Peppermint Patties

Posted December 13, 2010

Find more about gift , chocolate , peppermint patties , candy , Holiday

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Honestly, I go back and forth about the crushed candies on top, and ended up leaving most of them plain. I like how they look, but it a little bit interrupts the experience of minty smoothness. Not that it matters that much either way, I do realize.

The mint dough is a lot of fun, and cutting it is a great job for a child.

A tray full of minty white disks is an almost inexplicably satisfying thing.

As is the tray full of chocolate-coated ones. All those dribs and drabs fall off later, when you lift the chilled disks from the tray.

I know you can practically feel them snapping so mintily under your teeth.

Mr. Rainbow Sherbet making his labels.

He is so unsloppy that I can't believe he's my child.

And voila. So pretty.

Bar Bark. This is what I was imagining when I was hungrily lying in bed last night: a candy bark that would be the usual layer of chocolate, but then covered with every conceivable kind of salty bar snack--peanuts and corn nuts, wasabi peas, pretzels and goldfish crackers and Chex mix, even Fritos and barbecue potato chips. How fantastic would that be? I actually think I'm going to try making some with just barbecue potato chips. And maybe also corn nuts. And Fritos.

But, somehow, that just doesn't seem like the right thing to give the teachers at the kids' school: here's this superfreaky chocolate weirdness that goes really well with a nice ginormous glass of beer! And some of you reminded me that I had already appended my pretzel bark recipe to the stew. (I actually just made that stew again, and it was so brownly delicious it was insane. Have I already mentioned how we accidentally led Anni astray from her 20 years of vegetarianism? Oops!)

Anways: thus the peppermint patties, which have been our go-to holiday treat on and off for years. I love making them because they have that nearly magical we made these? quality of being the most excellent version of a thing that is already so beloved even in its store-bought state. Plus, if I can speak plainly, they're really inexpensive to make--especially if you already have the peppermint extract. If you don't already have the extract, it's worth buying because sometimes you might want to put a few drops in your hot chocolate or your hot fudge. Or maybe you want to make candy canes! Not that I've ever made candy canes, given that it looks like it takes forever and could result in a not-as-good-as-storebought version of something I don't like to begin with. (But feel free to prove me wrong! Send me your homemade candy canes in the mail, and I will post here about the debunking of my foolish beliefs.)

Once you've made your peppermint patties, there's the issue of presentation. A lot of the dramatic oomph of homemade treats comes, and I'm sorry to sound so shallow, in the way they're packaged. In an old shoebox with wads of used tissue paper, they're just not going to delight the same way they will if you splurge on the take-out containers from Michael's (or, if you're smart and plan ahead, from the take-out supply company, where it's $5 for fifty of them) and decorate them with nice labels or stickers and string or ribbons. I've also had good luck packaging them in clear candy bags with decorated cardstock tags stapled across the top. I bet you could even stack up a row of them and wrap them in colorful tissue paper to look like a Christmas cracker--the kind that pops open to reveal a toy, not, like, a red and green Saltine--and that would be festive and inexpensive. Silver-paper wrappers would be nice too, of course, and could evoke that whole York "get the sensation" sensation you had when the commercial came on in the middle of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special you were watching.

Let me know if you have other thoughts on these. When I was working on this recipe for FamilyFun (it's in the November issue, along with a bunch of other awesome gifts you can make), it was July, and honestly--the thought of Christmas was almost nauseating. I had to have a fan blowing in the kitchen so they wouldn't melt while I was making them, and then I had to go to the Christmas Tree Shop to brainstorm various holiday wrapping ideas. Who goes to the Christmas Tree Shop in July? Well, lots of people, it turns out, not just people on funky off-season magazine deadlines. Who knew?

Peppermint Patties
Makes about 3 dozen
Active time: 45 minutes; total time: 1 1/2 hours

These are just like you think they're going to be, only a little better.

1 1-pound box confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon shortening
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
10 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
6 Starlight mints, unwrapped and crushed in a Ziploc with a rolling pin (optional)

Sift the confectioners' sugar into the bowl of a standing electric mixer and beat in the shortening on medium speed. In a small bowl stir together the water, corn syrup, lemon juice, and extract, then beat it into the sugar mixture until combined.

Knead the mixture into a ball (it will be very stiff), then use the bottom of a glass pie plate and firm, even pressure to flatten the ball between sheets of wax paper into a 9-inch disk that's about 1/4 inch thick (if you try doing this with a rolling pin, you will be much more frustrated, I assure you). Place the disk (with the wax paper) on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm, around 15 minutes.

Place the frozen disk on a cutting surface, remove and reserve the wax paper, and cover the cookie sheet with parchment. Use a 1-inch round cutter to cut out patties, moving them to the parchment as they're cut. Gather the scraps into a ball, use the pie plate and wax paper to flatten it again, and cut more rounds until all of the filling is used. Freeze the rounds for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water. Coat the patties one at a time, balancing each on a fork and dipping (use another fork as needed to flip the patty in the chocolate), then shaking excess chocolate and scraping the bottom of the fork against the edge of the bowl before returning the coated patty to the parchment. Make a ridged pattern one each patty by pressing a fork into the chocolate and lifting it straight up. Reheat the chocolate as necessary until all the patties are coated, then allow them to sit until set, about 1 hour. Optional: sprinkle patties, as they're coated, with the crushed mints.

Peppermint patties keep, layered between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container and chilled, 1 month. (Like they'll really last a month. I don't even know why I write these things.)

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Peppermint Patties

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picsmamma says:

January 03, 2011

I made these and they went over well. The finished patties were definitely messy, but the process wasn't that messy. Like some others, I had to add tiny bits of water to the dough before it was ready. I'll definitely try grownup1234's suggestions. As it was, I did use a plate to hold the "unchocolated" disks in the freezer. I had to leave some disks in the freezer overnight and they were so easy to coat the next day.

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pfomby says:

December 24, 2010

Yum! I made these today and they turned out fairly well (if appearance isn't a factor) - thanks to other readers for helpful tips! I live in a dry climate and had to add about 3 tsp of water to the peppermint filling. Rather than kneading the filling into a single ball, I made 3 smaller balls, which I found more manageable. I also used a fairly flat slotted spoon to dip the filling in the melted chocolate - made it easier to balance the filling when it was in the bowl. Following lovestocookmom's advice, I splurged on Guittard bittersweet chocolate discs,and they did melt beautifully.

Thanks for the great recipe! Strangely, just the day before I read it, I commented to my family that I didn't know how peppermint patties were made. Another of life's mysteries solved!

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grownup1234 says:

December 23, 2010

Made these tonight and they are delish! Here's my $0.02 on the dipping step. 1) make sure the cut outs are really cold, 2) I used 3 plates to hold the cut outs so 2 could be in freezer while I was working with the third 3) I used my fingers and just dipped half of each one in chocolate, scraped excess off on side of bowl, placed back on parchment and put plate back in freezer. Then when all were half dipped, I started again with first place and dipped seccond side of each - found this much, much faster than trying to work with my dipping forks and do entire peppermint at once. Mine seemed to get melty while I was futzing around trying to get complete coverage with chocolate.

Thanks for a fabulous recipe - would never have thought of making peppermints!

Susan

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Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Peppermint Patties

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