Give me Chocolates!

I wish I had had time to post this BEFORE Valentine's Day, but here it is today (And I should be writing a paper - oh well). Saturday, my friend Grace and I decided we were going to attempt to make homemade York peppermint patties as Valentine's Day treats! We found the recipe on Eat, Live, Run and thought it just looked delicious. But I must tell you, as much as I love to cook, bake, whatever - I am not Jenna. I am not Jenna, Paula Deen or Cecilia Villaveces.  I am "oops I think I forgot that ingredient at the store" and "how does that taste, I-think-I'll stick-my-finger-in-it." So, there is your preface.


But first, here is the recipe from Eat, Live, Run:
Homemade Peppermint Patties from Gourmet:
makes about 20 patties

2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 1/2 T light corn syrup

1 1/2 T water

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 T shortening

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate

2 T butter

Mix together the confectioner’s sugar, corn syrup, water, peppermint extract and shortening using an electric mixture until combined (mixture will be crumbly). 

Scoop out and knead on a confectioner’s sugar-dusted counter top until the mixture is a smooth white ball. Roll out to 1/4th inch thick using a rolling pin and freeze for ten minutes.

Using small circular cookie cutters (or hearts like me), punch circles into the peppermint “dough”. Freeze again for ten more minutes.

Melt the chocolate and butter over low heat. Drop the peppermints in and smooth the chocolate over the tops to coat well. Lay each patty on wax paper and freeze until firm, about twenty minutes. 

Now, for those of you who are cooks more like me… here are a few tips on this recipe:
1) "mixture will be crumbly" means it will look exactly like dippin' dots. The key here is to put the dry ingredient in BEFORE you put the corn syrup and other wet ingredients in. If you don't do this, everything will stick to the bottom of your mixer. 

2) "melt choc. and butter over low heat" should read "rub to sticks together under the pot and don't let it get hotter than that" - people, it is verrrryyy difficult to not turn your chocolate into fudge. Therefore, if it were me (and it was two bags of morsels later), just buy semi-sweet baker's chocolate and melt it over a double-boiler like you're making candy. Don't add butter and you won't even face that problem. It's probably healthier and taste great even without butter.

*needless to say, these are REALLY EASY to make with a few extra tips here and there. I used a heart-shaped cookie-cutter for vday, but these would be delicious anytime of year.
(I also put them in a gift bag like this. Gotta love free PDFS)
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Other fun posts: 
SNAIL MAIL
3 EGGS & A LITTLE SUGAR
ALL FOR SOUP