York Mint Brownies

This is not really a new recipe as it's my favourite brownie recipe but I wanted to share it with you again as it's just so good.  Brownies are a great blank canvas as you can add in extra ingredients and come up with something different each time. I've used this recipe with mint oreos, regular oreos, sweet and salty m&m mix, reese's peanut butter cups and different chocolate bars/sweets. It's so versatile and turns out beautifully each time. 

A colleague of mine went to America last year and bought me these York Mint chocolates so I could bake them into a brownie for her. It has been forgotten and packed away what with packing and moving house last year and generally being quite busy. They are long overdue and fortunately they were worth the wait! The brownies were really fudgy, chocolatey and minty. The York Mint chocolate pieces melted into a sticky, gooey, minty goodness. I'll have to buy more of these when I next visit America.

I'm sending these to a new blog challenge hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen called Simply Eggcellent. It's to celebrate the humble egg and this recipe uses 4 large free range eggs so I hope it qualifies.

 melt chocolate and butter 

 whisk in eggs 

 adding the chopped york mint pieces 

ready to bake 

200g butter, chopped into smallish cubes
375g sugar
170g chocolate, roughly chopped
165g flour
80g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large free range eggs
12 York Mint chocolate pieces, roughly chopped

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a medium sized pan, melt the butter and chocolate.
• Then whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. 
• CONTINUE mixing until you get a smooth mixture then remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.
• Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then the flour and cocoa powder until you get a fudgy mixture as shown. 
• Stir in 8 of the chopped York mint chocolates, reserving the rest to sprinkle on top.
• Pour the mixture into a square baking pan and sprinkle the remaining chopped York mint chocolates on top. 
• Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until the top is crisp and the edges are cooked. 
• Allow to cool in the pan. 
• Slice and enjoy!