Mint Brownies!

I have been on a mint craving lately! This was a Pinterest find and I voted it gold (and my family did too) ! Beware how much mint extract you put in however, you don't want your brownies to taste like a nasty toothpaste or mouthwash, nasty.

You will need 3 different groups of ingredients, because this is a layered brownie. First you will make the actual brownie portion, and this is from scratch. Second, the minty layer of amazingness, and third a chocolate layer as a topping (ganache).

Brownie:
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of Unsweetened Chocolate
1/4 cup Andes Creme de Menth baking chips
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Mint extract
2 Large eggs
1/2 cup Flour

Mint Layer:
1 stick of butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp Mint extract
Green food coloring

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup Heavy whipping cream
1 cup bittersweet chocolate

Brownie Directions!
Preheat your oven to 325. The directions I found said to use an 8x8 dish and line it with foil. I followed directions, and that seemed unnecessary. Why line a glass dish with foil? It proved to be a waste of time, and if there was holes in the foil by pressing it flat, your layers went through the holes and made it uneffective. So, scratch that piece of information,
Melt the butter, chocolate, and Andes cips together. You may want to chop them up into smaller pieces so that they melt faster and don't burn in the pan. Remove from heat once completely melted.
Stir in the extracts and sugar, and add the eggs in one at a time. Finally mix in the flour and mix until smooth. Make sure not to leave any excess flour or whatever on the side of the bowl!
Pour batter into the pan and bake for 25 minutes. Let it cool completely before topping it with the mint layer.
Now another one of tips, don't make this. Don't get me wrong, the brownie batter tasted amazing, but I think any store bought, generic, brownie mix would work just fine. However, if you do buy a premade mix, make sure it is compatible with an 8x8 pan. The only drawbacks from doing this would be that they would be missing out on the Andes mints and mint extract. But the next layer should make up for it if you do it right.

Mint Filling!
Whip the butter until nice and fluffy. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until creamy. Take caution with the powdered sugar, this is some messy stuff! If you go too hard at first you will end up covered in sugar, I mean that wouldn't be a bad thing, but then your mint filling won't taste right.
When you add in the food coloring, only add a few drops. You don't want to add a whole spoonful, or anything near that amount, a little bit goes a long way!
Spread this over the cooled brownies and let harden in the fridge or freezer.

Ganache!
Chop up the chocolate so they are in smaller pieces and dissolve better in the cream.
Bring the heavy whipping cream to a simmer and remove from heat. This can bubble over quickly, so keep a close watch on this!
Pour the cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Let this sit and cool in the bowl for approximately 15 minutes. Once this is finished, you are fine to pour this over the mint layer.
If you would like to, wait 10 minutes for the chocolate to set up some, and sprinkle some of the Andes mint on top.

Let this entire concoction sit in the fridge for another 30 minutes, and voila! These are extremely rich, so only cut into small portions and enjoy! This treat does take some time, so before making, allow yourself 2 hours to prepare. I hope you love this as much as my family does!