Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes

This is a great recipe to make with your kids.  They can be your little helper and have lots to do.  And if you love mint in your brownies, then this will be your new favorite! Fudgie and minty and oh so good.  But after a lot of trial and error with various mint patty products, use York Peppermint Patties.  If you use anything else, they melt during the baking process and just make the cupcake a mushy minty mess.  Trust me, it's not pretty.  Tasty, but hard to eat.  Save yourself the trouble and just buy a bag of York Peppermint Patties and you will have no problems whatsoever.  And this is another recipe where you don't need to break out your mixer, all you need is a bowl and a whisk.  I pull out another go to cookbook, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  This book gets a lot of use as well, but it's still in great shape, unlike my cookie one that is limping to the finish line. 

The batter is super simple, as are most brownie batters.  And before you know it, you are filling up the cupcake tins with some batter. 

just a tbsp of
batter

Once you get to this part, the kids can help.  They can unwrap all of the peppermint patties and then place one inside each cupcake. 

a little fudgie home
for the patties

Then you cover each pattie with batter and make sure that each one is covered completely.  Bake away and before you know it you are all done.  They smell amazing while baking.  Wait until they are fully cooled to eat, they taste better that way. 

delicious :)

Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes

makes 12

8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted

12 small (1 1/2") mini York Peppermint Patties

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.  Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water.  Stir occasionally just until melted, 4-5 minutes.
2. Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth; whisk in eggs to combine.  Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).
3. Spoon 1 heaping tbsp of batter into each lined cup. Place 1 peppermint patty on top, genlty pressing into batter.  Top with 2 tbsp batter, covering patty completely.  Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted halfway in centers (above mint patty) comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes.  Transfer tin to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes.