Two Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Recipes

So keeping with the Chocolate and Peppermint theme, I came across a fabulous recipe in the latest hardcopy issue of Sunset Magazine (and available online). This recipe uses their Chocolate Decadence Cookie recipe that you follow through step 1. Continue with step 2, using your palm to press dough balls into 1/4-in.-thick rounds. Bake as directed and let cool.

Chocolate Peppermint Patty Cookies

In a bowl, mix 3 cups powdered sugar, 4 tbsp. milk, and 3/4 tsp. peppermint extract.

Spread 1 heaping tsp. peppermint icing onto the flat side of 1 cookie.

Top with flat side of a second cookie to form a sandwich, pressing together to squeeze filling to the edge. Roll edge of cookie in crushed and sifted candy canes.

I also found an amazing recipe for Peppermint Bark Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe posted by Garrett McCord on Simply Recipes. For this recipe, you can purchase peppermint bark or make your own.

1 cup of butter

3/4 cup of brown sugar

3/4 cup of white granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup of peppermint bark, broken into little chip size pieces

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2 Cream the butter and sugars together for about two minutes at medium speed or until well incorporated and light in color.

3 Add the egg and the vanilla extract until well incorporated, about a minute. Be sure to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl halfway through.

4 Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Add to the butter mixture slowly, and beating at medium speed, stopping once all of it is incorporated (do not overmix).

5 Fold in the peppermint bark chips.

6 Take small spoonfuls of the dough and roll into one inch sized balls and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for -12 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

If you read my mystery blog Mystery Fanfare, you'll know I love themes. I did a whole week of Chocolate and Peppermint recipes here on Dying for Chocolate from drinks to cookies to cakes and fudge. So, today, I have another theme: Chocolate Cookies with Mints. There's such variety. Rather than reproduce all the recipes here (and I haven't tried the last one), I thought I'd just add links to the cookies--and to my favorite baking blogs. You'll love these recipes and the blogs. Hope you have time to make at least one of these recipes.

I was thrilled to see Chocolate Mint Crinkles with Mint Truffle Kisses on Recipe Girl. Based on this recipe, I picked up a bag of Hershey's Holiday Kisses at Target. Love them right out of the bag, but even better on these cookies. Also the green sprinkles give these cookies a real holiday feel. Each crinkle cookie is crowned with a chocolate mint Kiss. Beautiful photos on the website.

Two Peas and their Pod has a yummy holiday Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies recipe. These are dark chocolate cookies, so the green mint chips contrast very well. Mint chips from Guittard are great, and this recipe is sensational. I'm adding it to my favorite chocolate cookie recipes. I also experimented adding pieces of crushed candy canes with this recipe. Fabulous.

My Baking Addition made Mint Chocolate Cookies that look fabulous. Haven't tried these yet. The recipe calls for Andes mint wafers. Rather than the wafers being in the cookies, they are put on each cookie after they're baked until they've melted, then spread on top. Double deckers!

So many possibilities and who doesn't love chocolate and mint. Remember Girl Scout cookies? Thin Mints were always my favorite.

Chocolate Peppermint Trifle

yummy

I use two recipes. One easy and quick, the other a bit longer but very good.

#1 Chocolate Peppermint Trifle.

This one is fast and easy to make, and you can use the Peppermint Bark you've made or purchased.

1 chocolate cake cut up into cubes

1 large box of chocolate pudding (add a couple of drops of Peppermint Schnapps to the pudding). Make the pudding.

Ghirardelli (or another--Trader Joe's--or your own) Peppermint Bark, chopped into chunks

Whipped Cream (I always whip my own with a little sugar)

Layering: Cake on the bottom, then add a layer of pudding, then a layer of the chopped up Peppermint Bark, then a layer of whipped cream. Then repeat. Top it off with finely crushed candy canes or a bit more chopped up Peppermint Bark.

O.K. I'm not much for proportions, but most trifles aren't. Use what you have, and I'm sure you won't go wrong.

#2 Chocolate Peppermint Trifle

This is the longer of the two recipes, but absolutely delicious. I've adapted Martha Stewart's recipe for Triple-Chocolate Peppermint Trifle. She has a chocolate cake recipe, but you can skip it and make a good chocolate cake from a mix, then follow the rest of this recipe.

You can make the trifle components the day before you assemble the trifle. Be sure and refrigerate everything in separate airtight containers.

FOR THE SYRUP

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup chocolate flavored liqueur, such as Godiva

FOR THE MOUSSE

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

12 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped (the highest quality)

1/2 cup coarsely chopped peppermint candies or candy canes

FOR THE PUDDING

8 ounces chocolate 40-65% cacao, finely chopped

2 cups heavy cream

3 large egg yolks, room temperature

FOR SERVING

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup chopped peppermint candies or candy canes

Make the syrup: Bring sugar and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Let cool completely. Stir in liqueur.

Make the mousse: Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Bring 1 cup cream just to a boil in a small saucepan. Place white chocolate in a food processor; with machine running, pour in hot cream in a slow, steady stream, and process until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl set in ice-water bath. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until thick enough to hold ribbons on surface, about 15 minutes.

Beat remaining 1 1/2 cups cream to nearly stiff peaks. Fold into chocolate mixture, then fold in candies. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until thickened and almost firm, 4 to 6 hours.

Make the pudding: Put chocolate into a large bowl; set aside. Bring cream almost to a boil in a small saucepan. Whisk yolks in a bowl. Pour in hot cream in a slow, steady stream, whisking.

Pour mixture back into pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 1 minute. Pour through a fine sieve over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Set bowl in ice-water bath. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until thick enough to hold ribbons on surface, about 15 minutes. Place plastic wrap directly on surface; refrigerate until set, about 3 hours.

