mint chocolate ice cream bars.

I created this dish from some leftover brownies.  Is there such a thing?  Sadly some homemade brownies I made got a little too hard for my liking, but I didn't want to toss them. They were a very tasty crust for these ice cream bars.

Put left over brownies into the food processor.  If you don't have leftover brownies, you could also use oreos.  Add 1 stick melted butter if need to get the brownies or oreos to bind together. Press into the bottom of any pan.  I used 6 leftover brownies and 1 stick of butter and it fit a 13 by 9 dish nicely. (Make sure your dish can fit in your freezer).

Take vanilla ice cream out of the freezer and let it thaw a bit before working with it.  Mix together 3 c. vanilla ice cream, 1/2 t. peppermint extract, and 1 t. vanilla extract.  Add a few drops of green food coloring, if desired.  Beat until ice cream is mint green color and all ingredients blended well.  Spread over the brownie crust.  Cover and put in freezer until ice cream is frozen again.  Once frozen, you can top with melted chocolate.

Melt 1 c. chocolate (bars or chips) and 1/2 stick butter over a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler, you can put it in a saucepan on very low heat. Stir often. When the chocolate is melted and smooth, take off heat and let cool for a few minutes.  Pull your ice cream bars out of the freezer.  Drizzle chocolate over top with a fork.  Recover and freeze until ready to serve.

Before serving let the ice cream bars sit out of the freezer for 10 minutes. This will make it much easier to cut.

Homemade Brownies-

4 squares unsweetened chocolate

3/4 c. (1 stick plus 1/2 stick) butter

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla extract

1 c. all purposed white flour or 7/8 c. whole wheat flour**

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 13 by 9 oven safe dish.  Over low heat melt chocolate and butter together.  Stir frequently.  Add sugar.  When blended, take off heat.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla.  Stir in flour.  When all ingredients are well blended, pour into greased 13 by 9 dish.  Bake for 30 minutes.  

Unless you have a husband who doesn't like chocolate (like mine- weirdo:) ), you'll have to hide these brownies in order to have leftover for ice cream bars.

**In the past when making brownies, I would use an all purpose white flour.  In my attempts to make sweets a little healthier, I have started substituting whole wheat flour for traditional white flour.  The ratio is 7/8 c. whole wheat flour to 1 c. white flour when substituting whole wheat flour in recipes written for white flour.

xx.

Val