Peppermint Patties and Junior Mints

Here's a recipe for delicious success: Homemade Peppermint Patties! These much beloved minty sweets are so simple to make that you'll be surprised at how quickly and effortlessly you can put them together. They can even be made vegan, if you are so inclined.

I have also included a variation for Junior Mints towards the end of this tutorial.

So, make your own candy and control the ingredients, save money, and, most importantly, have FUN!

Step 1: Ingredients and Equipment

To make these patties (1 batch yields about 20-30) you'll need:

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 T.  light corn syrup, honey, or agave (your choice, they all work great!)
1 1/2 T. water
1 T. cream cheese (for the vegan option, simply omit the cream cheese. It is still plenty creamy without it!)
1/2 t. peppermint extract
1/4 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 T. shortening

2 cups semisweet morsels (go darker if you prefer; 65-75% chocolate works great too.)
2 T. butter (or shortening if you want to go vegan.)

Equipment you'll need:

Mixing Bowl
Cookie Sheet (not pictured)
Rolling Pin
Electric Mixer
Small  (1-1 1/2 inches in diameter) circular cookie cutter (A shot glass turned upside down will work in a pinch.)
Spatula
Wax paper, parchment paper or silicone baking mat
Double Boiler or microwave
Measuring spoons/cups
Fork or dipping utensil (not pictured)

Comments

[gusew]

Came out great!

[cmatichuk]

I used natural honey, doubled the peppermint, and went with 70% chocolate. I also added a little extra vanilla and butter in the chocolate. They came out great!

[Justin Mai]

I am on an extremely restricted allergy-diet. There is butter called "Earth Balance" that is basically made without dairy or allergy-inducing nuts. It might be a good alternative for vegans.

[NTBugtraq]

I made these last weekend and they're a huge hit. Instead of patties, however, I made balls, and they turned out like French Creams. My brother insisted I send him the recipe instantly after tasting them as he's been unable to find french creams for 4 years now.

FWIW, I divided the dough prior to adding the peppermint. I divided it into 3 batches, then processed one for peppermint (with streaks of green dye), another with strawberry extract (and a red streak), and finally the last as grape (with red+blue dye well mixed, making it purple of course.)

I could not manage to get my belgian chocolate to be runny enough to spoon, and it was even hard to put the balls onto a fork and swirl in the chocolate. So my balls ended up having considerably more chocolate on them than originally anticipated. That said, everyone agreed the extra milk chocolate was not too much.

Thanks very much kitchenwench!!

[ebailey-kelly]

Can you use regular sugar

[farmerboyk]

Im making these soon with my mom I hope :D

[NGrant]

The key to getting these to look good is to dip quickly so there isn't a ton of chocolate to spill all over and to use a candy safe paintbrush to make a little swirl when it is cooling on your cooling rack or tray. The swirl will hide imperfections from the dip and the tool marks from dipping. This adds a lot of extra work though so I suggest just letting them look however as the taste will make up for it.

[yourworstnightmare]

i would give you a hug if i could! THESE ARE GREAT!

[dswentik]

Since there is no cook time or rising, uniform thickness doesn't seem that important for this application. Would it be easier to roll the dough into a log and slice rounds off of that? If you are worried about uniformity after that, you could lay out the rounds and press them down slightly with a cookie sheet to get them to the same thickness. But slicing a log would avoid all the dough scraps that come from using a cutter.

[thomas the metal man]

I love Peppermint patties, but I am diabetic. Can stevia in the raw work for the powdered sugar? Also, can I sub coconut oil for the shortening? Thanks

[jumpingpea]

I haven't tried stevia, but I used Splenda, with good results. I used the shortening and dark chocolate for dipping. My girlfriend does not like chocolate ( never heard of that before) so she made these and used carob chips to melt for dipping.

[turrilynn]

These are some of my kids' favorites! We will have to try this recipe...and we won't wait for a holiday! hahahahaha!

[Khozo]

Ohh, my mom loves these. It's a perfect recipe to give her.

[BIlly WIngnut]

Recipe tastes great and was easy to follow. Well done!

Quick question based on my miserable execution of the well done recipe: What's the best tool and technique for the dipping? While I certainly performed well at the "drop the patty into the chocolate" and "remove it slobbered in chocolate" parts, it's not the prettiest, most even or most functional final result, and certainly no where near the polished version in the pictures. For my work: Taste - pass. Presentation - Fail. At least I got the right part right if I couldn't get both. :-)

Any tips from the stylistic confectioners out there? Thanks.

