So St. Patrick’s Day came around and I felt it was a good excuse to bake something chocolate and green. I don’t normally use much mint flavoring in my cooking or baking, but how could I resist? I heavily modified some recipes I found in order to make this bad-boy rich fudge brownie with crème de menthe cream cheese layered, and then a semi-sweet chocolate ganache blanket on top. With a plated brownie in front of me I can smell the crème de menthe and the intense chocolate—this brownie requires a tall glass of milk.
St. Patrick’s Day Brownie
Ingredients:
1 Cup (two sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 eggs
2 Cups sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup flour
1/2 Cup cream cheese
2 Cups powdered sugar
2 to 4 Tablespoons crème de menthe
1 Cup whipping cream
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
11 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
Pre-heat your oven to 350° F.
Grease a 9″ by 13″ baking pan
Melt the butter and mix with the cocoa powder, add the eggs, beating them with each addition. Mix in the pinch of salt and the two cups of sugar and vanilla extract. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated and no longer lumpy. Pour batter into greased baking pan and cook in preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes. Brownies will puff up a bit and look done, but this is a very chocolatey and fudge-y recipe, so they won’t dry out all the way when done.
In a separate bowl beat the cream cheese and the powdered sugar until incorporated. Add the crème de menthe to the mixture and incorporate fully. I originally added 4 Tablespoons to my batch. It worked well, but next time I’d prefer a slightly more subtle flavor, but make this to your taste. I definitely wouldn’t add more than 4 tablespoons though—at that point you’d risk the liquid not incorporating with the cream cheese mixture. Spread the mixture over the fully cooled brownies. If the brownies are still warm bad things can happen. Just be patient. Then cover and throw the whole thing in the fridge.
Heat the whipping cream in a microwave safe bowl with the corn syrup until it is just starting to boil. Pull it out and dump the semi-sweet chocolate pieces and a teaspoon of vanilla extract into the bowl and stir slowly until glossy and smooth. Pull the refrigerator-temperature brownies out and pour the ganache over the brownies and gently spread. Loosely cover the brownies and place back in the refrigerator.
When the chocolate has set, cut with a knife and serve. These go well with a tall glass of milk.