The Maven's Lucky Mint Brownies

While I do love brownies from scratch (and I promise that isn't as hard as it sounds) sometimes just embellishing your favorite boxed mix is all you need to make a fun and tasty dessert for St Patrick's Day.

The Maven's Lucky Mint Brownies

Ingredients
one box of your favorite brownie mix, plus the necessary ingredients to make them
1 cup of chopped Andes mints. (you can buy them this way, win)
a container of vanilla buttercream frosting (or make your own, see below*)
green food coloring

Prepare brownies according to package directions. For extra minty goodness, blend about ¼ - ½ cup chopped Andes mints to batter before baking.

While your brownies are in the oven, make your homemade frosting. Trust me, this is what makes the whole dessert taste like it's from scratch, and is one of my most favorite tricks!

*Buttercream Frosting
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup (two sticks) butter - softened
1-2 tablespoon milk or whipping cream for consistency
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (please use the real stuff, not imitation)

Using your whisk attachment in your stand mixer, blend sugar and butter on low until it's well blended, usually about a minute. Then, increase the speed to medium and beat for another three minutes. Add the vanilla and continue to blend. Then, add a few drops of green food coloring to desired coloring. If the frosting is still too thick, you can add a little milk or cream for a more spreadable consistency.

Now, if you don't want to make your own frosting, you can just buy pre-colored frosting or add food coloring to plain frosting. *sigh* it's your choice.

Once your brownies are out of the oven and have cooled, cut them into squares (unless you've cheated like me and used a brownie pan)

You can either pipe the frosting on with a pastry bag (fun!) or spread on with a knife. Lastly, sprinkle your brownies with your remaining chopped Andes mints.

Poor a glass of milk and enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links where I make a small amount of money that helps to support this site. The above recipe was inspired by a variety of experiments, family recipes and of course Pinterest. Please do not take this recipe for your own use without permission.