Easy Peppermint Brownies Recipe {with box mix} | The Food Cafe (2024)

FAQs

How do you doctor up boxed brownie mix? ›

Scope out your kitchen for add-ins.

Boxed brownies can be their own blank slate for just about any snacks, sweets, or baking scraps you've got in your pantry or fridge. Add a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder. Throw in a handful of nuts—pecans, walnuts, macadamia, whatever you have on hand.

Another way to make a boxed brownie mix taste homemade is to use an extract, adding a hint of additional flavor to your brownies without undermining the chocolate flavor. Vanilla (the most commonly used extract), almond, peppermint, lemon, and orange are just a few used extensively in baking with chocolate.

The first and easiest upgrade you can give to your boxed brownie mix is to add a tablespoon of instant coffee to the batter. Adding coffee to your brownies boosts their flavor because its bitter quality balances out sweetness, making it less overpowering. It allows that delicious chocolate flavor to really shine.

If you opt to add more eggs, say double the amount, something interesting happens. Even though you are adding more moisture, the air bubbles that you catch in the extra eggs add volume, which decreases the density of your final product. This makes your brownies rise and gives them a much more cake-like texture.

Brownie recipes traditionally call for water as it serves as a neutral liquid that hydrates the dry ingredients. However, using milk instead of water can impart a creamier texture and richer flavor to your brownies. The milk's fat content adds a smoothness that water cannot provide, resulting in a more indulgent treat.

Mix in chopped walnuts, chopped pecans or sliced almonds for a crunchy texture and nutty flavor. Add chocolate or chopped candy bars. Think chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, chopped peanut butter cups. Bring on the mint.

Is it okay to make brownies without eggs? Without eggs, baked goods will become a little thinner and not rise as much in the oven. As long as you replace the moisture from the egg with milk, banana or applesauce, you can make brownies without eggs. And yes, this recipe makes thinner brownies than normal.

You can absolutely substitute butter for the vegetable oil. Use the same quantity specified in the directions (for example, if it calls for 1/3 cup of oil, use 5 1/3 tablespoons of butter). Melt it down, then let it cool a bit. You might not ever go back to oil!

Airtight Containers

Use parchment paper to layer brownies into an airtight container for best results. Tip: When storing brownies in an airtight container, add a slice of bread in with them. The moisture from the bread will help keep your brownies fresh and soft for a couple more days.

What can I use in brownie mix instead of oil? ›

If you love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, peanut butter might just be the best vegetable oil substitute for you. For a lighter brownie, just about half as much peanut butter. For a chewy fudgy brownie, use just as much peanut butter as the recipe calls for vegetable oil.

Many brownie recipes don't contain baking powder or baking soda; these recipes tend to be for the dense, sometimes chewy, kind. Cakelike brownies usually contain a leavening agent, which helps give them their fluffy texture. The technique you use also makes a difference in the texture of the final product.

While you can add a small amount of instant coffee or espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor of your brownies, it should not be used as a direct replacement for cocoa powder. Coffee has a distinct flavor that can make your brownies taste bitter and less like traditional chocolate brownies.

We already know that adding espresso and coffee flavor to chocolate desserts supercharges chocolate flavor, and the same principle applies here. Using coffee in your brownie mix will result in better, more chocolaty brownies.

Further, you can make those boxed brownies taste a little closer to the real thing with a couple of easy substitutions. Specifically, swap out oil and water for butter and coffee — the result will be a more robust, more flavorful batch of boxed brownies.

Add Salt. If you've ever found boxed brownies to be too sweet for your taste, stir a pinch of salt into the batter before baking. This'll help bring out the deeper chocolate flavors. You can even try sprinkling some flaky sea salt on top of the brownies as soon as they come out of the oven.

In brownies, both butter and oil will offer a moist, tender texture, but only butter will give the dish the aeration needed for rising brownies well. If you use a cake brownie, butter is a better option because it helps rise the batter. For denser, fudge type brownies, oil is permissable.