While a long-standing love for the Thin Mint continues, peppermint remains an often overlooked dessert flavor. Which is a shame, our grannies who sip crème de menthe know something about what’s going on. In winter, when the harvest of summer produce has long passed and even apples and pears have begun to lag, a whiff of refreshing mint can put a refreshing end to a heavy holiday meal.
Candy cane season is upon us, but if the minty note of hard peppermints doesn’t excite you, try turning their charms into more enticing sweets instead. More concentrated in flavor than fresh mint and easier to find than extract, I consider peppermint candies a winter pantry staple. Combined with other popular dessert ingredients, any medicinal or “mouthwash” notes tend to dissipate, softening the bitterness of chocolate and caramel and enhancing the luxurious textures we love in custard, butter and cream. When used as a topping in cookies, candy, or ice cream, a handful of chopped peppermint lends a cheerful crunch and color. Below, find three of my favorite simple yet standout peppermint recipes from the FLAVOR archives that I’ll be revisiting this holiday season.
These bite-sized chewy sweets topped with crushed peppermints are one of many versions of kola, a semi-soft caramel-like confection loved throughout Sweden. Get the recipe >
With crumbled candy canes and giant milk chocolate chunks, these rich and chewy dark cookies from the pastry chef Kierin Baldwin are the ultimate in bake sales. “The barley sugar cubes melt slightly as the cookies bake,” she says, “giving them a nice shiny holiday look.” Get the recipe >
FLAVOR’s founding editor, Christopher Hirscheimer, originally developed this Pink Mint Vanilla Peppermint Ice Cream recipe using premium hard candy from the Denver confectioner. Hammond’s. In a pinch, standard candy canes work just fine too. Get the recipe >
source : https://folobooks.com/
