This time of year, Gammy (my totally awesome grandma) always brings out this tiered serving dish with old-timey Christmas trees painted on it. Each of the tiers display an assortment Christmas-colored candies like M&Ms (plain M&M’s in Christmas colors taste infinitely better than regular, amiright?), those spearmint gummy trees coated in sugar, and always always fun-sized, silver foil-wrapped York Peppermint Patties.
I’ve wanted to make homemade peppermint patties since I first realized that was a thing about 2 Christmases ago. Honestly, I don’t know what’s taken me so dang long. Besides the dough being a bit sticky, these little morsels were the easiest and most fun treats I’ve made this holiday season so far.
There are some recipes that call for butter or shortening or coconut oil but this one just uses egg whites…and a generous helping of powdered sugar.
As a life-long fan of the original York Peppermint Patty, I can attest to the fact that these are oh so close to the real thing. The snap of the dark chocolate and the slight crunch of the whipped peppermint filling (which is pretty much the edible equivalent to stepping into freshly fallen snow) – gaahhh. I can’t deal. I’m on a chocolate peppermint high.
SO, in conclusion, peppermint & chocolate together taste like Christmas and snow and you should totally show Santa you care by making him some homemade treats like these.
For more ideas for sweets for Santa, head over to The Hungry Australian and check out this month’s Christmasy Sweet Adventures blog hop.
Peppermint Patties
adapted from Yum Sugar
makes approximately 35 patties
- 3 ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup egg whites
- ¼ peppermint extract
- 1 teaspoon water
- 12 oz. dark chocolate, melted
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine the powdered sugar, egg whites, 1 teaspoon water, and peppermint extract in a large bowl. Mix on low speed with a hand mixer until smooth.
Increase the speed to high and beat until the mixture forms a stiff dough (if the mixture becomes too stiff, add extra water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time and beat until smooth).
Put the mixture on a work surface dusted with powdered sugar and roll it into a log about 12-inches long and 1 1/4-inches in diameter. The dough can be sticky, so coat your hands in powdered sugar to roll out the dough.
Slice the log into 1/4 to 1/2-inch pieces, form them into balls and flatten into discs. Arrange in single layers on the prepared baking sheets. Let the candies dry, uncovered, at room temperature for 3 hours or overnight.
Put the chocolate and vegetable oil in a small bowl and set it over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is smooth and melted. Dip each candy into the melted chocolate and turn to coat in chocolate. (I used two forks to do this.)
Return them to the parchment paper and refrigerate until the chocolate has set, about 2 hours.
I stored these in the fridge because, well, it’s hot here.
