Healthy & Delicious: Homemade Peppermint Patties
This Recipe First Appeared In: This Week's Tasty 10
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
[Photograph: Kristen Swensson]
When I'm jonesing for chocolate and my only options come from a cornerstore candy display, I immediately search out the York Peppermint Patties. At 140 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per pop, they're a good bit lighter than almost any other commercially available chocolate bar. Plus, they're delicious and make your breath smell way better than a Snickers.
Last year, I learned from The Kitchn that you can make the minty pucks at home, using real ingredients and your refrigerator. They taste cooler and fresher than the storebought candy, and if executed correctly, will impress the pants off your Christmas guests.
One step omitted from The Kitchn's version, but which I believe to be key, is allowing the chocolate mixture to cool to room temperature before dipping. I had big melting problems the first time I tried the recipe, making it incredibly messy. Eliminating the extra heat eliminates this problem.
Beyond that, I've made Peppermint Patties with dark and bittersweet chocolate. While both are delicious, I prefer dark.
You should know there's about a third of the chocolate mixture left after the dipping phase, too. I believe that puts each patty around 100 calories and 5 grams of fat per serving, stretching the boundaries of light food. But December means the holidays and Cookie Month on Serious Eats, so go with me here. At the very least, your breath will rule. At the very most, they're a Christmas miracle.
Peppermint Patties
Makes about 20 mini patties.
Adapted from The Kitchn.
Ingredients
- 1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 8 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
Procedures
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1
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2
Line a large cookie sheet with wax paper. Using a teaspoon or your hands, roll mixture into small balls (about 1-inch or so). Place on cookie sheet and flatten each one into a patty. Once all are made, place in fridge for 20 minutes.
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3
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4
When 20 minutes are up, remove patties from fridge. Using two forks, dunk them one by one into chocolate mixture and roll around until totally coated. Remove and place back on wax paper. When all are finished, place the cookie sheet in the fridge and leave for a few hours, until chocolate hardens.
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5
Eat. Store leftovers in the fridge, sealed in a container and separated by wax paper.
33 comments:
OOOOOOOH....lovely! I'm definitely trying these.
juliebugsmama at 9:58AM on 12/21/09
I'm a big fan of homemade versions of classic chocolates/candies - who needs the preservatives/stabilizers? Although I'd pass on the shortening in the coating and just temper the chocolate properly - shortening itself is not really a very natural substance.
Also, what's with StandMixer (as opposed to stand mixer)? Is this supposed to be a reference to a KitchenAid mixer?
charm city cupcake at 9:59AM on 12/21/09
Charm City Cupcake - it is "stand mixer." I have no idea why I typed that, unless I was subconsciously switching the capitalization of the brand name and the product. Weird.
Kristen Swensson at 10:19AM on 12/21/09
These cookies look delicious! I will definitely try this recipe out and I love the fact that it's a pretty light chocolate fix :-)
Kanwal
http://ask-kanwal.blogspot.com
kanwal81 at 10:26AM on 12/21/09
Wow, these sound amazing! I am sorry I only saw them today and I have finished a lot of my holiday baking already.
Katerina at 12:28PM on 12/21/09
I make these every year, and people are always impressed. My recipe, however, uses condensed milk instead of heavy cream. Sometimes I make some of them milk chocolate, some semisweet, some dark. And I put red or green dye in the filling, for festive-ness.
lo82070 at 1:11PM on 12/21/09
my husband loves peppermint patties! definitely will have to make him some of these for his birthday.
NiamhAgain at 3:26PM on 12/21/09
THAAAAAAAANNNNKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU
soooooo excited to do these at some point very soon
Ilana Z at 4:18PM on 12/21/09
Would it be a sin if I left them in the fridge overnight and dipped them in chocolate in the morning?
veggieout at 7:45PM on 12/21/09
Bittersweet chocolate is dark chocolate. Maybe you meant semisweet or milk chocolate?
