Rich, fudgy, dark chocolate brownies, with a layer of Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s (any Oreo’s will work… The red-filling holiday ones would be very pretty!) topped with dark chocolate chips and crushed up candy canes. These brownies are about as wintery and festive as they come!
I love peppermint and chocolate together. Something about the combo just makes me happy.
And the cute pink and brown color combo doesn’t hurt either. (Random tidbit: Pink and Brown were my wedding colors. Kinda fond of the combination!)
Brownies are my go-to treat when I need a quick, no-brainer (because we all know I don’t really have one of those lately!) dessert that everyone will love.
There are so many ways to dress up a brownie, I just love trying out new combinations!
This is one of my all-time favorites. The hidden layer of Oreo cookies (or Joe-Joe’s rather, as I love my Trader Joe’s and couldn’t resist the Candy Cane Joe-Joes they have for the holidays!) are just a fun surprise in an already great brownie. You can leave them out, but why would you?
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup butter, melted & divided (1/3 cup + 1/3 cup)
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 5 regular-sized candy canes, unwrapped and crushed (about 1/2 cup, or so)
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9×13″ glass baking dish.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cocoa and baking soda. Stir in 1/3 cup of the melted butter until smooth. Stir in the boiling water until the mixture is smooth and thick.
Stir in the sugar and eggs with the remaining 1/3 cup melted butter.
Stir in the flour, extract & salt until just smooth. Spread a little less than half the mixture evenly into your prepared baking dish, just enough to cover the bottom.
Lay out the Oreo cookies (or Joe-Joe's) evenly over the batter in the pan, and then top with the remaining batter, covering the cookies and smoothing the top.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the edges start to pull away from the pan. (It’s always better to under-bake brownies than to over-bake them!)
As soon as you take the brownies out of the oven, sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the top and let sit for about 5 minutes, or until the chocolate chips are all shiny.
Carefully spread the melted chips out over the brownies with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle evenly with the crushed candy canes, press down very gently to make sure they stick, and then let cool completely before cutting.
http://sweetannas.com/2012/12/fudgy-dark-chocolate-candy-cane-oreo-brownies.html