To assemble: Spread one-third of the mousse into bottom of a glass trifle bowl that is 8 to 10 inches in diameter. Top with a cake layer, and brush with half the syrup.

Top with half the pudding, then another third of mousse. Place remaining cake layer on top; brush with remaining syrup. Top with remaining pudding, then mousse. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 12 hours.

Beat cream and sugar until soft peaks form. Top trifle with the whipped cream, and sprinkle with crushed peppermint candy or crushed candy canes.

Belgian Chocolate, Can We Eat Too Much?

We all know that chocolate is good for our health. On the other hand we hear too much will make us fat. After all chocolate is high in calories and fat. I wonder sometimes who decides these things. If we eat belgian chocolate, can we eat too much? I personally don’t think so. I am going to give some reasons why I believe this to be true.

Eat in moderation right, don’t over indulge. I have heard these things since I was a child. I never listened before, why should I listen now? Moderation is defined as freedom from excess. Freedom works both ways, if you have freedom of , you have freedom from. There is a point here I promise. Since eating belgian chocolate is good for our health. Should we not determine for ourselves how healthy we want to be. That means that moderation is a personal choice, ok enough said!

Dark chocolate is good for us, and belgian chocolate is the best. But the opposite of good is bad, right. Well what could be bad about eating belgian chocolate? Not one thing unless you are worried about eating too much. The whole ideal here is to enjoy, worry takes away joy. Then that awful thing called stress comes after you. There goes all the value of eating and enjoying dark chocolate. I mean stress will wind you up tighter then a tension spring. When you are under stress the whole joy of living is gone. Please stop the worrying. Let the myths behind eating belgian chocolate die please.

Then we certainly don’t want to be fat, sorry to the people who battle their weight, please forgive me. I never ever want to hurt anyone, that being said we will move on. All other reasons aside chocolate is pure energy, in this day and age that right there is reason enough to eat chocolate. People with energy can’t sit still, energy means movement. I must tell you that I have so much energy I can’t sit still. Enough about me back to belgian chocolate. When we eat healthy we feel more alive, this gives us the power for exercise, get the picture. Proper diet and exercise raise our metabolism, we start burning off fat. We feel better, the better we feel the better we feel about ourselves.

Our outlook on life can be both mental and physical, one has a bearing on other. What we are looking for is quality in our life. When you settle for anything but the best, you are cheating yourself out of life. Belgian chocolate is the absolute best there is, it covers the mental and the physical. Eating belgian chocolate will help you both mentally and physically and that improves the quality of your life.

In conclusion can we eat too much belgian chocolate? The way I look at it the answer is no. Yes we should use common sense, moderation or whatever you want to call it. That goes without saying on anything in this life. But before we start jumping to any conclusions, let us ask the question, who makes that determination? If we don’t know what is good for us then who does? I will make my own choices in life, after all I am the one held accountable. That is why I eat more dark belgian chocolate! 

By: John W. Lucas

Snickers Chocolate Bar A Short History

Snickers chocolate bar made and marketed US based Private Corporation called Mars, Inc. It is peanut butter nougat with caramel and peanut topping and dairy milk chocolate. Snickers is a popular chocolate bar sold around the globe and its annual sales is over 2 billion dollars.

In the early 1920s, Mars Inc made a very successful chocolate bar called Milky Way. It was the most popular chocolate bar in America between 1927 and 1929. It also allowed the company to develop new recipes for chocolate candies. It took more than three years to develop Snickers and was released in the market in 1930.

Snickers bar was named in the memory of a favorite horse at a farm of Mars family named Snickers. The horse sadly died couple of months before the new product was launched. The farm was named Milky Way Farm and it seemed suitable that the name of the farm should be given to the next chocolate bar.

Snickers was initially made by hand but later machines were used to increase the volumes and old way was no more practiced. During those times, the price of the first Milky Way bar was in 1920 for only 5 cents and the price of the Snickers bar was 20 cents in 1930 when it was first released.

There was not too much change in the Snickers brand during its first forty years. Mars were inspired to produce the Snickers mini candy bar in 1968 which were labeled ‘fun size’ and were which sold in bags having dozen or more.

Since Snickers was first introduced to the market in the 1930s, it had been known as Marathon chocolate in UK. However in the 1990s, Mars Inc consolidated branding exercise for bringing all of the corporations products under unified Mars branding that would not only be recognized locally but also globally.

The Marathon bar in line with global naming was to become Snickers. It featured the phrase ‘Internationally known as Snickers’ for a period of 18 months. Since then, all Marathon candy were branded Snickers in the British Isles.

There was controversy about the Snickers brand in recent years regarding advertisements perceived to be homophobic. It was notably during Super Bowl XLI when two mechanics sharing Snickers accidentally kiss when reaching the middle. It fueled protests that Mars Inc. was promoting discrimination against gay and lesbian people.

In England, there was also a similar controversy that was the result of an advertisement which featured Mr T. He was seen ridiculing a power walker and firing a rifle at his direction telling while him to do something more manly and seen eating Snickers at the same time. Protesters were annoyed on how the power walker was portrayed in an effeminate manner and Mars Limited was accused of homophobia.

Notably, the controversial ad has neither seemed to damage sales or cause any humiliation to the Mars Inc. Snickers brand has been more positively received in other parts of the world. Snickers is a major sponsor of surfing in Australia while it is known in Latin America for supporting youth activities. Snickers chocolate bars have become an important brand of Mars Inc and its sales have continued to increase. 

By: Tauqeer Hassan