Candy cane brownies are super fudgy brownies topped with a layer of sweet peppermint frosting, covered in a layer of soft chocolate ganache, then sprinkled with crushed candy canes to dress them up for the holidays. These Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies are perfect for any party.
I teamed up with Sara and Kate, my friends from Our Best Bites, for a fun, virtual cookie swap. We choose a holiday cookie recipe from the other’s website to bake and post. I decided to bake their “heavenly Christmasy brownies.”
Fudgy brownies are one of my favorite desserts. They’re easy to make and easy to serve – perfect for the busy holiday season. Their Mint Brownie recipe is in their first cookbook, as well as on Our Best Bites.
What makes fudgy brownies?
To make extra fudgy brownies, you need to use a higher ratio of fat to flour. More flour makes cake-like brownies. Using more butter helps to soften the brownies up, making them fudgier.
The cookbook version is slightly different than the online version. My version below is sort of a combination of the two.
How to Make Fudgy Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies
This is such an easy brownie recipe!
To make it easier to get bar cookies out of the pan, line your pan with foil.
To make it easy to mold the foil to your pan, turn your pan upside down and cover the pan tightly with foil, shiny side out. Remove the foil, turn the pan right side up and fit the molded foil into it.
Once you have the brownies out of the pan, peel off the foil and cut them in to squares. I like to use my watermelon knife to cut them. It’s long enough to cut through the entire row in one slice. I then rinse the knife in hot water, dry it and cut the next row.
If you really want perfect squares, sometimes I’ll even bring out the ruler and measure the rows.
I loved the brownies. I kept going back to the kitchen for just a little bit more. They remind me of a brownie they make at a local pastry shop, Schmidt’s. Thanks Kate and Sara for sharing the recipe.
Please stop by Our Best Bites to see their twist on my Chocolate-Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies.
Also, check out my roundup of Peppermint Desserts recipes.
Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies
Ingredients
Brownies
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup 4 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 ½ teaspoons peppermint extract
- 1 ½ tablespoons milk
- red food coloring 1 to 2 drops
Chocolate Glaze
- 6 ounces about 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons butter
Peppermint Topping
- ½-1 cup crushed candy canes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º. Line a 9×13 inch pan with foil, making sure the foil extends over the edges by at least one inch. Lightly spray foil with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Chop the baking squares and butter into chucks and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted and smooth. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
- In a stand mixer or with electric beaters, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla for 2 minutes. While the mixer is running, slowly add the melted chocolate and beat to combine. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture and mix just until combined. Pour into prepared 9×13 pan.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out mostly clean. Don’t over bake! When brownies are done, cool on a wire rack. When completely cool, put in the fridge to chill (makes the frosting spreading easier).
- Peppermint frostingCombine all frosting ingredients and beat until light and fluffy. Add more milk a teaspoon at a time if needed. Spread evenly over chilled brownies and place back in the fridge to chill again while you do the final step. (I used an offset spatula to spread the frosting.)
- Chocolate GlazePlace chocolate chips and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until just melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then quickly spread on top of brownies.
- Sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top and return to the fridge to cool. When chocolate has hardened, use the edges of the foil to remove the entire sheet of brownies from the pan. Cut into squares and serve.
Video
Notes
More bar cookies you might like:
Almond Toffee Bars, Barbara Bakes
Tropical Magic Bar Cookies, Barbara Bakes
Triple Chip Blondies, Our Best Bites
Peanut Butter Cup Caramel Shortbread Bars, Our Best Bites
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Terri Greene
I’ve made this recipe a few times and every time they turn out amazing! My favorite brownie recipe. The prep time is not accurate, it does take a long time (a few hours) but it is so worth it. They melt in your mouth😋
Melissa Griffiths
Thank you for the review! I’ll get that prep time updated. The input is helpful!
