Peppermint (Penguin) Patties

This week I really struggled for some reason. I picked out a chocolate mint candy recipe. But when I tried to make it, this is what I ended up with:



Fail.

This was supposed to be mint candy squares. But it failed to set up for me, even after hours in the fridge. Obviously, I left out something vitally important, I'm just not sure what. Oh well. I still haven’t decided what to do with it, maybe try to salvage it into mint truffles.

My second attempt was a recipe for peppermint patties. Things went well until I decided to add food coloring to make the filling a festive green color. After rummaging around the kitchen, I finally found my food coloring. I proceed to combine the red and blue dyes to achieve a jolly green hue. Did you catch that? Red and blue. As I mixed the colors, I was confused because I was getting purple not green. I thought my mistake was that I had too much blue, I needed to add more red. Nope, still not green. I go to grab the back of the box to see what I was doing wrong. I felt like an idiot when I realized that red+blue=purple and I should have done blue+yellow. And the real kicker is that I had a bottle of green food coloring in the box; I didn’t even need to mix colors. Here I am, the daughter of an artist/art teacher mother, and I couldn’t even remember the basic color wheel. I practically grew up in my mom's art studio. How embarrassing.

I do have an excuse, though. My GI doctor enrolled me in a clinical trial and the new medication I’m on is really affecting my mind. I thought I was crazy before, that was nothing compared to this. It’s a struggle for me to focus my mind on things. Perhaps this is why my first attempt at a minty dessert was a total disaster. Luckily, I’m only on this drug for 8 weeks. Then I can return to my original, slightly confused, state.

Finally, I attempted my third try at a mint treat; a new peppermint patty recipe that was simple; just a few ingredients. Third time’s the charm, right? Not quite for me. I wouldn’t call it a complete success, but at least this time it was my results were a bit more visually appealing. I used mini cookie cutters to make bite-sized mints. I haven’t had a peppermint pattie in years and found these surprisingly refreshing. I just wish they looked better. Oh well, maybe I’ll have better luck next week's treat.



Homemade Peppermint Patties
Printer-friendly recipe

1 c powdered sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1 tsp water
½ Tbl shortening, softened
pinch of salt

~5 oz chocolate, for coating (depends on how thick you make your outer coating)

Mix all ingredients (except chocolate) at medium speed until just combined. At this point the dough is really crumbly; pinch it together with your fingers.

Continue pinching together dough and kneading until smooth.

for cutting shapes:
Roll out between two sheets of parchment (or waxed) paper. Cut into shapes, place onto waxed paper lined baking sheet. Freeze til firm, ~15 minutes before dipping.

for patties:
Take ~Tbl chunks of dough. Roll into ball, then flatten with a measuring cup or glass into patties. Freeze ~15 minutes, til firm.

dipping:
I just microwaved ¼ c semi-sweet chocolate chips with a dab of shortening in 30 second intervals til melted. Then I dipped the shapes in the chocolate, pulled them out with a fork, and put them on a sheet of waxed paper. When I ran out of chocolate I microwaved another ¼ c chocolate chips with a dab of shortening.




Source: halved from epicurious