Altoid Brownies With A Hint Of Sea Salt

I am an avid fan of David Lebovitz so when I came across his recipe for Altoid Brownies I knew I had to make them. These brownies are rich and fudgey with a hint of mint and sea salt. I usually use box mixes since I find them no different to brownies made from scratch. With David Lebovitz recipe, these brownies turned out fudgey and gooey without leaving that sickly film in your mouth you sometimes get with chocolate. It might be due to the mint counterbalancing the sweetness, or that the recipe calls for melted chocolate along with cocoa, but most likely it's because David Lebovitz is a baking rockstar. No more box-mixes for me.

Ingredients list

Crush Altoids or any other type of mint into fine powder.

Melt chocolate and butter over simmering water till chocolate is smooth and glossy.

Gently fold the dry ingredients with the melted chocolate mixture. Do not overmix. 

Gooey, fudgey, minty and tasty. 

Altoid Brownies with a hint of Sea Salt

Ingredients
1 teaspoon sea salt (I like use coarse sea salt that's moderately crushed) 
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dark, unsweetened cocoa powder 
1/2 cup (120g) packed dark brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional: 1/4-1/2 teaspoon pure mint extract
1 to 1½ packages of Altoid peppermints, (80-120g), crushed into powder. 


Method
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking pan with foil and grease with butter or cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl over pan of simmering water, melt chocolate and butter.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, salt and cocoa powder.
4. Once chocolate is melted and smooth, whisk in both sugars over simmering water.
5. Remove from heat, cool slightly and whisk in three eggs completely then whisk in the other two along with vanilla.
6. Sprinkle the flour mixture and crushed Altoids over the top and gently fold the dry ingredients in with a spatula until just combined; there might be a trace of flour in places. Do not overmix.
7. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes (David Lebovitz calls for 30 minutes, but I like to under bake my brownies).
8. Store brownies in air-tight container. These brownies are best consumed the next day.

Note
1. Best way to crush Altoids is to place in ziplock bag and hammer with a rolling pin etc. Warning: this is very therapeutic and addicting.
2. Feel free to experiment with any other type of mint or flavouring. My next batch will be with chili powder.

Recipe adapted from davidlebovitz.com