I loved these cool Minty Smores Brownies with sticky, salted Mint-Chocolate Ganache Frosting. Easily put a holiday spin on your favorite standard brownie recipe - simply by adding a few festive ingredients like: vegan marshmallows and peppermint extract.
I want Smores Brownies. I wasn't sure what to expect when I folded pillow-y vegan Dandies marshmallows into my brownie batter, and topped them with a generous drizzle of peppermint-infused, chocolate-ganache frosting - but the result was an ooey gooey mess that tasted sinfully, divinely delicious. Here's how you can taste this delicious mess...
Brownies: Tweaked. The great thing about this recipe is that pretty much any brownie recipe can be used. Use your fave family recipe, use a boxed mix or make one up as you go! OK, maybe that last suggestion is only for the intuitive bakers out there.
Cooking Tip: Do Not Overcook brownies. If you've experienced the wrath of overcooked brownies, you know they get burnt edges, tooth-breaking crispiness when refrigerated and stale-tasting bottom crusts. I always slightly 'under cook' my brownies and they always taste just about perfectly moist. So maybe 'undercooked' is in fact perfectly cooked when it comes to brownies.
Need a Recipe? Here are my basic chocolate ganache and brownie recipes...
Vegan Brownies Batter: 1 ½ cups flour, 1 ¼ cups sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup egg replacer (I use applesauce or silken tofu - high-speed-blend batter if using tofu), dash of cinnamon, 2 teaspoon baking powder, ½ cup vegan buttery spread, 4-6 tablespoon water, ½ cup cocoa powder (add up to ¼ cup more cocoa powder if desired)
Chocolate Ganache Frosting: (intuitive style) In a double-broiler, I melt vegan chocolate chips, a drizzle of vanilla soy milk or soy creamer, dash of salt and sugar to taste until my desired flavor/texture is reached. I add in a few splashes of canola oil to add shine and liquidity. I use powdered sugar - but I usually use it sparingly since the chocolate chips are mildly sweetened. For this minty-ganache, I added a dash of coarse dry sea salt and peppermint extract.
Here's my recipe..
Minty Smores Brownies with Sticky Sea-Salted Chocolate Ganache Frosting
vegan, makes one batch
1 bowl (1 batch) vegan brownie batter (your favorite recipe)
Stir in:
1 ½ teaspoon instant coffee (de-caf OK)
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
Fold in:
¾ cup Dandies vegan marshmallows
½ cup vegan chocolate chips (opt'l)
Bottom crust:
1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs or rice cereal
2 tablespoon vegan buttery spread
Frosting:
1 cup chocolate ganache frosting
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
garnish: green herb (mint is best!)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend your brownie batter as you normally do.
3. Stir in the peppermint extract and instant coffee.
4. Fold in the optional chocolate chips and marshmallows.
5. Lightly oil your brownie pan. Crush your graham crackers with vegan butter in a food processor and spread a thin layer over the bottom of the pan.
6. Pour the brownie batter over top the buttery graham crumbs.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-30 minutes - or until edges of brownies crisp. You will notice the marshmallows puff up during the baking process and they will drastically cave-in as the brownies cool. This creates an interesting nooks/crannies effect in your brownies. Use less marshmallows if you want a more even brownie pan - you will still get the marshmallow-y smores essence. Try to not burn the marshmallows - or over cook the brownies.
8. Cool brownies.
9. Fold the peppermint extract into the chocolate ganache frosting. Chill.
10. When both the frosting and brownies have cooled off, pour the frosting over top the brownies. You can either do this after slicing each brownie - or you can pour all the frosting over the brownies and allow to cool even more in the fridge.
11. Garnish with fresh mint. I confess, I was out of fresh mint so I used fresh oregano. Still pretty and aromatic 🙂
Enjoy!
