That was my first mistake . . . being over confident.
Things were going seemingly well until I took the brownies out of the oven.
I knew right away something had gone very wrong! But I thought it was worth trying to salvage my sad looking brownie bites.
In the end, I finally gave up and changed course.
You can click over to her website here to see what they were supposed to look like and the original, complete recipe. But this is what happened to mine . . .
For your listening pleasure, I have selected Mr. Grinch for today’s Christmas Carol. It seemed fitting under the circumstances. After all, someone or something was trying to ruin Christmas!
I followed the recipe to a T.
First I melted 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate in the microwave.
Then added 8 Andes Mints . . .
and stirred till they all melted together . . .
Looks good so far, right?
Then, in a mixing bowl, I put 1 stick softened butter and 1 cup sugar . . .
Then I mixed it together till combined.
Then added 2 eggs, one at a time . . .
Then I slowly added the cooled chocolate mixture to the butter mixture.
Then 1/4 tsp mint extract. It was all coming together as planned.
Once it was thoroughly blended together next came 3/4 cup flour (this photo disappeared before my senses can back to me).
Once it was all combined, I sprayed the mini muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.
The Horror Set In
Here’s where everything went terribly wrong . . . I should have listened my instincts but. . . I didn’t.
Most of the time my cooking instincts are pretty good. Today, however, I allowed myself to be drawn in to another place. A place where we only read the words on the page and do not consider for a moment what the writer’s real intent was.
The recipe said this would make 18 servings.
I mistakenly thought that meant 18 mini brownies ( I now believe it was intended to mean 18 servings of 2 brownies each). But I can’t be 100% sure.
Even when it appeared that I was filling them too full but yet had enough batter for 24 over filled mini brownies, I didn’t stop to use my common sense.
I blame the anesthesia from my recent abdominal surgery. It must have jumbled my brain cells. It must have made me lose all common cooking sense. It must have put me in another reality.
Yep . . .it had to be the anesthesia . . . always gotta have something to blame . . .
I put them in the oven and baked them.
I knew instantly when I took them out of the oven I had made a mistake because there was no getting those muffins out of the pans without destroying them.
Still, I tried. I couldn’t give up the ship or throw in the towel . . .
Yeah . . . they look terrible. Even the poor exposure didn’t help this photo in the least. As is turned out there was brownie batter smeared on the lens.
Hope In The Darkness
Still, I thought, all hope is not lost. I trudged on, hoping for a miracle that never came.
In sheer desperation, I melted 1 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate with 1 Tbsp butter and 25 Andes Mints. Then made an attempt to drizzle the chocolate over the brownies hoping they would look presentable.
I stopped taking pictures at this point . . .in fact I didn’t even put all that were taken in the above description. I started to delete them out of utter shame. So these are what’s left.
They didn’t look presentable. The only thing I knew for sure was that they tasted amazing!
Then the thought came to me. I can’t possibly throw these perfectly delicious morsels away no matter how disastrous they looked. I had to change the plan. I needed a better plan. I HAD TO SAVE THE CRISTMAS BROWNIE BITES!! BUT HOW?!?!
I decided if they can make a cake pop, I can make a brownie pop (although I doubt I was the first to think of that).
I then crumbled all the brownies into a bowl and added the dipping chocolate, mixing them together.
I rolled them into balls . . .
then put them in the freezer till firm .
Meanwhile, I melted 24 oz of almond bark and crushed up one candy cane.
They are awesome! Saved at last!!
And that, my friends is how I saved Christmas Brownie Bites!
Christmas Brownie Bites:
- 33 Andes Mints
- 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 1 stick softened butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp mint extract
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped fine
- 24 oz Almond Bark
- 1 crushed candy cane (or something like it)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. For my version, it isn’t necessary to use muffin tins. You can just put the batter in a sprayed baking dish and bake like you would a pan of brownies. You just need to bake them a little longer than in the original recipe to make sure they are baked completely.
Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Then add 8 Andes Mints and stir till melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a mixing bowl, combine 1 stick softened butter and 1 cup sugar.
Then add eggs, one at a time mixing till completely combined.
Drizzle in the chocolate and add the mint extract. Mix till combined.
Pour the batter into baking pan and bake till done, about 20-25 minutes. Unless you use the mini muffin pans which should bake about 15 minutes.
Once baked, allow the brownies to cool.
Melt 1 oz finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, 1 Tbsp butter and, 25 Andes Mints in the microwave and set aside to cool slightly.
Crumble the brownies in to a bowl, pour in the melted chocolate mixture and mix together.
Roll into balls and freeze till firm.
Meanwhile melt 24oz vanilla Almond Bark and crush 1 candy cane.
Dip brownie bites in the almond bark and sprinkle with the crushed candy cane. Allow the Almond Bark coating to harden.
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