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This post is sponsored by Javy Coffee. However, all opinions expressed are my own.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! This is my first recipe of the year, and boy was it a success! You gotta make these Peppermint Mocha Brownies to kick off your new year too!
I literally spent ten hours in the kitchen yesterday! For me, starting the new year off right involves cooking up a storm after being spoiled by Christmas dinners from my family! If you follow me on Instagram, then you would have seen the craziness going on in my kitchen! P.S. if you’re not following me on Instagram yet, then I really recommend you do! I share lot of exciting kitchen experiments and recipe sneak peaks in my stories and posts, so it’s a ton of fun over there!
I moved to my first condo back in October and it’s still quite a bit of a mess here, so unfortunately no hosting on my end! But I did enjoy having others cook for me after quite some time!
If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you know that one of my biggest achievements in 2021 was to make more desserts! I have to be honest with you, in one year I made more desserts than I ever have in my (almost!) five years of recipe blogging! In fact, I think I had made more desserts in the span of a month than I ever had in a lifetime! Crazy how things change right!
This recipe is also very special to me because this is the first recipe as part of my Live to Cook one-month challenge! If you’re enjoying cooking with me, I’ve got two free guides to keep the fun going: Make Cooking Fun, my mindset reset for the kitchen, and the Live to Cook field guide — a month of cook-along challenges. Grab them both free on my free resources page, and come cook along with me on YouTube!
You may know that I really love chocolate, and while I’m not a coffee drinker myself (unless it’s a cafe mocha!), I do love the flavor of mocha in my desserts. I’ve been sharing plenty of chocolate and coffee-based recipes lately! Christmas and New Year’s just passed by, and while the holidays are over, I’m still feeling the good vibes! What’s an essential winter flavour? Peppermint mocha of course! That’s why I’ve put a peppermint mocha spin to some classic espresso brownies with that chocolatey goodness!
Javy Coffee is a company that specializes in liquid coffee concentrate. It’s an instant coffee but in liquid form! They were kind enough to reach out to me to use it in my mocha-inspired recipes, specifically my Coffee Pancakes with Cafe Mocha Syrup, Pumpkin Spiced Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, my Better than Starbucks Cafe Mocha, and my Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes. So thank you very much Javy for pushing me out of my comfort zone and encouraging me to bake! I’ve had lots of positive reception on my baked goods, and I’ve really grown fond of baking! I used to loathe the idea of baking desserts, but I think the issue was that I kept thinking about baking the desserts after having eaten my dinner. Tip: bake BEFORE your big meal! That’s what I did yesterday when baking these brownies for New Year’s Day!
These brownies encompass everything that makes for an incredible dessert: Espresso, chocolate (lots of it!), cream cheese, and more coffee in that cream cheese topping… You gotta serve these brownies warm with some vanilla ice cream! Start the year off better than ever with this amazing treat! Let’s get baking!
Ingredients for Peppermint Mocha Brownies
These Triple Chocolate Espresso Brownies use pretty classic ingredients for brownies. We’re going triple chocolate here, since you may know that I absolutely love chocolate! Give me any choices for cookies, brownies, cakes and I’ll always choose the triple chocolate! This combination of ingredients is guaranteed to give you super fudgy and decadent chocolate brownies. If you check out the video below, you’ll see how luxurious and smooth that brownie batter is! Ah, you have no idea how many licks I took of that heavenly batter!
Let’s review what we’ll need for the brownies themselves and for the Peppermint Mocha Cream Cheese Topping. Remember, theFULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD with all ingredient quantities is at the bottom of this post! You can easily scale this recipe to make as many brownies as you’d like! These brownies are freezer-friendly, so no need to hold back on the indulgence! I recommend you make more rather than less because you won’t get enough of these incredible chocolate treats!
For the Peppermint Mocha Brownies
- Flour: I’m using all purpose flour here. This is the base for our amazing soft and fudgy brownie batter!
- Salt: Just a little bit to enhance the flavors.
- Water: As needed.
- Vanilla extract: I love the aroma of vanilla extract! Fun fact: I almost forgot to add in the vanilla extract! I added it right when I put it in the oven to bake! If this happens to you, note that you can add it in just over the top and using a skewer or spoon just spread it over your brownie batter in the pan. Because the brownies didn’t even start baking yet, the flavour went in just fine! If your brownies have already started to bake and the batter isn’t fully raw anymore, then unfortunately that’s too far!
- Cocoa powder: Any standard cocoa powder will work fine here.
- Baking powder: A combination of these ingredients helps the cupcake batter to rise and form perfectly shaped brownies!
- Espresso powder: This is why our brownies are triple chocolate espresso! We’re going to use a generous amount to really have a strong but not overbearing mocha flavor!
