Chocolate Mint Brownies

I turn seventeen on Friday June fifteenth. The week is the week of the Tulsa Library teen writing program starting on Wednesday June sixth, three days from when I am writing this. I have been re-reading my application essay and writing sample at the kitchen table this week. The first session is going to be in the small classroom on the second floor of the main library on Boulder Avenue at six-thirty in the evening, with eleven other teenagers and the published author Marcus Wells leading the workshop. I am going to be the youngest in the room. Mrs. Henderson’s daughter-in-law works at the library reference desk and had looked up the roster for me as a favor when Mrs. Henderson asked her to. The other ten are eighteen or nineteen. I am about to be seventeen.

Cody’s handwritten birthday card came in the mail Tuesday afternoon. The card was a small folded piece of unit construction paper from the unit&rsquo>s craft program, with a small drawing of a kitchen window in pencil on the front. The kitchen window is the recurring image in Cody’s work since 2017 — it is on the chapbook cover, it is on every birthday card he has sent me, it is on the small piece of paper he sent Mrs. Tilford last December as a thank-you for the food-pantry bag of 2016 — and the window has become the small visual signature his work uses without him needing to explain why.

Inside the card, in his careful slanted handwriting, the message was: Kay, Seventeen. Last year I will see you from the inside. C. Cody is on day five hundred and twenty-two. He has 148 days remaining until the November-twelfth release date that has been on the calendar in the closet in pencil with a circle around it for six months. The card is the kind of card that lands on the page in pen.

I read the card three times at the kitchen table. Mama read it. We did not say anything for a minute. Then Mama said, baby, this is the last birthday. Next year is going to be the first. She is right. November twelfth, 2018, is the day the household becomes a four-person household for real, with the chair at the table filled and the back door swinging open at three in the afternoon when Cody comes home from the auto-body shop the way it used to.

And the recipe Saturday for the family birthday dessert was chocolate mint brownies. The recipe is from Averie Cooks. Two layers of fudgy chocolate brownie with a peppermint buttercream filling between them and a chocolate ganache poured over the top. The kind of dessert the magazines run for cover photos in February and the kind of dessert that, in Oklahoma in June, hits as a treat instead of a winter comfort.

The math: a box of brownie mix doctored with the Kathy variation (extra egg, less oil, milk instead of water, a tablespoon of vinegar) $1.49, a stick of butter for the buttercream $0.50, three cups of powdered sugar from the bag $0.40, peppermint extract from a small bottle I bought specifically for this $0.30 worth, a cup of heavy cream $0.99, a half-pound of semi-sweet chocolate chips $1.99 for the ganache. Total: about $5.47 for a 9-by-9 pan that lasted Mama and me four nights.

The technique is the three-layer build. You bake the brownie batter in a 9-by-9 pan for the standard time on the box (about twenty-six minutes at 350). You let the brownie cool completely, at least an hour. Cooling is non-negotiable; warm brownie melts the buttercream into a puddle.

You make the peppermint buttercream while the brownie cools. Cream the softened butter with a fork until smooth. Add the powdered sugar a half-cup at a time, alternating with small splashes of milk, until you have a thick spreadable frosting. Add a teaspoon of peppermint extract and a pinch of salt. The peppermint is the part that needs to be measured carefully — too much and the buttercream tastes like toothpaste; just right and the buttercream tastes like a Junior Mint. A teaspoon is right. Spread the buttercream over the cooled brownie in an even layer. Refrigerate for twenty minutes to firm up the buttercream before the ganache.

The ganache is the easiest of the three layers. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-low until just steaming — do not boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips in a heat-safe bowl. Let sit for two minutes. Whisk smooth. The ganache will be glossy and slightly thick. Pour the ganache over the chilled buttercream in an even layer. Spread gently with the back of a spoon. Refrigerate for another thirty minutes to set the ganache.

Cut into squares. The squares come out of the pan with three distinct layers visible — the dense dark brownie on the bottom, the white peppermint buttercream in the middle, the glossy chocolate ganache on top. The squares are the kind of dessert magazines photograph for the Valentine’s Day cover and that, on a kid’s seventeenth birthday in Oklahoma in June, hit the same way.

Mama had her square Friday night with a glass of milk. Cody’s card was on the kitchen table next to her plate. She said, baby, you are seventeen and the kitchen is going to take you somewhere. I want it on the page. The kitchen has already taken me somewhere. The Tulsa Library writing program starts Wednesday. The kitchen is going to keep taking me somewhere. I am writing this in pen.

The recipe is below, the way Averie Cooks wrote it. The trick is the chilling between layers — refrigerate the buttercream for twenty minutes before adding the ganache, so the layers stay distinct. The peppermint extract is one teaspoon, no more; too much tastes like toothpaste. Use the Kathy variation on the brownie box (extra egg, less oil, milk instead of water, a tablespoon of vinegar) for the bakery-style brownie texture.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 28 min | Total Time: 43 min | Servings: 16

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the mint frosting:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2–3 drops green food coloring (optional)
For the chocolate topping:
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar until combined. Add eggs one at a time, whisking well after each. Stir in vanilla and peppermint extract.
Add the dry ingredients. Sift in the cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Bake. Pour batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 26–28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Cool completely in the pan.
Make the mint frosting. Beat together powdered sugar, softened butter, milk, and peppermint extract until smooth and spreadable. Add food coloring if using. Spread over the completely cooled brownies and refrigerate for 20 minutes to set.
Make the chocolate topping. Melt chocolate chips and butter together in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Pour over the set mint frosting layer and spread gently to cover. Refrigerate for 30 minutes until the chocolate topping is firm.
Slice and serve. Lift the brownies out of the pan using the parchment overhang. Slice into 16 squares with a sharp knife, wiping the blade clean between cuts for neat edges. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chocolate Mint Brownies — The Seventeenth Birthday Dessert