I love chocolate and peppermint together, especially this time of year. I make my killer hot fudge sauce, posted here in my recipe archives, and serve it over peppermint ice cream. I give my homemade peppermint-chocolate bark to the (very happy!) folks in my husband’s office. The pic show the freshly made bark before and after it was packed up in cellophane gift bags.
I also ready the festive Fudgies cookies to brighten my holiday cookie tray. (All three recipes are from my All-American Dessert Book.) For my yummy, fudgy, very easy Peppermint Fudgies, plus some cookie swap tips, go to my Washington Post story posted here. (For a completely different holiday cookie that’s perfect for the holidays, check out my cranberry drops here .)
During the holiday season, some chocolate manufacturers also sell mint-flavored chocolate morsels, so you can easily give any favorite chocolate chip recipe a festive twist. I’ve found that the morsels work best in chcocolate-chocolate chip doughs. It never hurts to stir in a about a 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract, or, if you have it, a couple drops of peppermint oil.
These days we automatically associate peppermint candy canes with Christmas, but it wasn’t always this way. I went back and looked through some 19th century holiday greeting card collections. Lots of holly, pine boughs, bells and St. Nicks, but not a candy cane in sight! The image here is very typical.
One of the first places I know peppermint canes showed up was in a 1919 American professional candy maker’s recipe. He mentioned that peppermint and lemon were popular flavors. Then he explained how to cut the candy ropes into sticks and to “crook” one end while they were still warm enough to bend.
With or without chocolate, candy canes still don’t seem to be linked with Christmas in Europe. I think they’re really missing out!
I recently used some finely crumbled dried mint in cookies. I ground the mint in a food processor with the sugar so the particles wouldn't be noticeable. That worked really well–and yes, the flavor was excellent. I will say it depends on the particular mint leaves though–I have bought some before that weren't very potent and the results weren't impressive.
I just made Molly's peppermint bark—I don't usually make candy, so it was a delightful little culinary adventure.
And about real mint leaves in place of extract: my friend's wedding cake was real mint—a white cake with crumbled-up dry mint leaves in the batter. (It may have also included some extract—I can't remember exactly.) Absolutely scrumptious.
Absolutely right! I think that the rich flavor comes the natural oils in the leaves. Peppermint oil for candymaking retains all the aroma and flavor, but since there is no oil in the extract it is pretty flat. Infusing cream with fresh leaves does indeed deliver wonderful flavor, too. I used the technique to make a chocolate sorbet last summer (yes, this "sorbet" had cream in it!).
I do love chocolate and peppermint any time of year, but especially at Christmas. I love when you cold infuse cream with mint leaves, it gives such a distinctive flavour compared with mint flavouring!