After Eight Mint Brownies

 

 

 

My After Eight brownies are a mint lover’s dream come true. They are filled with sweet homemade fondant peppered with mint chocolates, and topped with a gloriously rich ganache. They are adaptable, and can be made with regular or spelt flour.

 

 

 

 

My After Eight brownies

What are After Eight Mints?

What can I substitute for After Eights?

Making the fondant layer

Chocolate ganache topping

More Christmas recipes

 

 

 

 

 

My After Eight brownies

I am no stranger to using After Eights in cakes, and I have a beautiful chocolate cake in my e-book, Baking with Spelt. That time, I used the mint chocolates in the cake, and topped it off with chocolates that melted on top. This time around, it’s a brownie on steroids.  

My After Eight dessert has a fudgy brownie base. Then comes a thin layer of sweet, soft fondant. Topping it all off, is a rich chocolate ganache. The end result is a sweet, decadent brownie that is just perfect for the festive season. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are After Eights?

There is something very sublime about After Eights. Almost paper thin, they are square, filled with sweet sugar fondant, and encased in rich, dark chocolate. Each chocolate comes in its own individual, silky paper wrapper, giving the sensation of eating something a little special every time you take one.

The official name of the chocolates is After Eight Mint Thins, but everybody and their dog calls them simply After Eights. When they were first launched by Rowntree’s in the UK in 1962, the idea was to create a refined after-dinner mint. Something elegant enough to present at the end of a meal in place of dessert. Their slim, uniform shape made them perfect for serving with coffee, and their dark-chocolate-and-mint combination felt suitably grown-up for the era.

Over time, they became more than just an after-dinner sweet. By the 1970s and 80s, After Eights had found their way into British Christmas traditions. Part of this was clever marketing, but it was also practical: they were sold in smart, rectangular boxes that looked gift-worthy and stacked neatly among other festive treats. Families began keeping a box on the sideboard or coffee table during the holidays, ready for guests, or for nibbling while watching Christmas television.

Today, many people in the UK associate that distinctive dark-green box with the season itself. Opening a packet often feels like the unofficial start of Christmas.

 

 

What can I substitute for After Eight mints?

It pains me to realise that some of you could be living in a world without After Eights. However, that does not mean you need to miss out on these beauties. A quick search online shows that you can often buy After Eights through Amazon or specialist British food shops, which is the easiest solution if you want the real deal.

If you live in Canada, Walmart stocks something very similar called Our Finest Dark Chocolate Mint Thins. They have the same slim shape and the same fondant-and-dark-chocolate combination. For those of you in the US, Andes Mints are probably the closest match. They are slightly smaller and a bit creamier, but they have that familiar chocolate–mint flavour that works perfectly in most recipes.

Many supermarkets also offer their own versions of dark chocolate mint thins, especially around the holidays. They may not have the iconic green box, but they usually taste remarkably close. If you see anything labelled “mint thins” or “mint crisps”, it is worth giving them a try.

And if getting hold of any kind of dark chocolate mint thins truly isn’t an option, you can make your own substitute with very little effort. Chop up a good dark chocolate and flavour your fondant with a drop or two of mint extract. Once it’s mixed through, it will taste exactly the same in your recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making the fondant layer

Fondant is the soft, creamy centre found inside an After Eight, and it has been used in traditional confectionery for more than a century. Originally, fondant was made by beating sugar syrup until it became smooth. It was popular in classic sweets because it could be easily flavoured and shaped, creating a luxurious texture without complex ingredients.

In this recipe, After Eights are everywhere. Some of them are melted with the chocolate and stirred into the brownie batter. Others are frozen and blitzed into crumbs and sprinkled over the finished result. Unlike traditional After Eights, my fondant also contains crumbs, adding extra texture and little bursts of minty chocolate in every bite.

Making the fondant couldn’t be simpler. Milk and icing (powdered) sugar are combined to form a thick paste, and the mint crumbs are stirred in. When it has thickened up a little, it is spread evenly over the cooled brownie base and placed in the fridge for about an hour to set before the ganache is added. 

 

 

The chocolate ganache topping

The ganache is the final layer that brings everything together with a glossy, silky finish. In the UK, we use whipping cream with a 40% fat content. This is what my readers in the US might know as heavy cream. This rich cream gives ganache its smooth, velvety texture and helps it set beautifully.

For this recipe, equal parts milk chocolate and dark chocolate were slowly melted together with the cream, either carefully in a microwave or over a bain-marie, until smooth and silky. The mixture was whisked gently to combine, then poured evenly over the set fondant layer.

The remaining frozen After Eight crumbs were sprinkled on top, adding a little extra crunch and bursts of minty chocolate. The ganache was left to set for about an hour, creating a firm, glossy layer that slices beautifully into squares. Once fully set, the brownies were ready to enjoy, each piece layered with rich chocolate, creamy mint fondant, and the subtle crunch of After Eight crumbs.