Brownies have been popular since the 1920’s yet we do not know for sure who invented them. Jean Anderson, in her book “The American Century Cookbook”, gives us a few theories. One theory is that a woman named Brownie invented them. Another is that a housewife from Bangor Maine invented them by accident after her chocolate cake collapsed and instead of throwing the cake away she decided to cut the flat cake into squares. Both stories seem plausible and there are probably many others, so I guess we have to be content just with the fact that at least someone in America invented them.
When you look at the above picture you can see this is not your ordinary brownie. This is a dense and fudgy brownie that is topped with a layer of mint flavored cream and a thin layer of melted dark chocolate. I first made these brownies when I wanted something ‘green’ for St. Patrick’s Day. Now I make them all year (especially during the Christmas season) as mint and chocolate are the perfect combination.
As I said above, this is a dense and fudgy brownie and, in fact, it is the same brownie recipe that I used for the Cream Cheese Brownies. I really like how easy this batter comes together. It is hand mixed and only one bowl is needed to complete the task. Once the brownies are baked and cooled, they are spread first with a creamy mint flavored frosting and then a shiny chocolate glaze. The mint layer is a simple butter frosting and the mint flavor comes by adding either pure peppermint extract or Creme de Menthe. The final layer of these brownies is a lovely chocolate glaze that is simply melted semisweet chocolate and butter. I like to cut these brownies into small squares as they are quite rich and if you have leftovers they can be frozen.
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