Mint Chocolate Brownies with After Eights
Delicious, fudgy, intense chocolate peppermint squares with chunks of crispy mint chocolate topped with After Eight Mint Chocolates. Soft and gooey on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside, these incredible brownies are outstanding all year round, but in our house After Eights are synonymous with Christmas.
For as long as I can remember, After Eights have been a staple treat at Christmas. My grandparents had them, my parents always had them (in fact my Dad had a box all year round – which he would sometimes share!) and now Andrew and I always have them. Every year our children have an After Eight competition. They put an After Eight on their forehead and, without using their hands, they compete to see who can get the After Eight in their mouth the quickest! It is such a fun (and sometimes messy!) game – you should definitely try it!
These brownies are an homage to our happy Christmas After Eight memories.
How to make Mint Chocolate Brownies with After Eights
This recipe is adapted from my Daffodil Brownies – Core Recipe. For further brownie ideas and inspiration, see here.
Collect all your ingredients together and line the baking tin:
- In order to guarantee soft and fudgy brownies, it is important to use the correct size tin – in this case it is a 20cm/8inch square tin. If your tin is larger the depth of your cake batter will be less and the cake will cook more quickly. Equally if the tin is smaller, your cake batter will be deeper and cook more slowly.
- Sit the tin on greaseproof paper making sure the paper is large enough to line the tin, come up the sides and have a little overhang.
- Cut out the corners of the paper so it will fit easily into the tin
- Fold the paper from corner to corner so the size of the centre of the paper matches the base of the tin. Slot inside the tin.
Brownie Ingredients:
- unsalted butter, in cubes
- dark mint chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces. I use Lindt
- soft brown sugar
- caster sugar
- large eggs
- fine salt
- plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
- cocoa, sieved
- chopped crispy mint milk chocolate – there are many options. I have been using Cadbury’s special addition mint milk chocolate
- peppermint extract (if necessary – see Recipe Notes)
- After Eights
Make those brownies:
- Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped dark mint chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
- Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
- Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
- Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour and cocoa.
- Sift directly over the cake batter.
- Fold until completely mixed in but be careful not to over-mix at this stage.
- Add the chopped mint milk chocolate and the peppermint extract.
- Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
- Cook in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 23 minutes in London and 24 minutes in Switzerland.)
- As soon as they come out of the oven lay the After Eights over the surface. they will melt and then solidify again as the cake cools
- When the cake had cooled, cut into squares using the After Eights as a guide.
This gives me a slightly crispy top but a gorgeous gooey centre. The cake will be slightly risen and cracked around the edges (see the pictures below) but the centre will feel quite soft. Remember the cake will continue to cook after you have taken it out of the oven.
Basic Ingredients 
Additional Ingredients 
1 Melt the chocolate and butter ….. 
… and mix until smooth 
2 Put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl …. 
…. and whisk until thick and creamy. 
3 Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking. 
…..whisk until smooth and glossy. 
4 Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour, cocoa and coffee 
5 Sift directly over the cake batter. 
6 Fold until completely mixed in … 
7 Fold in the chopped mint milk chocolate and the peppermint extract 
8 Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface 
9 Cook in a preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes 
10 As soon as they come out of the oven … 
…. lay the After Eights over the surface. 
Made this recipe?
If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.
Mint Chocolate Brownies with After Eights
Delicious, fudgy, intense chocolate peppermint squares with chunks of crispy mint chocolate topped with After Eight Mint Chocolates. (Makes 9 or 16)
Ingredients
- 200g unsalted butter, in cubes
- 200g dark mint chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces – I use Lindt. (See Recipe Notes)
- 150g caster sugar
- 50g soft brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 100g plain/all-purpose flour, sieved
- 25g cocoa, sieved
- 100g chopped mint milk chocolate (I use Cadburys)
- 0 – 1 teaspoon peppermint extract – depending on if you can get hold of mint dark chocolate (See Recipe Notes)
- Topping: 9 or 16 After Eight mints
Instructions
-
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
-
Preheat oven to fan oven 170°C /190°C/375°F/Gas 5
-
Chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped dark mint chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie or and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
-
Meanwhile put the sugars, eggs and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until thick and creamy. This will take around 3 minutes.
-
Pour the chocolate and butter into the eggs and sugar, whilst whisking, and mix thoroughly with the electric whisk until smooth and glossy.
-
Put a sieve over the bowl and add the flour and cocoa.
-
Sift directly over the cake batter.
-
Fold until nearly mixed in.
-
Add the chopped mint milk chocolate and the peppermint extract and fold in.
-
Transfer to your baking tin and level the surface, making sure the cake batter goes all the way into the corners.
-
Cook in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, depending on how squidgy you like the centre to be. It will carry on cooking when you take it out of the oven so bear this in mind. (I cook mine for 23 minutes in London and 24 minutes in Switzerland.)
-
As soon as they come out of the oven lay the After Eights over the surface. They will melt and then solidify again as the cake cools.
-
Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes and then, using the overhanging parchment, transfer the brownies to a cooling rack – do not remove the parchment, they will be too fragile
-
Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares using the After Eights as a guide.
-
N.B. To speed up the cooling process and/or create particularly neat edges when cutting, transfer to a fridge to cool and slice when very cool. However, they are best served at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
Equipment
- Large microwave safe jug or heatproof bowl
- Electric whisk and mixing bowl
- Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- Sieve
- Chopping board and knife
- 20cm/8inch square baking tin lined with baking parchment
Mint Chocolate:
Mint chocolate is a lot easier to find over Christmas than the rest of the year. If you cannot find dark mint chocolate, you can use the normal dark chocolate and add 1 – 2 teaspoons peppermint extract.
Fortunately After Eight mints are available all year. If you cannot find any milk mint chocolate, replace with an additional layer of After Eights. Pour half the batter into the tin, top with 9 – 16 After Eights and then add the remainder of the batter and a further 9 – 16 After Eights.
Mint extract:
You need to add this to taste.
- When I can find Lindt dark milk chocolate, I find I don’t need any extract.
- However, not all makes have the same level of mint, so taste the cake batter and decide for yourself.
- If you use dark chocolate with no mint, you will need 1 – 2 teaspoons extract.
Be very careful melting the chocolate. Chocolate can be very difficult to work with. You can overheat it very easily and the mixture will go grainy. When this happens, there is no way to resolve it I’m afraid!
Microwave: I give the chocolate and butter a minute in the microwave, take it out and stir it well, then let it sit for a few minutes to see if it continues melting sufficiently to melt all the chocolate. If not, I then continue with the microwave but in 10 – 15 second bursts.
Bain Marie: if you do not have a microwave, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter are very nearly melted then take it off the heat and take the bowl off the saucepan. Be very careful not to burn yourself as the bowl will be hot and steam will escape from the saucepan. Allow the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the residual heat to melt the remainder of the mixture. Again, be careful not to over-heat.
