Peppermint Cream Patties

Here's a lovely quick and easy recipe that I'd seen in a children's cookbook a while back and I'd been dying to try out. I finally got around to making them and they're soooo good.

I was pretty excited about trying these out since it's the first time I've ever attempted to make any type of candy or anything half resembling candies. I'm quite satisfied with how they turned out.

Ingredients

-41/2 cups (450g) confectioner's sugar, sifted (also known as icing sugar I had a moment of duh in the grocery store with that one This was after I paced the baking aisle for a good 10 minutes and staring at the sugar. )

-8-9 tbsp (120-135ml) sweetened condensed milk

-few drops peppermint extract or essence (I kind of just poured some of it in since I wanted mine minty)

-few drops green food coloring (I used about 8-10 of them, maybe more. I lost count.)

-6 oz(150g) dark chocolate (When buying chocolate to melt it's usually better to buy those wafer coin thingies or really thin chocolate. It'll melt quicker since you're supposed to melt it at a low heat.)


Step 1:
Place the confectioners' sugar in a large bowl and add the condensed milk. Stir until you have a crumbly mixture

Step 2:
Add a few drops of the peppermint extract or essence, and a few drops of the green food coloring. Knead until you have a smooth firm mixture

Step 3:
Dust the work surface with a little confectioners' sugar and roll out to 1/2in (5mm) thick. Cut into rounds with a small cookie cutter. Leave to dry on baking parchment (or wax paper). I let mine sit about 10-15 minutes until they were firm. I basically did up the dishes that I'd accumulated and prepared everything for the chocolate step.

Step 4:
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, then dip each cream into the melted chocolate. Leave to set. I put them in the fridge as it helps them set a lot quicker
***You can also melt the chocolate in a double-boiler or simply directly in a pot (easiest if you ask me). Remember to melt the chocolate at minimal heat so you don't burn it.

I added crushed candy cane to the edges of some of my patties, and on others I added little holly candies. A few others I covered them entirely in chocolate to immitate After Eight's. I gave mine a Christmas feel to the decorations because I was basically making these as a prototype for Christmas. I wanted to see if they tasted good and how easy they were to make. The entire thing took me about 30 minutes.

Next time I'll make the patties bite-size and I might use different flavors (like orange extract) Chocolate orange sounds like it could be good. Or strawberry. I may be making strawberry ones this week. Naturally if I change the flavoring I'll adjust the food coloring to match.

I found this recipe in "Cookbook for Girls" written by Dorling Kindersley. Unfortunately I hadn't actually gotten the proper bibliographic information on it.