What is it about the holiday season that makes me crave the combination of chocolate and peppermint? Thank goodness these super-rich brownies have both!
I was provided Hershey's baking products at no cost to me. Hershey's will be providing the prize package for this giveaway and will be shipping the prize package directly to the winner. I did not accept monetary compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.
This post was originally shared in December 2014. The giveaway has since closed and an updated post appears here with reformatted photos as of December 2021.
Am I the only one out there who starts craving the combination of chocolate and peppermint at this time of year? I don't know what it is about those two flavors together that just
screams the holidays, but I can't get enough of it.
(Maybe it just feels that way now that I'm pregnant. When the cravings are there, they are Real.)
Over the weekend, I teased you all on
Instagram and
Facebook with a picture of the little baking project I was working on. Of course, I did everything within my power to make sure the brownie recipe featured a whole lot of chocolate with a tasteful sprinkling of peppermint.
In a word?
Heavenly.
Chocolate-lovers will be fighting with each other to get the last brownie in the pan. With cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate chips and a rich homemade chocolate buttercream frosting, I promise these brownies will be the holiday treat your friends and family members will be raving about. I should know -- I brought this batch to a holiday party and received compliment after compliment about them.
Keep reading to get the recipe!
This all started when I received a fun package in the mail full of Hershey's baking staples...
... a bag of
Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips...
... a bag of
Hershey's Milk Chocolate Kisses...
... a container of
Hershey's Natural Unsweetened Cocoa...
... and an assortment of
Hershey's Recipe Cards featuring some of their most popular baking products. As soon as I saw the recipe card for the
Ultimate Chocolate Brownies, I knew I just had to try and out. But not without putting a little twist on it to make it my own.
And to satisfy that major craving for chocolate and peppermint that I was talking about earlier.
Thus, my
Ultimate Chocolate and Peppermint Brownies were born!
Did I say that these brownies were
heavenly yet?
Because they were.
Everything about them was heavenly -- the aroma filling the kitchen as they baked and cooled, the sugary rush from the chocolate buttercream frosting that I spread over the top, and the look of the finished product after I sprinkled on chocolate chips and pieces of crushed peppermint.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
First, you'll want to bake the brownies. See how they're studded with luscious
Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips?
While the brownies are cooling, whip up a batch of
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. Try not to eat all of it while you're waiting.
But sneaking a spoonful or two won't hurt!
Once the brownies have cooled, you can go ahead and spread all of that sinful buttercream frosting on the top of them.
It wasn't until this point in the process that I realized that I should have sifted all the little lumps of powdered sugar
out of the powdered sugar before making the frosting. Sifting would make a prettier frosting, but I found that the lumps didn't do a darned thing to detract from the overall
flavor of the brownies.
Plus, I still had a layer to go, so I didn't very much care about the lumps. ;-)
To finish the brownies, grab some more chocolate chips and some crushed peppermint (I used candy canes) and get ready to get artistic. It's time to decorate!
Go as crazy with the toppings as you want.
See? Now you can't even tell there were lumps in the frosting. ;-)
And, for those of you who are just dying to know what these brownies look like on the inside...
PS. You're welcome.
NOTE: This giveaway has closed and is no longer accepting entries.
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