I know its been a while, and I do apologize. I have been busy baking for the holidays and sticking my freezer full of goodies, which, beginning this week, I will blog about.

But, I wanted to start with this festive recipe, and the inspiration I had to create it….

Two things happened this weekend…

1. My friend Amanda tweeted about finding this amazing candy that she had found Dove Peppermint Bark.  Hubby had to go out and find me some, as I have been having some serious peppermint cravings lately. She’s as enamored by them as I am. Check out what she made with them!

2. We went to Starbucks on Saturday, where I got a decaf, nonfat, peppermint mocha. They have this bad habit of putting out samples of pastries that they are going to start selling in the near future, and this morning, they had bits of a peppermint brownie. I was instantly in love!

So, between the candies and the sample, these were born:

I cannot tell you how good these are!

I had to pack half of the pan up and send them to work with hubby, for fear of eating them all! So far, I have been good – I have only eaten two, and that includes the one I had for breakfast this morning!

As far as how many of the the Dove candies I have eaten? Well, we won’t talk about that…..

Peppermint Cream Cheese Brownies

A Lobster and Fishsticks Creation

brownie portion:

• 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips, divided in half (one half for brownies)
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 4 eggs
• 1 c. butter (2 sticks)
• 1 2/3 c. sugar
• 1 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

cream cheese filling:

• 1 8oz brick of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg

icing/topping:

• 2 tbsp canola oil
• other half of bag of semi sweet chips
• 5-10 Dove Peppermint Bark Candies, chopped

Melt 1/2 bag of semi sweet chips and butter together in a double boiler or microwave

Whisk eggs and sugar until light yellow and fluffy

add extract, cocoa and cooled melted chocolate, along with flour

pour into a greased 9 X 13 pan

mix cream cheese, sugar and egg with a mixer until well blended

add to the top of the unbaked brownie mixture as evenly as possible to cover the whole pan — I added with a spatula a little at a time, and filled in the gaps as I went along

bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, until knife instreted in the center comes out clean

allow to cool slightly on the counter while you melt the remaining chips with canola oil

pour across the warm top and spread evently

scatter chopped candies across and chill until the topping has firmed up

allow to come to room temperature before slicing to prevent the chocolate from cracking.