Day: December 31, 2024

Writ­ten 12/31/24, updat­ed 12/31/24

Recipe from Real Sim­ple Mag­a­zine. NOT veg­an (and not rec­om­mend­ed as veg­an). Pep­per­mint infused and as a top­ping

Materials

Ingre­di­ents

Sup­plies

Serving and Time

Serv­ing: 24 Brown­ies

Time: 20 minute Brown­ies + 20 minute Prep + 15 minute Bake + 1.5 hour Cool + 10 minute Set = 2–3 hours TOTAL

Directions

Brown­ies

• Pre­heat oven to 350F
• Pre­pare Brown­ies accord­ing to pack­age
• Either line a Muf­fin Pan (12 count) with lin­ers OR grease/parchment paper a Bak­ing Pan
• Pour brown­ie bat­ter into bake­ware
• Bake for about 20 min­utes until tooth­pick comes out clean­ly
• While per­form­ing next steps, let cool

Prep

• In a large mix­ing bowl, use an elec­tric beat­er on medi­um speed to work Cream Cheese (16 oz) until smooth, about 2–3 min­utes
• Add Sug­ar (½ cup), Sour Cream (½ cup), Vanil­la (½ tsp), and Pep­per­mint Extract (½ tsp — a lit­tle more if you want more of pep­per­mint fla­vor, but not too much lest it be bit­ter)
• Beat on medi­um-low speed
• Add Eggs (2 total), 1 at a time until all com­bined
• Fold in Pep­per­mint Can­dy (⅓ cup – more if desired for more pep­per­mint)

Bake

• Make sure oven is at 350F
• Spread pre­pared mix­ture over top the brown­ies
• Bake about 15 min­utes, until cheese­cake is set
• Cool in the pan on top of cool­ing racks for 30 min­utes
• Refrig­er­ate uncov­ered for at least 1 hour up to 24 hours (if longer than 4 hours, cov­er)

Top­ping (Option­al)

• Right before serv­ing, using a microwave-safe bowl, add Choco­late Chips (½ cup) and Heavy Cream (⅓ cup)
• Microwave for 30 sec­onds
• Stir
• Microwave for 30 sec­onds
• Stir until smooth
• Microwave more if need­ed
• Spread over top the cheese­cake and gar­nish with Crushed Pep­per­mint Can­dy (desired amount)
• Refrig­er­ate for 10 min­utes until set

SERVE and Enjoy!

Notes

• Do NOT do this as a veg­an recipe!! It’s not good! I tried mak­ing veg­an cheese­cake 6 times and it is nev­er good despite using a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent cream cheeses
• 2024: Made the mis­take of mak­ing brown­ies in a dif­fer­ent pan and then try­ing to cut it out in the shape of the spring­form pan I was using. NOT a good idea. Just bake it in the pan first. Oth­er­wise the bot­tom is weird. If I were to do it again, I would add more pep­per­mint as a whole as I couldn’t real­ly taste it in the cheese­cake. Did not do the option­al frost­ing top
• Recipe calls for soft pep­per­mint can­dy. I used can­dy canes. The soft­er can­dy prob­a­bly would  melt bet­ter
• Try­ing it in a muf­fin pan is not a bad idea