Mint Cookie Brownies

One of my favorite food blogs is Baking Bites. Soooo many recipes to try off of there and I had to start somewhere. What immediately caught my eye were these Peppermint Cookies and Cream Brownies. Oh my gawd. These things are awesome. They are incredibly dense and minty and chocolately without being too minty. The only thing I will do differently next time is keep the brownies stored in the pan and covered. I took them out and cut them like the recipe stated and stored them in a tupperware but they ended up getting stale after a couple of days. I guess I dont have good tupperware. :) But other than that, make these! Soo good!

Peppermint Cookies and Cream Brownies
Recipe from Baking Bites

1 cup butter
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups roughly chopped peppermint oreo-type cookies (approx 18)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, and grease lightly.
In a medium-large saucepan over low heat, melt together butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. Whisk in sugar, salt and vanilla, then turn off heat. Whisk in eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Stir in flour and cocoa powder until mixture is uniform. Stir in peppermint oreo cookies and pour batter into prepared pan. Crush 3-4 additional cookies finely and sprinkle on top of batter, if desired.
Bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, but not coated with batter.

Cool brownies in pan for about 20 minutes, then lift brownies in the foil out of the pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Makes 36 brownies (or 48 bite-sized brownies).