by Kelly J. Larson

BYU Mint Brownies are on the menu for an upcoming Austin BYU Alumni Tech Summit on November 9, 2018, with an estimated 150 attendees. I’m delighted to be the honorary baker for this event.

I had never made the legendary mint brownies and did a trial run to see how many one batch makes. Adapting from a recipe published in the BYU Magazine, I use butter instead of margarine and the recipe also says to use chocolate icing on top of the mint icing, but doesn’t provide a recipe. I came up with a formula to make both the mint and chocolate icing base, divide it in two, then add mint to one half and cocoa to the other. These two flavors taste great together on a brownie.

To make a larger batch size for a crowd, there’s no need to bother with baking several 9 by 13 sized pans of brownies. I developed this oversized version for sheet pans that are roughly 11 by 15 inches or 12 by 17 with lids to accommodate stacking and transporting. This recipe is for one pan of brownies. Multiply by how ever many pans you need for shopping, but only make one at a time.

BYU Mint Brownies

• 1-1/2 cups butter

• 3/4 cup cocoa

• 3 cups sugar

• 2-2/3 cups flour

• 3/4 tablespoon baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons honey

• 6 eggs

• 1-1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts

Melt butter on low in nonstick pan. Turn off heat when butter is melted. Combine cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and flour in a stand mixer and stir on low to mix together. Add melted butter and mix briefly, then add eggs and honey. Stir in chopped nuts (optional). Butter the inside bottom and sides of large sheet pan, approximately, 12-inches by 17-inches. Pour batter into pan, evenly distributing. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.

Icing Base

• 1 cup butter, room temperature

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 6 tablespoons milk

• 3 tablespoons light corn syrup

• 32 ounces powdered sugar

In stand mixer, mix ingredients together until smooth. Divide into two bowls then add one of the flavorings to each.

Mint Icing

Add 3/4 teaspoon mint extract and 2 to 3 drops green food coloring (or pink or red food coloring for Valentine’s Day) and stir until well blended. Spread mint icing over top of cooled brownies, then refrigerate for icing to get firm. Having pans with lids is very helpful when you make several pans full.

Chocolate Icing

Add 3 tablespoons hot water to 1/3 cup cocoa and whisk together. Spoon chocolate mixture into the other half of the icing, stirring until well mixed. Carefully spread chocolate icing over the mint icing layer after it has set. Cut into squares, then serve.

Use an OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Multipurpose Scraper and Chopper to get clean lines, swiping off excess icing after each cut. Makes 24 per pan.

This is two pans of brownies cut up and put on foil wrapped cardstock.

Cut one sheet of cardstock into six pieces, 4.25 inches by 3.66 inches each. Wrap each piece with foil to prevent cardstock from getting soggy.

Brownies can easily be inserted into treat bags after refrigeration, then taped on the bottom for closure.

Package the nuts and no nuts brownies differently. These are the ones with Texas pecans.

These are the brownies without nuts.