Which part of the brownie do you like the best?  Is it the soft middle or the crispy edges?  I love the crispy edges the best.  The harder and the crunchier the better.  I decided to try and make a thin crunchy brownie for St Patrick's Day.

Minty Mocha Brownie Crunch

I have been wanting to try and make a crunchy brownie for a long time, every since I tried Sheila G's Brownie Brittle but never got around to doing it.  When I was shopping a couple of weeks ago I finally found these delicious morsels at our local Walmart Store.  After eating a couple of them I made up my mind that I was going to try and make them myself.  

My thought was all I had to do was make the batter really thin, which in turn did work but they weren't quite what I wanted them to be.... So, I will be going back to the drawing board until I get them right.  In the mean time I thought I would still give you the recipe and how I did them.  Even though they weren't what I wanted, they still tasted good.

This recipe I adapted from a recipe I have used many time from a local cookbook where I grew up

 called Demaine Heritage Cookbook

Ingredients:
1/4 cup cocoa ( used Ghiradelli Premium Baking Cocoa)
1 cup hot water
3/4 cup butter
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp espresso powder**
2 cups white sugar (I used 1 1/2 cup Zulka Morena Pure Cane Sugar)
2 eggs slightly beaten
1/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk (I used leftover eggnog that I had)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup Andes Mint Chocolate pieces
Green Wilton Chocolate piece (just need a few)- optional

Directions:
Mix cocoa in hot water, then cut butter in small pieces, add to cocoa mixture and stir until melted. Set aside and let cool.
In mixing bowl, add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and espresso powder.
Stir in eggs and cocoa mixture.
Beat in milk and vanilla until mixture is well mixed.
Stir in chocolate pieces.
Spread on large cookie sheets (I used two) and spread batter very thin, approximately 1/4 inch thick or less.
Bake at ***375 degrees for 20-22 minutes or until brownies are done and crispy, watching carefully so the edges don't burn.
I placed parchment paper on my cookie sheets and then placed batter so that I could take them out of the cookie sheets once done and let cool. (peel off parchment paper before cooling)
Once cool break into pieces.
Melt Wilton chocolate pieces and dip fork into chocolate and slide over tops of brownies.

Bakers notes:  
I did let these brownies sit out on the counter for a long time to help make them crispy before storing them.
**If you don't have espresso powder, use strong coffee or espresso instead of hot water or you could use a combination of  water and coffee.
*** my first batched I baked at 375 degrees for about 22 minutes.  The second cookie sheet I baked them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and found the second batch was a bit more crispier especially in the middle of the pan which I preferred.

I took these to work and everyone loved them.  We had them with ice cream, and strawberries.  They would also be good crumbled slightly and eaten with ice cream.   Although I still need to adjust them slightly they did turn out very tasty.  But I will keep trying to make them just right and let you know when I have the perfect recipe.