Category Archives: chocolate

by

Patty’s peppermint chocolate cups

I challenge you to find a Patty who doesn’t like peppermint. She does not exist! And if she does, I don’t want to meet her. Tonight I’m trying a new method of making candy, and we’ll see if it works out. I am making this recipe up as I go so let’s hope it turns out.

I based this idea off my chocolate peanut butter cups, and used my favourite Belgian chocolate, to make delicious candies with a bold peppermint flavour. I tried to use a new technique to coat the chocolate but you’ll have to wait and see if it was worth it.

Time required: 1 hr

Yields: 10 (ten!) candies

Cost per portion: $3.60

Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $36.00 with Belgian chocolate, about $14.00 with generic

Special kitchen implements I used:

  • digital scale
  • serrated knife
  • mini baking cups
  • large container with lid

Ingredients:

  • 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate
  • 3 oz white chocolate
  • 3 oz mint semi-sweet Chipits
  • 1-2 drops peppermint extract

Instructions:

1. Used a serrated blade to chop the semi-sweet chocolate and set it aside.  Chop and weigh the white chocolate and place that into a separate container with the peppermint chocolate Chipits.

2. Transfer chocolate to microwave-safe bowls.  Microwave the semi-sweet for 2.5 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.

3. Spoon the chocolate into the mini muffin liners, the 3 on the left are the new technique I tried.

For the first three cups, I used a pastry brush to paint the chocolate over the bottom and sides, planning to fill the middle with the white-peppermint chocolate, then top with another layer of semi-sweet. But I realized I didn’t have enough chocolate, so after painting three I gave up, and just put a dollop of chocolate into the others.

Remember to gently shake each cup so the chocolate settles smoothly.

4. Chill for 20 min.

5. Melt the white chocolate and peppermint Chipits on High for 3.5 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir until evenly combined.

6. Stir in peppermint extract.

7. Spoon melted mixture on top of chilled cups.

8. Refrigerate another 30 minutes.

Remove wrapper and…

Can you see the thin layer of semi-sweet at the bottom of the cup?

Verdict:

OMG yum. Really loving these. Wish I had made more. Will do this again with triple the quantities.

Boyfriend said, “Heaven. I live in Heaven. It smells like Heaven, it tastes like Heaven. If I could picture in my mind what it’s like to be in Heaven, that is it.”

And what happened to the three painted cups?

Yeesh, that idea was a wash! I think would have worked better with a thicker coating of chocolate and a top layer.

Playlist: grumbling Boyfriend

by

Belgian chocolate peanut butter cups

Chocolate and peanut butter belong together.  This post is dedicated to Older Sister #3, who is a chocoholic. I’d send you some if they would survive the mail. Maybe we can make these the next time I visit.

When you’re working with chocolate, go big or go home.  I used my favourite Callebaut Belgian chocolate for these, although you could use bakers chocolate squares if you wanted to.

This recipe is also from the Chocolate! book by Good Housekeeping, which is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

Peanut butter is one of those thing I like having around just in case I’ m hard up for a sandwich. This may seem surprising because I hate nuts. Yet the flavour of peanut butter, I love!

I don’t recall a time when I didn’t like peanut butter. I used to take the jar with a spoon downstairs on Saturday morning to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in the simple days when April O’Neil was edgy, Fun House still played at lunch time, and I could hop on my Pogo ball around the block. Of course this was also the age when I thought that a bowl of brown sugar (and just brown sugar) was a suitable breakfast. Ah, childhood!

Good to know before you start:

This recipe is supposed to yield 60 pieces. I got 30, and I didn’t overfill the cups.  YMMV.

Once again, chocolate will seize if it comes into contact with moisture, so melt on low heat, uncovered, using dry pans and utensils.

Time required: 2 days (1.5 hrs + overnight chilling)

Yields: at least 30 portions

Cost per portion:$1.19 using Belgian chocolate, $0.64 using bakers chocolate

Total cost if you have none of the ingredients: $35.71 using Belgian chocolate, $19.00 using bakers chocolate

Special kitchen implements I used: 

  • kitchen scale
  • mini baking cups

Ingredients:

  • 9 oz white chocolate
  • 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1½ C creamy peanut butter (divided into two ¾C portions)
  • 1⅓ C salted peanuts, crushed

Step 1 – use a serrated blade to chop the chocolates, setting each into a separate container.  (In retrospect I could have placed the chocolate directly into the sauce pans but didn’t think of that. The containers were pre-weighed.)

Step 2 – place the mini baking cups in a container (or three).

Step 3 – in a sauce pan on Low, melt the white chocolate and half of the peanut butter, stirring until smooth.

Step 4 – spoon mixture into baking cups, filling about halfway.  Refrigerate 10 minutes.  Oops, forgot to take a picture of this step. I ended up removing half of the baking cups as I ran out of chocolate.

Step 5 – in a fresh sauce pan, on Low, melt semi-sweet chocolate and half of the peanut butter, again stirring until smooth.

Step 6 – pour the semi-sweet chocolate onto the chilled cups in the fridge.  If desired, sprinkle crushed nuts on the top.   ( I placed some peanuts into a plastic bag and crushed them with my rolling pin.)

Step 7 – chill overnight and enjoy.

Verdict: Purely on taste I think these are great.

Visually I’m annoyed with myself; the top is not smooth. I suspect this happened because I chilled them immediately after pouring the semi-sweet chocolate onto the white, next time I’ll shake the container and let the semi-sweet layer settle and smooth out before chilling. I do like the contrast between layers and the perfect ridges though.

I put nuts on half of them for Boyfriend. This was also a strategy to prevent myself from eating too many. I hate nuts! He’s not home yet so I’ll have to wait to hear his opinion.

The candies themselves are quite small, I’m not sure how you’re supposed to get 60 out of this.

Sorry about the picture quality today, while I was making these my digital camera batteries died, so I took the pictures with my cell phone, but forgot the flash was off.

Playlist: Duran Duran

(Edited May 5 to add price of Belgian chocolate).