Stuffed Brownies, Three Ways

  Before I start this post I just want to say how saddened I am by what happened on Friday.  I have been home with a bad cold or flu or something.  And I was watching movies all day. I did not hear about the horror until I picked up Pork Chop from day care.  He had seen it at day care, and I had to try to explain to him that those kids were now in heaven.  That even the man that did this, is in heaven.  I had to try to explain suicide to an 8 year old.  It was not something I ever wanted to have to do this young.  He seems fine, but I hurt for those that were affected.  I just had to make mention, as I just don't know how you can go on like nothing happened.  I wrote this post a few weeks back.


So I love brownies, but not just regular ones. I mean those are good too, but I need something more. Be it just a fudge frosting, or a mint layer, I need it.  So I had this really smart idea to stuff some of my brownies. And by smart idea, I saw it on another blog where they put stuff in their brownies and I figured I could do it too.  And I did; sort of.

My plan was to make three kinds.  Two of the options turned out well, the other, well lets just say I cried a little over the loss of sugar.

  So to start I used the awesome brownie recipe I got from Glorious Treats.  Here is the post with it, but these are for Mint Brownies, which are amazing.  You just need the brownie base for what I did.

This is the left over mint filing, I froze it then rolled it out then cut it with a cookie cutter.

These are the fillings I used.  The top is the chocolate covered salted caramels, and then the marzipan. I got a log of it and just cut it into circles.

To start I used about 1 TBSP of brownie filling.

  I wanted to use up the left over peppermint patty filling I had.  I had frozen  it and kept it for just this very thing.  And I also think this was the worse of the three.  But live and learn, right? I also made marzipan filled brownies and salted caramel ones.

I don't know how something so yummy can look so gross.

So I baked the first layer of brownie for about 5 minutes, I figured that it would help keep the filling from sinking.

And I was running out of brownie batter so the filling was not totally covered.

 So to start I mixed up my brownie batter and I used muffin tins, I lined them because I didn't want to chance anything from the filling burning onto my pans.  I cut up the log of marzipan into circles, if you buy the tub or block of almond paste, just roll out and flatten balls of it to fit into the tin.  Then I rolled out and cut circles of mint with a cookie cutter, and the caramels they were just easy.  I found these large caramels covered with chocolate and sea salt at the drug store.  So I just had to unwrap those.  I out should have done a few less as I was running out of brownie batter by the last batch, but you know me, I kept going even though I knew it would not be great.

It's hard to see but those are the chocolates in the there, they were the perfect size!!

So to start I put about 1 TBSP of brownie batter in the cupcake liner, then I baked it for about 5 minutes. I then worked one filling at a time.  The marzipan could have been cut thinner but oh well. Basically I would put the filling in then try to cover it in a bit more batter. It worked well for the caramel ones, the others, not so much.

My mint.

Like this right out of the oven they didn't look too bad.

But as they cooled I noticed the mint was getting hard and the brownie was sinking.

One they were all baked I let them cool fully.  I then got to work icing them.  I used this really great fudge sauce I found on line, and it works so well.  And with that tempt I have to admit I cannot for the life of me find the frosting recipe I used! This was the left over I had in the freezer from a few months back.  I promise I will find it and share, really it was awesome!.  Anyway just pretend you know the frosting I am talking about.

There were the caramel ones, they were the best.  Also the ones I made the least of. Because I may have eaten a bunch of the chocolates before I thought to make these.

 So when I was ready I microwaved the frosting to make it pour able  and I filled the cupcake liners to cover the brownies.  Then depending on the filing I decorated them.  

All ready to frost.

It's hard to see but this is the salted caramel ones, so I sprinkled on some flaked sea salt, just a pinch.

These are the marzipan ones, I put on silver balls, because I don't really know what else screams marzipan.

 Once they were all iced I let them set up and brought them to work.  I kept one of each to try.  And I may have said it before, but the caramel ones were to die for.  Like I will make those again, for sure!

You can sort of see the filling, so good!

The mint ones were a fail, but at least I tried.  I think maybe if I make these with the mint filling covered in chocolate it may work better. 

Chocolate Mint Brownies

Not a great picture, not that you should be surprised.  But I wanted to show you how thick the brownie layer is and show the other layers too.

  Oh man, these are good, and I can say that because since the moment I saw them on Glorious Treats, I knew they would be.

  Now this is my third or fourth time making them, and I have to tell you I get better and better at them.  The first time I made them I was sure, 100% sure Hubby was going to love them.  Well as usual the piece I saved for him turned hard and had to be tossed out, he didn't even look at it twice.  I don't know what gives but he loves chocolate mint.  So does Pork Chop, he is always asking for "minty bubble chocolate" which are those little round Areo mint ball things.  If you are in the states I don't think you get Areo, which sort of makes me happy, you get like 1000 other things we can only dream of, so there you go, you still win.

  Anyway, back to the brownies, they are good.  And I kept telling people, "they are made from scratch!"  Because no matter how good my box mix things are, I still get flack from some people, I will not mention who, but they know who they are!  And I will not waste my time trying to explain that if you crack an egg, it still counts as home made.

