Word: Perfect

Sometimes when I see a recipe that has the words ‘the best’ or ‘the perfect’ in the title I get a little put off. I mean nothing against being ‘perfect’ or ‘the best’ but until I have tried EVERY recipe for cookies, pie, brownies, etc. how can choose to name one recipe over another as ‘the best’. Well after needing to fulfill a major chocolate craving earlier this week, I WAS looking for ‘the perfect’ treat. Well I settled on these brownies from the Hershey cookbook (what a ‘perfect’ cookbook to have on hand when needing to find ‘the perfect’ chocolate treat!) because they were easy and I had all the ingredients on hand (yup, I did have an entire bag of York Peppermint Patties at home already- please don’t judge). And these brownies DID do an excellent job at ‘perfectly’ fulfilling my chocolate craving. They had a light mint flavor and the gooey morsels of Peppermint Pattie were a delightful addition. These Peppermint Brownies were gooey, not cake like, chocolaty, and whip up fast!

These brownies definitely cured my chocolate craving and would be ‘perfect’ for any get together you may have for this holiday weekend.

Hope you all have a Happy and Safe Independence Day Holiday! And Happy Birthday to my Grandmother (84 years young today!) too!

Notes: I did make a few slight changes. I like the flavor of mint and chocolate so I added a little bit of mint extract to these brownies. Be carful though, mint is a strong flavor… a little goes a long way! Also I reduced the amount of sugar I used. The original recipe had A LOT if sugar which I did not think necessary. My brownies were ‘perfectly’ sweet with the amount of sugar I added. I cut my YORK Peppermint Patties into 8ths. This left them big enough to have recognizable chunks in the brownies.

See those white chunks… that’s the YORK Peppermint Patties… yum!

‘Perfectly’ Peppermint Brownies
Prep Time: 25 minutes Bake time: 25-30 minutes Makes: approximately 20 brownies

16 – 17 small (1-1/2 inch) YORK Peppermint Patties
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup butter, melted and divided
1/2 cup milk
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon mint extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Unwrap and coarsely chop peppermint patties; set aside.

Stir together cocoa and baking soda in large bowl; stir in 1/3 cup butter. Heat milk in microwave for 1 and 1/2 minutes. Add milk to cocoa mixture and stir until mixture thickens. Stir in sugar, eggs and remaining 1/3 cup butter; stir until smooth. Add flour, vanilla, mint extract and salt; blend completely. Stir in peppermint pattie pieces. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.