Saria at 2:22PM on 12/22/09
Saria, you're exactly right, and I'm a dummy. The first time around, I think I made them with a bar that was labeled "dark chocolate," while the second time, it was with Ghirardelli's bittersweet chocolate chips. I assumed the dark bar had the higher percentage of cocoa, when really, they were probably about the same. I guess I just liked the bar itself better (thought it was only a slight preference). Thank you for pointing that out, and bakers, take note.
Veggieout, I think it would only make 'em better.
Kristen Swensson at 4:28PM on 12/22/09
These look sooooo good! I have fond memories of peppermint patties... I used to go over to my great-grandmother's house and fill up on them! I'm super excited about trying this recipe!
katherinegb at 12:29AM on 12/23/09
Ok, so I made these last night, and it was almost a disaster that I pulled back from the brink of destruction.
I made a batch of the filling and followed the recipe to a t. That turned out something more like buttercream frosting, there was no way I could roll it up into balls by hands. So I decided to double it, and add extra sugar to the 2nd batch for more "pasty" consistency, it was ok, but again, not hard enough to roll up.
I ended up spooning them out onto the cookie sheet and chilling them, so they have a less uniform shape to them.
I had to add so much shortening to the chocolate to get it to a smooth consistency, and even still it wasn't runny enough to dip the patties into it, and my patties were so soft that the test patty fell apart in the chocolate. So I spooned the chocolate over the patties and left it back in the fridge to chill. They look like mint turtles. My friend/sous chef dubbed them "Murtles"
They aren't hard enough to ever keep them unfridged.
Tastewise they are ok, and one of my roommates declared that it tasted "exactly like a peppermint patty should"
Even with the doubled filling we still had leftover chocolate. I think I may reference this chocolate combo as a quick ganache next time I get cake-happy.
dauphine at 11:32AM on 12/23/09
Dear @Kristen Swanson, The Kitchn, and the whole team at Serious Eats,
These peppermint patties have restored my family's faith in me. I think they love me more now. I have a double batch cooling in the fridge now, and have friends I haven't spoken to in years asking me for some. (I made the mistake of facebook-bragging about them). You have made this a very minty Merry Christmas indeed.
Love,
veggieout
veggieout at 12:38PM on 12/23/09
I cant wait to try these! I make a similar cookie with Ritz crackers dipped in mint chocolate candy melts. They taste just like Thin Mint cookies and are highly addictive!
Claire Sellers at 2:49PM on 12/23/09
Thank you! I just made a batch, and they were so easy and delicious that I promptly made two more. My friends are going to love these. My children love these. Heck, I love these.
Merry Christmas!
Kiwords at 10:42PM on 12/23/09
dauphine: I haven't tried this recipe, but perhaps the powdered sugar in the recipe (100% sugar) should be labeled as confectioner's sugar (sugar + cornstarch). The cornstarch would definitely help to bind the mixture and make it more paste like.
nataku at 12:22AM on 12/24/09
Made them tonight, will taste tomorrow. It was a bit frustrating at times, specifically when dipping in the chocolate. However, I'll give credit for any frustrations to the lovely warm, but extremely humid, weather in Louisiana right now. I added a little extra confectioner's sugar and had to put the peppermint circles back in the fridge after every four dips.
candy_girl at 12:39AM on 12/24/09
I made these last year from the recipe on TheKitchn and loved them! I scraped the filling onto a piece of waxed paper and rolled it into a log, chilled it, then just sliced the log into patties which was really easy.The dipping is a little futzy (I don't use shortening, I just tempered the chocolate using these awesome instructions), but they were great.
But do you mean a "double boiler," not a "double BROILER?"
littlebluehen at 12:55AM on 12/24/09
@nataku and littlebluehen= Yes! Thank you for noting both of those tweaks. The recipe has been updated.
Erin Zimmer at 10:58AM on 12/24/09
Thanks, Erin, littlebluehen, and nataku! Double broiling the chocolate would have been a bad idea.
Kristen Swensson at 11:33AM on 12/24/09
Just made these. Put each one in a muffin cup and put them in little tupperware for xmas gifts. They look so cute. Drizzled half with white chocolate and half sprinkled with red and green sugar. FESTIVE! and they taste amazing. Like York always wanted them to be! Made the recipe x 4 and got about 65 1 1/2 inch patties.
