Sensational Peppermint Pattie Brownies

I cut this recipe off the back of a bag of Easter candy. And I knew that I needed to come up with an excuse ASAP to make these. The YW came over to my house on Tuesday night for their activity - perfect!! I whipped up a batch, served them to the YW and then promptly had to get them out of my house because they are evil! I mean . . . oh so good.

Since Tuesday was April Fool's Day I thought I'd add a little something special to my brownies - I was feeling especially sneaky this year. I could never ruin such a beautiful recipe with an overdose of salt or something like that so I just opted for a nice-big-shiny-silver quarter baked right into my minty, chocolately goodness. (Don't worry I washed it a billion times before I stuck it in!)

I carefully cut my brownies and put them on a platter. I forgot which one was the special one as I served them and then it took about 10 minutes for the lucky victim to speak up. I was getting worried since there was only one brownie left on the platter - could that be the special one sitting there untouched?! Oh no. My wonderful friend Megan who is also a YW counselor spotted the shiny culprit in her brownie and started to laugh. She wasn't sure at first if one of my kids had made an addition to my brownies while I wasn't looking and then she realize that she had been tricked! I was hoping that the victim would just take a big bite into the quarter, but this ended up being just as funny. Thanks Megan and sorry! ;) I admit that I played enough tricks that by the end of the day MJH was getting quite suspicious of me. Although my son CMH asked if I would trick him some more tomorrow!

Sensational Peppermint Pattie Brownies
(Beware, these brownies are so far from lo-fat that this recipe should have come straight from Paula Deen or the Pioneer Woman)

24 small (1 1/2-inch) YORK peppermint patties
1 1/2 C butter or margarine, melted
3 C sugar
1 Tb. vanilla extract
5 eggs
2 C flour
1 C cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 for glass baking dish). Remove the wrappers from the peppermint patties. Grease a 9x13 pan. Stir together the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the eggs; beat until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Reserve 2 cups of batter. Spread remaining batter in prepared pan. Arrange peppermint patties six-by-four, evenly, in a single layer in the pan. Spoon a dollop of batter on each pattie and then spread to cover. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until brownies start to pull away from the pan. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. These would even be good baked a day ahead of when you plan to serve them.