Chocolate Peppermint Creams

I've wanted to try this recipe for ages, being a HUGE fan of the mint & chocolate combination. I was obsessed with after dinner mints as a kid and would eat a whole pack of After Eights in one go. I can eat a whole pack of Mint Slices no problems, it's quite disgusting.

I took some really terrible photos of these biscuits because I thought they looked so damn ugly after I made them that I wasn't sure if I was going to post about it. In fact, I was calling them star-shaped poos for the rest of the day.

So I got really lazy because I spent ages making dinner the other night but I really wanted to make these biscuits too, so I pressed on. Of course by the end when I had to dip my mint cream filled biscuits in melted chocolate I was lazy and rushed and didn't drip them off for long enough so the chocolate was an ugly mess. But when I brought them to work the next day the reaction was unexpected. Re said they were the best things I had ever made. Someone even said they were better than sex HAHA! They disappeared fast and I was lucky to save one for Asian Gaga who was so in love with them that she made me promise to make an entire batch for her Christmas present. I would have made more but the chocolate biscuits on their own were so cute and yummy that I kept snacking on them while I was waiting for them to cool!

Chocolate Peppermint Creams
(from the Essential Baking Cookbook)

65g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (60g) caster sugar
1/2 cup (60g) plain flour
1/3 cup (40g) self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
300g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar in a small bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Add the sifted flours and cocoa alternatively with the milk. Mix with a knife until the mixture forms a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and gather together into a rough ball. Cut the dough in half.

Roll each half between two sheets of baking paper to 2mm thick. Slide onto a tray and refrigerate for 15 minutes, or until firm. Cut the dough into rounds using a 4cm round cutter (obviously I used a flower shaped cutter), re-rolling the dough scraps and cutting more rounds. Place on the trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 10 minutes or until firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the peppermint cream:
1 egg white
1 3/4 cup (215g) icing sugar, sifted
2-3 drops peppermint essense or oil, to taste

Put the egg white in a small, clean, dry bowl. Beat in the icing sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, using electric beaters on low speed. Add more icing sugar, if necessary, until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough onto a surface dusted with icing sugar and knead in enough icing sugar so that the dough is not sticky. Knead in the peppermint essence.

Roll a teaspoon of peppermint cream into a ball, and flatten slightly. Sandwich between 2 chocolate biscuits, pressing together to spead the peppermint to the edges. Repeat with the remaining filling and chocolate biscuits, keepping the filling covered as you work.

For the topping, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a double boiler. Take off the heat but keep the bowl over the hot water while you work. Use a fork to dip the biscuits into the chocolate and allow any ecess to drain away. Place on a baking paper lined tray to set.

DO NOT DO WHAT I DID AND REST THEM ON THEIR SIDES. At first I thought this was a neat solution, but they ended up all wonky because I had so much excess chocolate on the biscuits and thats why I think they looked like little poos. If you lie them flat they'll be much prettier.

Hopefully the next time I make these (which will probably be sooner than Christmas) I will have the energy to make them look prettier :) I think the mint icing and the chocolate biscuits in this recipe make it 10 times better than a regular Mint Slice.