It's Monday: Time to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

Janet here:

So mostly Rachel and I are about cooking from scratch and all that. But let's get real: Sometimes you're pressed for time and guess what? You need a little help. Well, here is a dessert that is going to earn you KUDOS from anyone who eats it and how you made it is your little secret.

This comes compliments of the Intern of Wonder at my day job — Rebecca. We would hire her every summer because she's an amazing intern and because she finishes every job we give her in about five minutes when we think it's going to take most of the summer. BUT she also always makes some fantastic sweet goodie at the end of her time with us so, yeah, she basically has an internship for life as far as I'm concerned.

Last year, she made lemon squares that were AWESOME. This summer she made peppermint brownies that were to die for. (People in another department who were lucky enough to have them called them crack brownies.) So I asked her for the recipe assuming — incorrectly — that is was made from scratch. Instead, it involves a packaged brownie bit. I'm not saying this is a problem. I'm just warning you in case you're a purist or something.

Having eaten these, I am not.

Rebecca made hers with Peppermint Patties. They were fabulous. I went the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup route. I'm not bragging here but they were equally fabulous. Next up could be Heath Bars...or what do you think? Let your imagination go wild.


Peppermint — or Fill in the Fabulous Filling Blank — Brownies

ingredients

2 Family-sized boxes fudge brownie mix
1 large bag York Peppermint Patties or enough Reese's Peanut Butter cups to fill the space or whatever is your particular sweet delight
Other ingredients listed on the brownie box (eggs, oil etc.)

method

Prepare one box of family-sized brownie mix as you would for normal brownies. Grease a 9x13 in. pan and pour the mix in to make a thin bottom layer.

Place unwrapped patties (or your filling of amazingness) about 1/2 in. away from the edge of the pan and each other, making a layer of peppermint(or whatever). Don't crush or cut the patties, and don't push them to the bottom of the pan; just set them down lightly.

Prepare the second box as you normally would and pour it evenly over the top of the patties.

Bake according to the directions on the box for the "thickest" brownies. The ones I made took about 50 minutes.

Let cool, cut, and serve... then try not to go back for seconds!