To prepare, preheat your oven to 350 and line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper with two sides sticking out on either side.

To begin, add your butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat it together with a hand mixer for several minutes, so it's nice and creamy. Add your eggs, vanilla and peppermint extract and lightly beat them into the mixture.

In a separate mixing bowl, add your flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Whisk together thoroughly till there are no cocoa powder clumps. Alternatively, pour your cocoa powder through a fine mesh strainer over your bowl, to remove the clumps, then stir all your ingredients together.

Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and gently fold them together, till you have one smooth and consistent brownie batter. Lightly fold your chocolate chips into the batter.

Pour your brownie batter into your pan and spread it across the bottom of the pan, till almost the whole bottom of the pan is covered.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Insert a toothpick in to see if the brownies are done. If your looking for more fudgy brownies, be sure to only bake them for 30 minutes.

Let cool, then remove the brownies from the pan and cut them into 16 brownies.

If you would like, you can melt more chocolate chips (about 1/4 cup) and drizzle the chocolate across the tops of the brownies. Then, sprinkle crushed up candy canes on top. Simple and festive!