Katywren at 10:08PM on 12/24/09
I make Peppermint Patties fairly regularly, but my usual method is just tweaks on this even simpler recipe by Anne:
Christmas Candy: Peppermint Patties
[usual tweaks, ratio differences to alter filling texture, and a touch extra of the extracts.]
pckizer at 12:38AM on 12/25/09
Thank you for this recipe! I love peppermint patties but I don't think I'll be able to eat a store-bought version after tasting these!
Photo of my attempt
Geoffrey Grosenbach at 3:13AM on 12/25/09
Couldn't butter be subbed for the shortening in the chocolate dip?
dmcavanagh at 9:39AM on 12/25/09
I don't mean to be a post-holiday Grinch, but what is healthy about these?
And what's actually bad about a York Peppermint Pattie? (Ingredients, BTW: sugar, semisweet chocolate (chocolate, sugar, lactose, cocoa, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin and PGPR, emulsifiers, and vanillin), corn syrup, invert sugar, egg whites, and oil of peppermint)
Also, using properly tempered chocolate means that you can omit the vegetable shortening (which is simply a way to make mockolate at home, why would you do that?). It's not that hard and certainly healthier than eating extra Crisco.
Cybele at 9:12PM on 12/29/09
Coupla notes:
Instead of flattening all those mint balls by hand, just gently press them between two similarly-sized baking pans with parchment paper on top and bottom.
Watch out that your chocolate doesn't firm up too quickly. It IS winter, and room temperature is cooler than normal. a few turns in the microwave for 10 seconds each will bring it back to handling consistency.
(And in response to Cybele: what's "actually bad" about a York pattie? CORN SYRUP. That stuff is poison.)
Mark Shaw at 1:15AM on 12/31/09
Mark Shaw - you mean all corn syrup or just High Fructose Corn Syrup ... because they're two different things? Plain corn syrup is just glucose syrup. Are you saying a dash of corn syrup (which is basically used as a moist binder along with the egg whites) is worse than vegetable shortening?
Cybele at 11:00AM on 12/31/09
I wouldn't trust any corn syrup that didn't come out of the Karo bottle in my pantry. And some people are allergic to corn, so I rarely use even that.
I don't see much wrong with a tablespoon of Crisco in eight ounces of chocolate, though. And health issues quite aside, these are very, very good - much better than what you can buy out of the candy machine.
(Another note on the patties: resist the temptation to load up the chocolate. It should be a thin shell, not a thick coating - I made that mistake this first time.)
Mark Shaw at 11:53AM on 01/01/10
"I don't see much wrong with a tablespoon of Crisco in eight ounces of chocolate, though."
If you understood how to temper chocolate you would know that it is completely unnecessary.
Yes, some people have allergies. I'm allergic to walnuts. I don't call them poison. Confectioners sugar usually has corn starch added to it to avoid clumping.
Cybele at 10:06PM on 01/02/10
"If you understood how to temper chocolate you would know that it is completely unnecessary."
Ooh, sassy! Of course I know how to temper chocolate. Why take the trouble for something quick and simple like this?
And the problem with HFCS isn't allergies. Not using even Karo most of the time because of family and friends who have corn allergies was an aside.
Finally: pbtbtttt!
Mark Shaw at 2:14PM on 01/06/10
You're the one who said that the problem with corn syrup was allergies, not me. Corn syrup is not the same thing as High Fructose Corn Sweetener. (They may be made from the same thing.)
The fact that you advocate using the shortcut of adding oil to chocolate yet are against the use of corn syrup is baffling.
It's all candy ... it's all pretty useless as a point of nutrition, this is not a "healthy recipe."
It's also baffling why I'm responding, as your final comment makes it clear that you don't want to have a conversation nor even a debate.
Cybele at 12:40PM on 01/11/10
These are lovely...
But there is no need to get the mixer out. I just added a 1/2 tsp of cornstarch and used my hands to combine the cookie mixture. Worked very well. Thank for the recipe. I am always craving minty dark chocolate.
anonymous at 8:57AM on 01/30/10