[kitchenwench]

Hi BIlly WIngnut ,
Thanks for the compliments! The ones in the pictures were the best of the 3 dozen or so that I made-plenty of mine were not very photogenic, to say the least. :)

When I made my patties, I dipped them with a tool that looks rather like the one in this picture: http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/product.aspx?ShopId=39&CatId=582&SubCatId=616&productId=629094

It is really important to let as much chocolate drip off as possible before laying the patties onto the wax paper. If you don't have a tool like the one above to dip them with, you could use two forks to hold the patty suspended over the melting bowl to let this happen. Otherwise, the chocolate will pool around the patty on the sides and be way too thin on the top.

Hope this helps!
~kitchenwench

[PikeMinnow]

Get your hands chilled by holding some ice cubes- keep your patty from melting. Then dip it manually after letting them sit, and I'd try using a spoon or other small implement that isn't sharp to carefully smooth out the coating after dipping. Maybe add more in thin areas and smooth out thick areas.

[adimapamida]

These are freakin' delicious. Thanks!!

[kborkey]

You know, I REALLY don't have time for this today!!!!!

These look soooooooooooooo good, that I'm gonna hafta skip Hoovering the house and make these instead!

This is all YOUR fault, and I THANK YOU for it!!

[kitchenwench]

Yep, been there, done that. Nothing like being held at gunpoint (spatula point?) by a recipe begging to be made. :) Let me know how they turn out.

Enjoy!
~Kitchenwench

[S189]

These look so good! Thank you for the instructable! Can't wait to try them.

[criggie]

Eat enough peppermint at once and you'll feel it when you pee. Is a very weird feeling which fades away.

[roland985]

I second that

[rhicaro]

Cream cheese, butter, and shortening have different flavors (shortening is the most neutral). They also have different mouth-feel. You can substitute butter or shortening for the cream cheese, but the flavor and texture may be different (not in a bad way, just different from each other).

Lard is also very different. It is made from animal sources (typically pork fat). The other fats are from vegetable sources (cream cheese is dairy, of course). If you do use lard, make sure it is purified. Don't just use beef or pork drippings from cooking unless you want your candy to taste like meat. Lard used to be used in Oreo cookies which is why they tasted so good. Now Oreos contain another hydrogenated fat (like coconut oil or palm oil). Yes, it's not good for you, but so long as you don't eat it by the pound, you're probably OK.

[XofHope]

These look so good! I'm not from the U.S. so I'd never heard of them before, but since I love mint now I really have to try them! Thank you so much for sharing this!
I don't know what shortening is, but after a quick search I learned that it's basically any fat that is solid at room temperature. So, is it ok to use butter or lard to make the dough instead of said shortening?

[mmykle]

This is a good list: http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--200/food-substitutions.asp#fats

It recomends:1 cup minus 2 tbsp lard OR
1 1/8 cups butter or margarine (decrease salt by 1/2 tsp)

I'd rather use butter because it's healthier.

[mmykle]

(removed by author or community request)

[XofHope]

Thank you! That link sure is useful also for a lot other things I often have trouble finding!

[faelenor]

Mmmm, looks good! Here's a tip if you want a better look. You have to temper the chocolate before dipping. You have all the steps here: 
http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/ht/temperchoc.htm

By following these steps, you'll get beautiful shiny chocolates!

[Underwater Chef]

I'm a sucker for Peppermint Patties!

[Knightsabre]

Looks great!

You mention substituting shortening for the butter to make them vegan, would you do the same for the cream cheese? Just asking for clarification, since you don't specify.

[kitchenwench]

Hi Knightsabre,
Thanks for the question! Yes, if I were making them vegan, I would just leave out the cream cheese. The original recipe did not call for cream cheese at all, I added it in. I will edit the recipe to make that point more clear.
Thanks!
-kitchenwench

[Knightsabre]

Ah, ok. Sounds good!

Thanks!

[mousewrites]

Yep, I came here to ask this, too.

I would think that shortening wouldn't produce the same creaminess, but it's only 2 tablespoons, so maybe it would work?

[kitchenwench]

Hi mousewrites,
Yes, just go without the cream cheese for the vegan option. I have made them both ways before, and the people I gave them to couldn't tell the difference between the varieties-still just as yummy without that bit of cream cheese!
Please Let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanks!
-kitchenwench

[Knightsabre]

That's what I was wondering...I'm no confectioner, so I have no idea about viable substitutions. :)

[mman1506]

i'll be sure to make this one

[mikeasaurus]

mmmm peppermint patties, my favourite!