Kathy
I am going to a Christmas party today so I made them last night and left in the fridge overnight. I cheated and used two boxes of brownie mix as my base then followed the recipe for the frosting and topping. Since the brownies were super thick I cut them in about 1.5” squares. I used your advice and used a super long thin knife washing it after each slice. They turned out beautifully. I only cut about half to take to my party today. My question is, can I freeze the remainder until our annual Christmas Eve gathering? I was thinking of freezing the whole half then cutting it into squares after it thaws Christmas Eve.
Melissa Griffiths
How fun! And yes, they freeze great.
M Daiga
Plan time accordingly-40 minutes is way too short! That’s obvious just reading the recipe (30 min bake time alone).
Anne Niemuec
Yuck! Recipe calls for two sticks of butter in the batter but it came out a slushy mess. Had to start over. Please correct the recipe.
Barbara Schieving
Sounds like you left out an ingredient or mixed it wrong. 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) is very common in a 9×13 pan of brownies.
Ally
Can I make these the night before? The reason I ask is that I’ve experienced other recipes where the candy canes got kind of gooey in the fridge overnight. Any experience with this related to this recipe? Thank you!!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Ally – I haven’t tried making these beforehand, but I have had the same experience with having candy canes get kind of gooey overnight on desserts. The original recipe says you can make them ahead of time. So I think since the chocolate layer sets up pretty firmly and isn’t soft like a buttercream icing, that they should stay crunchy. Let me know if you try it.
Faith
Hello. My great-great aunt made these for the four of us girls every summer. We leave bed them and I am passing the recipe down to my grand daughter today. That would be her great-great-great Aunt Molly. This is almost her exact recipe. I love that I am passing it on through the generations.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Faith – recipes are so fun to pass down through the generations. They always bring back fond memories. Thanks for sharing!
c
what are the baking squares?
Barbara Schieving
Baker’s is the most common https://www.target.com/p/baker-39-s-100-cacao-unsweetened-chocolate-baking-bar-4oz/-/A-12969397#lnk=sametab and easiest to find at the grocery store in the baking aisle. My local store often has Ghirardelli as well. https://www.ghirardelli.com/unsweetened-chocolate-100-cacao-baking-bar-%2812-ct—4-oz-ea%29-61828cs
Nell
These were so good! I promised my son a Valentines Day treat and he wanted something with crushed peppermint, so who was I to get picky on what holiday these go with? (I had leftover crushed candy canes from actual Christmas baking). I had peppermint flavor, not extract, so I used only 1/3 of the listed amount; I probably could have gone a little lower. FWIW, it took me more than 30 mins to bake the brownies. I would definitely make these again–although I will be more precise in how I cut them and keep them very small–they are very rich. Thanks!
Barbara Schieving
Glad they were a hit! How fun that he knew exactly what he wanted and that you had leftover candy canes from Christmas. Thanks for sharing your experience subbing peppermint flavor Nell.
Mary
Could I use cocoa powder instead of unsweetened chocolate?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Mary – you could use this brownie recipe as the base https://www.barbarabakes.com/king-arthur-flour-fudge-brownies/ and then the frosting from this recipe.
Lindsay
Hello! Ive made these before..and the problem we had is once the brownies were brought to a party and got to room temperature the frosting started to ooze out and the chocolate layer slid around when it was time to serve them. Do you have any suggestions or modifications that could minimize or prevent this?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Lindsay – it sounds like you’ll want to keep cut them while they’re cold and put on a serving tray. Then keep them cold until it’s time to serve them.
Lina
I live in Denver and modified the recipe to adjust for the altitude and the brownie dough was super thick and then collapsed after taking it out of the oven. The color is also very off. It’s a very light brown instead of dark brown. Any idea what happened? To adjust for the altitude i added flour, reduced sugar, increased the temp, and decreased the time (still took 25 min) which is what I’ve typically done for other recipes at altitude.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Lina – what type of unsweetened baking chocolate did you use?
Lizzy
I cheated and used the Gihardeli brownie mix from Costco! They came out fabulous with the frostings and peppermint sprinkles!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
These look gorgeous mum! I’m all about peppermint this Christmas too 😀 The texture of these brownies looks perfect!