  So I love this recipe because you don't need many ingredients.  I also hate this recipe because there are three layers that you have to make.  So you know, it works out to be a bit of work, but it is so worth it.

I learned the hard way that you need to spray the pan with cooking spray or brush it with butter or the paper will keep popping out.

  The first time I made these I made the one recipe, in the 8x8 pan.  There were hardly enough to go around, meaning I only got to eat a few then share the rest.  The second time I tried doing them in a mini muffin pan, they were great, but they took forever.  You had to spray the pan, bake them, pry them out, then ice them twice, too much work.  So this time I wanted a bunch and I did 4 times the recipe.  I love that we have bulk barn here, we get our chocolate for baking for so little.  So that is what I did, I doubled the batches and put them each in a 9x13 pan.  So this made them thicker and oh my word, so rich!

I should have used a bigger bowl, it was so full I had to stir it so slowly.

  So I will give you the recipe for one 9x13 pan, you can half it for an 8x8, but that will hardly be enough once you taste them.  Glorious Treats made hers look so good, mine kept having the topping fall off.  Also this requires Andes mints, which I love, and I had bought these baking ones in the states a while back, and they are perfect, but you can just as easily cut up the regular ones, which is what I will have to do now that I am out.  I just had a light bulb moment, what if you put a layer of whole Andes mints in the brownies, like half the batter, lay out a layer of mints, then the rest of the batter.  I think I know what I have to make soon!

  Anyway here is the recipe, that I used for the full 9x13 pan.

I sort of wanted to eat it just like this, yum!

Chocolate Mint Brownies
Adapted from Glorious Treats

-1 cup butter
-8 oz Dark chocolate, I used 6oz un sweetened and 2oz semi sweet
-2 1/2 cups sugar
-2 TSP vanilla
-4 large eggs
-1 1/2 cups flour
-1/2 TSP salt

 Heat your oven to 325 and prepare your pan by spraying it with cooking spray then lining it with parchment that over hangs the pan so you can lift it out.

Since the brownies are nice and cool and the icing is too, you can take your time and get a nice even layer of icing.  You can also put more food colouring and make it a darker green.

  Using a double boiler, or like I did, a bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter.  Once melted add the vanilla then the sugar.  Mix until all together then add one egg at a time and mix until fully incorporated, it takes a lot of arm work, and stupid me should have used my mixer.  Once the eggs are all in, mix in the flour and salt and beat until well mixed.  Pour into the pan and level off then bake for about 25 minutes, use a tooth pick near the center to see if it comes out almost clean, then take out and cool fully. I just let it sit out for about 20 minutes then put it in the fridge as I did not have time to waste, and I wanted to eat some sooner rather than later.

My last bag of these, so sad they don't sell them here in Canada.

Mint Layer

-6 TBSP butter
-2 cups icing sugar
-2 TBSP milk
-1 TSP mint extract
-green food colouring if you like

  So just mix this all together, it is just like a butter cream icing, and if you don't want to colour it you don't have to.

  So once it is all mixed, spread it over the cooled brownies in a even layer, then put the brownies in the fridge to set while you clean up and make the topping.

See nice and even, it doesn't have to be smooth as you are going to cover it all in chocolate.

Chocolate Layer

-6 oz Semi sweet chocolate
-2 TBSP butter
-half a bag of Andes mint pieces or chop up about a cup of the whole mints

So this is basically a ganache, which is chocolate and cream, but since we are using butter which is just cream that has been beaten it sets differently.

Using a double boiler melt the chocolate and butter and mix until smooth.  Then working quickly spread it over the cooled iced brownies and spread even, then sprinkle with mint pieces.  Refrigerate until set and cut and serve. When spreading this I did half the pan at a time as the heat of the chocolate started to melt the icing layer.

Now it just looks like a pile of chocolate and stuff, which really isn't a bad thing, but wait until you cut into it, you will pass out at how yummy it is.

  Now I think this recipe was thicker in the brownie so they stayed fresh a good week and a half in an air tight container, and they are sweet so a normal person can only eat a bit before they get sick.  Me, one brownie and I was a goner.  So good!

This was my set up until I realized it was still too cold and my pizza wheel would not work, just to give you an idea at how big that is, my wheel is about 6 inches across, it is huge, but looks small here.

  Some tips on cutting the brownies, since you used parchment paper you can just lift the whole thing out of the pan and peal the paper back. Then depending on how cold the brownies are you can either use a large pizza wheel or a large knife.  I did not let them warm up at all so the chocolate on top cracked a lot and the pizza wheel was not strong enough to cut through.  If you let them come back to room temperature you shouldn't have those problems.  These are seriously one of my most favorite things to make, so good!

I tried to cut them nice and small so you could eat like 6 and not feel like a pig.  It didn't work, I still felt like a pig.

Seriously look at those layers!  And the brownie was so soft, almost like a fudge.  I think I am in love!

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