a great idea! Looks so pretty! Happy holidays.
Wow, those melted candy squares are so impressive! Beautiful looking brownies. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
Those look spectacular and so perfect for the holidays! I love the peppermint on top it is just perfect!
those look so tasty! lovely job.
What a perfect way of using candy. It looks simply delicious. I will definately try this recipe out. I love ganache.
These babies look awesome… Perfect bites, congrats!
Those are stone-cold gorgeous!!! WOW.
These look absolutely scrumptious! Really unique and beautiful, I can’t wait to try them!
They look beautiful and bet they are delicious! very creative recipe :)
These look amazing. I love the idea of melting the peppermints…how creative! I would love one of these with my tea right now. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Here’s to a very happy, healthy New Year!
I’m pretty certain I’ve never seen anything so lovely. Did you have a nice holiday? I hope so!
I love the combination of peppermint and chocolate. These may be a little fiddly to make, but oh look so worth it!
Love that cool peppermint decoration on top – they look amazing!
Oh this is too cool and your pictures as always are fabulous.
Ganache…I agree…it’s one of the best words EVER! These brownies are spectacular!
Super stunning…..love the colours and the contrast. What a beauty. Send me a box….Lots of love and best wished for 2010. Stay blessed
Happy New Year!
Hi there! It’s been a while since I’ve stopped by your blog and I have missed it so much. I share the same love of the movie an Affair to Remember. And any movie with Carry Grant or Deborah Kerr. What beautiful people and charming story lines. Anyway, I just wanted to say hello and I hope all is well. I don’t know why I didn’t do this before, but I added you to my blogroll to share the love with my readers. They should NOT miss out on your awesomeness :) Take care!
These are brilliant! And such a beautiful idea, melting the little candies into squares. I always love visiting your blog, I find so many inspiring things.
Those striped peppermints are my favourite holiday candy, even over candy canes. They are the prettiest, I think.
And here you’ve made them into a showstopper, with some of the most stunning brownies I have ever seen. Wow.
Those are the cutest brownies! I’ve got to try out the mint melting process – very neat!
All I could is WOW. Stunningly beautiful and absolutely addicting and ganache is the word.
see, i never knew that line until i saw “sleepless in seattle,” which i’ve now seen more times than i can count. methinks i’ve memorized every line, including the quote from ms kerr. but i digress–these brownies are 84 kinds of awesome–nicely done!
your style is so wonderful!
I JUST made a flourless chocolate-almond cake from Italy… chocolate! it must be winter :)
http://www.ztastylife.com/2010/01/snow-and-flourless-chocolate-almond.html
well. that little peppermint square on top makes these the most outstanding mint brownies i’ve ever seen. what a terrific idea, and your execution looks flawless–bravo!
My wife made these for me a couple days ago, and all I can say is they are amazing! Thanks for sharing the website. My wife loves your blog and she even linked to you so her client base would frequent your blog!
never mind the brownies, your photographs look absolutely delicious :-)