These Peppermint Truffle Bars are loaded with peppermint flavor, perfect for the holiday season or year-round!
If you like chocolate peppermint (or know someone who does), this is the recipe for you. A shortbread base is topped with a dense layer of soft chocolaty goodness infused with peppermint extract.
As with many chocolate recipes, this one has a deeper flavor if you make it a day ahead. Build that info your baking plans.
To make for neat bars, I cut off the edges. These are not to be wasted, of course–set them aside for select people to enjoy, and present the neatly-edged bars to a more discriminating audience.
Modified from Best Holiday Recipes from Taste of Home 2011.
These Peppermint Truffle Bars are loaded with peppermint flavor, perfect for the holiday season or year-round! Modified from Best Holiday Recipes from Taste of Home 2011.
Course: Dessert, Snack
Keyword: bars, chocolate, mint
Author: Beth Cato
Equipment
9×13 pan
nonstick spray
wax paper
heavy glass
Ingredients
Bottom crust
3/4cupunsalted butter cold and cubed (1 1/2 sticks butter)
1 1/2cupsall-purpose flour
3/4cupconfectioners’ sugar
1/4teaspoonsalt
1/2teaspoonvanilla extract
Chocolate layer
16ouncessemisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
3/4cupmilk or half & half
1/2cupunsalted butter cubed
4large eggs room temperature
2/3cupwhite sugar
1teaspoonpeppermint extract
Instructions
Line a 13×9 baking pan with foil and apply nonstick spray. Preheat oven at 325-degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Add vanilla. Dice in the butter. Mix ingredients until the butter resembles fine crumbs. Distribute into prepared pan. Use a piece of waxed paper and a heavy glass to compress the dough into a firm layer.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges are lightly brown. In the meantime, start mixing the top layer.
In a large pot, combine the semisweet chocolate, milk, and butter and cook on low heat until the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool for a bit.
In a large bowl, beat eggs and white sugar until it is smooth and thick. Add the peppermint extract and the chocolate mixture. Beat until incorporated and smooth. Pour over the bottom crust.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the middle is set and passes the toothpick test. Cool in pan on a rack, then place in fridge to set for several hours or overnight.
Use foil to lift contents onto a cutting board. Slice into bars. Store in sealed container or individually wrapped in the fridge.
If you want to find these links (and more, as I add them), the book does have its own permanent page on BethCato.com. That can be found through the top menu.
I’m taking part in Giftmas again this year, an annual effort coordinated by Rhonda Parrish for the benefit of the Edmonton Food Bank. I don’t need to state the reasons why helping food banks is very important right now. We need to help each other out. A few bucks will help fill bellies and add warmth to the world through kindness. If you’re American like me, your dollars will deliver extra bang with each buck, too. This year our goal is $1,000 and if we reach it that will provide 3,000 meals to help make the season bright.
The Giftmas theme this time around is A Light in the Darkness.
Hi. I deal with chronic depression and anxiety. I know darkness. I know doubt. I’m agoraphobic. I already know this next year will be an incredibly hard one for me.
I’m thankful for what I have, though. That includes this big orange goof.
Finn is a trickster god in feline form. He loves everybody. He thinks laps were made for him, and he curls up there in a perfect Finnamon Roll. He is why we can’t leave out plastic bags or hang fake pine boughs along the stairs. If a bed is being made, he wants the sheets and blankets to land over him, creating a cozy Finn cave. I don’t know how he doesn’t suffocate.
Then there’s Luke. My thicc boi. He’s a cannonball in tabby skin. He fell in love with me in the shelter and considers me his human. He’s usually sleeping near my computer. If I go out shopping or need to cook, his anxiety flare up, and he gets frantic until I’m back at my computer–where he’ll then roll and purr and drool for 10 minutes until he tires himself out again.
These guys are my lights. I love them so much.
You can be someone else’s light, too. Again, please donate to the Edmonton Food Bank if you can, or to a local shelter in need. Remember that animal shelters often need donations of blankets, food, and litter as well.
It’s been too long since I featured a maple recipe. Let’s finish off November with Maple-Walnut Cookies!
The texture of these cookies is pillowy and light. Overall, they are soft and chewy, though the bottom is crisp thanks to the pan, while the turbinado sugar creates a crust on top.
Walnut and maple are such a great combination. Here, the walnut half crowns each cookie and not only adds great flavor and texture, but they just plain look lovely.
These pillowy cookies sparkle thanks to their sugary crowns, the maple and nutty flavors perfection together.
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cookies, maple, walnuts
Author: Beth Cato
Equipment
parchment paper
tablespoon scoop
Ingredients
2 1/2cupsall-purpose flour
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
1/2teaspoonsalt
1/2cupunsalted butter (1 stick) room temperature
2/3cupbrown sugar packed
1/2cuppure maple syrup
1large egg
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1/2teaspoonmaple flavor
1/2cupturbinado sugar
3/4cupwalnut halves
Instructions
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in maple syrup, egg, vanilla, and maple flavor. The ingredients may look curdled.
Gradually add in the dry ingredients, scraping the bottom of the large bowl a few times. Chill bowl in fridge for about 30 minutes to reduce stickiness.
Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Measure out the turbinado sugar in a small bowl.
Roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough in the turbinado sugar. Set spaced out on baking sheet. Press a walnut half into the top of each round.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Cookies should be set but still soft. Let rest on sheet for 10 minutes before transitioning to a cooling rack.