- Eggs: Ideally at room temperature. We’re using 4 eggs for a batch.
- Chocolate chips & chocolate chunks: To make these brownies super fudgy and “triple chocolate,” we’ve got a combination of semi-sweet chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.
- Butter: I was recently introduced to the world of brown butter by my younger cousin, who’s an incredible baker (I have a lot to learn from her!). She told me “brown butter will make all your baking better.” So, I followed her advice for these very special brownies, and wow am I glad I did, and you’ll be happy you’ve made brown butter too!
- Sugar: Just ordinary granulated white sugar is used here, and it’ll be used to make our brown butter.
For the Peppermint Mocha Cream Cheese Glaze
- Cream cheese
- Powdered sugar
- Milk
- Javy Peppermint Mocha Instant Coffee
If you don’t have the Javy Peppermint Mocha instant coffee (it is a limited edition flavor, so I recommend you stock up on it ASAP!! You can order a 4-pack from the link above!), and still want the same peppermint mocha flavour in your cream cheese topping, then no worries! You can still achieve similar results by simply using the espresso powder and start by adding 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract. Adjust the amount of peppermint extract based on your preference.
How to Make Peppermint Mocha Brownies
For the Brown Butter
In a pan/saucepan add all of the butter and bring it to a simmer on medium to medium low heat. Keep stirring every 30 seconds or so until the butter becomes browned. Be careful as it starts to change color because it can burn really easily.
Measure the sugar in a large bowl and pour in the browned butter, along with any browned milk solids.
For the Peppermint Mocha Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a square or 9" x 13" pan and place parchment paper over the greased pan.
In a large bowl or kitchen aid mixer, add cocoa, salt, baking powder and espresso powder. Start mixing and add eggs in one at a time.
Scrape the bowl and whisk well to combine. Add in water and mix well, stirring until smooth. Set it aside as you prepare the browned butter.
Combine the browned butter and sugar mixture with the brownie batter.
Add the flour, vanilla and chocolate chips, stirring until thoroughly combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the brownies for 22 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Remove the brownies from the oven, and cool them on a rack before cutting and serving.
Glaze or frost with the peppermint mocha cream cheese glaze and serve.
For the Peppermint Mocha Cream Cheese Glaze
- This is a modification of my Classic Cream Cheese Glaze recipe! To make the glaze, simply whisk together the peppermint mocha Javy coffee concentrate, powdered sugar and cream cheese, and gradually add milk until you have a smooth texture which resembles whipped cream.
- Transfer the glaze to squeeze bottle to decorate the brownies.
Tips for Moist and Fresh Peppermint Mocha Brownies!
Here are some tips to make sure you have the most decadent and memorable brownies you’ve ever made!
- Tap the baking sheet to ensure you have the batter evenly distributed and there are no air pockets.
- Your brownies have finished baking when you put in a wooden skewer or a knife down the middle of your brownies, and it comes out with some moist crumbs. Check more than one spot, if you hit a chocolate chip, the skewer/knife would appear wet.
- Allow your brownies to completely cool down. First, let them cool down in the pan, and then let them completely cool on a wire rack. You must exercise some patience before adding your cream cheese glaze or else the glaze won’t stick properly, and it’ll melt onto the brownies!
- You’ll have lots of extra peppermint mocha cream cheese glaze leftover, so grab a spoon or your finger and lick some on its own - it’s too good not to! :)
QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE
Can I Add the peppermint mocha instant coffee in the brownie Batter Itself?▼
Sure, if you want to! The reason why I’ve only put the Javy peppermint mocha instant coffee in the cream cheese glaze is because, as mentioned above, it’s strong! You don’t need much of it to really “pack a punch” as their slogan says!
Not everyone can handle a large amount of the peppermint mocha flavour, and if you’re making these brownies for a holiday party, then you’re probably safer going with plain espresso powder to get the coffee goodness in the brownies.
However, if you know you’re baking for major peppermint mocha lovers, or you’re making these brownies just for you and you love peppermint mocha, then go ahead and use the Javy in both the batter and the cream cheese glaze! Read above how to get the peppermint mocha flavour if you don’t have Javy instant coffee.
How to Store Peppermint Mocha brownies▼
Store your Espresso Brownies with Peppermint Mocha Cream in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They’ll stay fresh in the fridge for about a week. You can eat them ice cold if you want, or microwave them for about 30 seconds to enjoy with cold ice cream! The centre will be molten and gooey!
Can I Freeze These Peppermint Mocha brownies?▼
Yes, you can, and I certainly did! This was quite a large batch of brownies, and I cut them into large squares. To freeze your brownies, transfer into an airtight container. The brownies will stay good in the freezer for about 3 months.
Allow your brownies to defrost naturally in the fridge.
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