Recipe Box - Peppermint Patty Brownies

Here in our household, when it comes to brownies, we don't discriminate.  We love them all.  From a mix or from scratch, plain or embellished - it really doesn't matter.  Any ol' kind is able to call forth shouts of exclamation from hungry boys entering the house and smelling brownies in the oven, and even Jeff admitted tonight that he likes brownies better than cake.  So, it's clear that we're big fans of these little chocolate squares.

Earlier this week, I was going through some recipes that I have clipped over the years from various sources, throwing out many of them (most of which I never even tried) but keeping a few that looked interesting.  Here is one that I kept.  After making it this week and getting lots of words of affirmation about it, I realized I couldn't possibly throw this recipe away!

What you need:
1.5 c. (3 sticks) butter, melted
3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
5 eggs
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
24 peppermint patties

What you do:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 9 x 13 baking pan.
2. In large bowl, mix together butter, sugar, and vanilla.  Add eggs; stir until well blended.  Sift together dry ingredients; then mix into batter.  Blend well.  Reserve 2 cups batter; spread remaining batter in prepared pan.
3. After unwrapping peppermint patties, arrange them in a single layer over the batter, about 1/2 inch apart.  Spread reserved 2 cups of batter over the patties.
4. Bake 50-55 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.  Cool completely in pan; cut into squares, and enjoy!

This time when I made them, I followed the recipe and did everything from scratch; but obviously, it would be easy enough to adapt this to using a mix.  The simple addition of peppermint patties as a surprise ingredient in the middle made these brownies a fun treat for my little helpers to assist with (they could hardly wait for Daddy to discover what the surprise in the middle was!)...and of course, a fun treat for us to eat. Our love and respect for brownies just continues to grow...   ;-)