Looking for a fun homemade treat for your Valentine? How about some Peppermint Patty Hearts?
The filling is snowy white with refreshing cool peppermint. The outside is a delicious dark chocolate candy coating sprinkled with some sparkling edible fairy dust.
I cut mine out in a cute heart shape, perfect for Valentines gift giving. These peppermint patties are way better that the typical foil wrapped circles you can get from the store.
Here is how you can make your own:
You can find the entire recipe for Peppermint Patties here. I followed the basic instructions but added 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract for an extra-peppermint punch.
I omitted the vegetable shortening from my filling because I don’t like that slick mouth feeling from the shortening. I just added a little extra powder sugar as needed to create a dough.
I also used Guittard Dark Chocolate Candy Coating instead of the regular chocolate. Candy Coating doesn’t have to be tempered like regular chocolate and never gets a “bloom” of gray haze covering the candy. I used a 2″ heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out my patties and rolled the “dough” to 1/4″ thickness.
Start with the filling: beat 2 1/4 cups of the powdered sugar, corn syrup, water, peppermint extract, shortening if you are using, and a pinch of salt in an electric mixer until combined like a cookie dough.
Taste you dough and add more peppermint extract if needed. Knead the dough on a board dusted with powdered sugar until smooth and roll out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Freeze the dough until firm, about 1/2 hour, then cut out shapes. Re-roll dough and continue to cut out shapes. Return cut outs to the freezer.
Melting the chocolate candy coating: I used two bags of Guittard Dark Chocolate candy coating and heated it very slowly in a double boiler over low heat until smooth.
You don’t want the chocolate to be to hot or it will melt your peppermint patty dough. Take the dough cut out from the freezer and quickly coat them in the chocolate using a fork and move to silpat or parchment lined pan. When all the cut outs are coated in chocolate lightly sprinkle shimmery edible disco dust (I like to call it fairy dust!) over the top of the cut outs and place in the refrigerator to set.
Instead of disco dust you could try a little sparkling sugar for some shimmer.
I used a decorative punch to create a lacy border on some simple waxed paper squares and arranged the peppermint patty hearts in each square to fill a small candy box. I made two layers of candies to fill an small candy box. Tie box with a pretty bow and give to your favorite Valentine!
