Halloween peppermint brownies

Time flies and it's already Halloween in two short days!  

I may not be very big on Halloween but it's good to get into the spirit a little bit with some pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, and a few fun treats.  I find that as the kids get older, the fervor behind Halloween is quieting down so maybe I should try to enjoy it as much as possible while my son is still dressing up and excited to "boo" his friends and neighbors.  

The kids at school are having a Halloween bake sale today and I made these simple peppermint brownies for the sale.  I considered making a batch of owl cupcakes but when I saw this simple idea for making Halloween "faces" using peppermint patties on brownies from Martha, it seemed like an easy/tasty project to try.  I love an excuse to make brownies!

I took Martha's idea and made it even simpler.  I actually used a recipe from Joy of Baking that makes brownies that are meant to be somewhere between cakey and fudgy.  I wanted a moist brownie and also one that would hold up well.  Since I made sure to take my brownies out of the oven earlier rather than later, mine turned out more fudgy, which is how we like them.  Instead of embedding a peppermint patty into the brownies (as well as using one for the faces) as per Martha's recipe, I just added a little peppermint extract into the batter to reinforce the flavor, keeping things simple and not too crazy minty.  

I don't know if everyone's a fan of peppermint brownies but my son loves it and selfishly, of course, I was thinking of him.  He wanted a batch for himself and after I let him sample one, he really wanted to keep the entire batch.   In other words, these are my kid-approved!  Somehow, I did manage to pack up most of the brownies and they now reside with many other creepy and not-so-creepy treats awaiting the school bake sale.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!  Once Monday rolls around, it's officially time to talk Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I can hardly wait!

Chocolate peppermint patty cake

When I think of Christmas flavors, classics like peppermint inevitably come to mind.  One of my favorite store-bought treats is this peppermint bark and we get at least one tin during the season to enjoy at home alongside our homemade goodies.  I've thought about attempting a homemade version but honestly, I have a feeling the real thing would be hard to beat (never mind all the issues with tempering or needing to refrigerate a homemade version - what do they do to the candy cane bits to prevent it from melting?).

So I settled for making a little peppermint cake.  Aside from the bark, I was inspired by the peppermint brownies I made last year that turned out really well.  My son was quick to remind me that I had to make those as well.  I've since accomplished that but beforehand, I thought I'd try something new.  

I scaled this cake down from a recipe in Chocolate Cakes, a book a chocoholic like myself feels she has to have.  There are literally chopped peppermint patties in the cake itself.  It's the kind of "crazy" thing we find ourselves doing during the holidays.  

If, like me, you fear the cake might be cloying, I'm happy to report that it is not.  The proportions work (I did go light on the peppermint patties) and it's almost-surprisingly not too sweet.  I liked this cake even more than I thought I would; it's rather addictive, actually.  That could well be explained by the bittersweet chocolate ganache since I rarely dislike anything with ganache but the cake itself is moist and chewy and the whole effect is somewhat like a peppermint brownie truffle!

Now pardon my wobbly piping job on this cake.  It's the best I can do, quite frankly.  I just thought I'd take the excess ganache I had and pipe a pretty border - it is the holidays, after all!  And inspired by the delicious peppermint bark we're enjoying right now, that border created the perfect little center for me to nestle some festive peppermint bark pieces inside.  The whole thing tasted incredibly harmonious - a little crunch of the bark to go with the creamy chewiness of the cake.  This is a terrific chocolate fix for the holidays!

Rather like a peppermint brownie truffle in cake form

Brownie cupcakes with peppermint filling

Chocolate and mint.  I'm not sure how it all began but it is one of my favorite combinations.  And brownies are among my favorite things on earth.  I pretty much love all things chocolate!

I know it's been out for years but I only recently bought a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  While I love a chocolate cupcake with ganache frosting, I'm not a huge cupcake fan, mainly because I'm not a frosting - particularly, buttercream - lover (again, unless there's an overwhelming amount of chocolate involved).  But when I last flipped through the book, I couldn't help but notice many recipes I'd love to try eventually.  Plus, I can't go wrong with one of Martha's books.  It's always well organized, reliable, and I love that there's a photo for each recipe.  Ever since Cupcakes came out, I've been waiting for a "Martha Stewart's Cakes" book that has still yet to materialize; I would buy that in a heartbeat!

So from my copy of the Cupcakes book, I made a few brownie cupcakes with peppermint filling.  I love the promise of brownie cupcakes and there's no need for frosting here.  The surprise center is an embedded peppermint patty, which infuses the brownie/cupcake with a strong peppermint flavor. 

It's not quite a surprise filling, I find, since the peppermint patty "leaked" out of most of my cupcakes even though I was pretty careful to follow the instructions on hiding them.  I kind of like the volcanic look to them and really don't mind a little peppermint lava flowing out.  If you make these and get a particularly "runny" batch, maybe we could just rename them "mint lava brownie cupcakes".  You could tidy them up a bit or hide any filling poking out by dusting some cocoa powder over the top.  I think they're fine either way.

I really enjoyed these.  I love the crisp, shiny, crackly, almost hard tops on these brownie cupcakes.  Be careful not to overbake them so that the center is not only minty, thanks to a York peppermint patty, but also fudgy and chocolaty.  The brownie-cupcake batter was so good, I'd even make these plain, without the peppermint patty inside.  Or instead, I'd just add a touch of peppermint extract or almond extract to the batter.  And the thing that really makes this recipe a keeper is that these cupcakes retained their texture, staying moist and fudgy with a crisp top even on its third day!  They're also very easy to make.

The craggy, sunken tops seemed to call out for a scoop of ice cream.  That's probably over the top but I did it anyway.