Peppermint Brownies

These peppermint brownies are fudgy and rich, topped with a creamy, easy peppermint frosting. They’re the perfect festive dessert for the holidays!

These peppermint brownies are rich, decadent, and nostalgic! While the peppermint frosting is incredibly easy, the brownies have a few more steps than your run-of-the-mill box mix, but they are totally worth it. Sometimes the best is simple, but sometimes being the best takes a little more work!

If you’re looking for something simpler, my brownie cookies or one bowl brownies are always a hit. But if you want to go full festive and are ready to work, these chocolate peppermint sugar cookies are for you and they make perfect holiday gifts paired with these brownies!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• All-Purpose Flour
• Kosher Salt
• Baking Powder
• Espresso Powder: Instant espresso or instant coffee would work as well; you can also omit the espresso, though it does help intensify the chocolate flavor.
• Butter
• Cocoa Powder: Dutch-processed cocoa powder gives a deep, rich chocolate flavor and a darker color. You can use natural cocoa powder or Hershey’s.
• Dark Chocolate: I use chocolate with 55–70% cocoa solids. This balances sweetness with that intense chocolate flavor. Semi-sweet chocolate works too, but dark is better for cutting through the peppermint and pairs well with buttercream.
• Eggs
• Vanilla Extract
• Granulated Sugar
• Confectioner’s Sugar
• Peppermint Extract: A little goes a long way. Start with ½ teaspoon and taste the frosting—you can always add more.
• Heavy Cream

Variations for Peppermint Brownies

• Mix in some extra flavor! You can mix peppermint candies into the batter or add white chocolate to make these peppermint bark brownies! Add in some nuts or pretzels and shredded chocolate to emulate this coconut peppermint pretzel bark!
• Change the frosting! These brownies would be perfect with cream cheese buttercream frosting, marshmallow frosting, this chocolate fudge glaze, or with this unexpected lemon buttercream frosting!
• Mini brownies! Bake the brownies in mini muffin pans, pipe the frosting on top for some adorable one-bite brownies, perfect for parties!
• Top with crushed candy canes! For extra flavor and crunch, you can top the frosting with crushed candy canes or peppermint candies!

Professional Tips

• Allow the chocolate mixture to cool. After melting the butter and chocolate, let it cool slightly before adding it to the eggs. Too hot, and you’ll end up with scrambled eggs in your batter. If the mixture is really hot, you can place it on top of an ice bath or in the fridge for a few minutes.
• Don’t skip the cooling. These brownies need to cool completely before you add the frosting. Otherwise, the peppermint frosting can melt right off the still-warm brownies.
• Use a metal pan. Metal baking dishes conduct heat better and help you get that flaky top crust. Glass or ceramic baking dishes will still work, but metal is ideal.

How to Make Peppermint Brownies

Use these instructions to make this peppermint brownie recipe! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Prepare the brownies:

Step 1: Prepare the pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare your pan with criss-crossed parchment paper. Let it overhang to create a handle (photo 1).

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and espresso powder; set aside (photo 2).

Step 3: Melt chocolate and butter. Combine the butter, dark chocolate, and cocoa powder in a bowl and melt it over boiling water (photo 3).

Make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl, or, if you have a gas stove, that your flame isn’t too high; both can cause the cocoa powder to burn before the chocolate and butter melt.

Step 4: Whip eggs to ribbon stage. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, vanilla, and sugar until light and fluffy. Like with these brown butter brownies you want the eggs to reach the ribbon stage (photo 4).

You know you’ve reached the ribbon stage when you let the egg foam run off the whisk as you move it over the bowl, and it sits on top of the rest of the batter briefly before disappearing back into the foam.

Step 5: Stream in the chocolate. With the mixer on low, slowly pour the melted chocolate mixture into the eggs. Make sure the chocolate isn’t too hot; we don’t want to cook the eggs (photo 5).

Step 6: Fold the batter. Once the chocolate mixture is fully incorporated, fold in the flour (photo 6).

Bake the brownies:

Step 7: Spread into pan. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan and spread it with an offset or rubber spatula (photo 7).

Step 8: Bake in a preheated oven for 16–18 minutes, or until the center of the brownie has puffed and the crackled top reaches the center. You can also test with a toothpick to see if it comes out with a few moist crumbs (photo 8).

Step 9: Cool completely before icing or removing from the pan (photo 9).

Prepare the frosting:

Step 10: Start the buttercream. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, confectioner’s sugar, and extract until light and smooth. Switch to the whisk attachment.

Step 11: Add cream and whisk on high until light and fluffy and white (photos 10 & 11).

Step 12: Frost your chilled brownies and serve! You can add crushed candy canes or peppermint candies for extra peppermint flavor (photo 12).

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

I hope you enjoyed this festive brownie recipe. Check out our other brownies and bars recipes like these 7 layer bars or these gingerbread blondies!