Sunday 14 February 2010

Mint Slice

Recently on Taste forums there has been a few "pimped" biscuits that would, I am sure, make Pimp That Snack proud. First up was a drool worthy wagon wheel, then came a chocolate royal to die for. Both of these were made by the lovely EmmCee over at The Claytons Blog. I had been considering trying the chocolate royal myself however I am not a huge fan of large quantities of marshmallow, it gets way too sweet for me way too quickly, so I scrubbed that idea and put my thinking cap on as to what I could "pimp" myself.

For a long time my favourite chocolate biscuit has been Arnott's Mint Slice. I love the dark chocolate biscuit base, the creamy minty filling and the dark chocolate coating. It seemed that it would be easy enough to recreate on a large scale. I just needed to find the right recipes to make it work.

Not that long ago Taste had added recipes that had been published in Vogue Entertaining + Travel to their enormous range of recipes. When they were first added I went through all of them saving ones to make. I recalled that one was a lovely chocolaty biscuit so I decided to try using it for the base of my giant mint slice. The Very Chocolate Biscuits recipe was just perfect. I was able to form large balls from the dough and pat them out on cookie trays for baking. It is a firm biscuit but with just the right amount of chewiness to it. I made half the recipe and got two 15 cm diameter biscuits plus 12 smaller ones. I made these last night and left them overnight so that they cooled completely.

I moved onto what I would use for the minty filling. It is more of an icing filling than a marshmallow. I remembered years ago making treats with my mother called peppermint creams. They were minty treats that were half dipped in chocolate. Since I hadn't made them since I was a child I wasn't sure how they were made. A search of Taste gave me a couple of recipes, both involving egg white and neither having the best ratings. So I cast my net further and turned to google. Which is where I found a recipe on the lovely blog, Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, that would be perfect. I made half a recipe of this and it was just the perfect amount for my two large biscuits.

Biscuits topped with peppermint cream filling biscuit topped with peppermint cream filling

I had purchased some food-grade mint oil for use in chocolate making and this was perfect for use in the filling instead of the essence. Arnott's say on their packaging that they use pure mint oil in their mint slice so it was only right that I used it in mine.

For the chocolate coating, I didn't have any dark couverture chocolate left but I doubt that I would have used it on this anyway. I like to keep it for special occasions and even though this is kind of special it really is just for me and a couple of other to share so I didn't bother. I was going to use Lindt 70% chocolate to coat it but when I was at the supermarket Whittaker's Chocolate was on special so I purchased a block of their Dark Ghana (72%) and their Bittersweet Dark (42%) and I melted about half of each block. I spooned it over them so that the top and sides were coated and then I put them in the fridge to set.

giant mint slice coated with chocolate giant mint slice coated with chocolate 2

I let them set in the fridge for as long as I could bare it before testing them. It probably could have set a bit longer but I just wanted to try it. It was perfect, it tasted just like the real thing, if not better. I am thinking that with a couverture chocolate it would be divine. I think that I will make my own small mint slices at some stage.

Giant mint slice cut

I will admit the piece I ate was big and after all the testing and trying while making it and the "cleaning up" of the drips of melted chocolate I actually feel quite sick from eating too much sweet stuff, oh dear. I am sure I will feel better in the morning once all that sugar has been processed. :)

7 comments:

  1. Hi Krista,

    Please make sure you enter this wonderful mint slice in the Pimp that Biscuit competition on my blog. http://vipantrywedonthaveablogblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/its-pimp-that-biscuit-month.html

    All you need to do is email me this blog post and then you are entered - easy.

    Emmcee

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  2. Hi Krista,

    This has now been entered into "Pimp that Biscuit" competition.

    Good Luck!

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  3. Hi Krista

    I'd love to make this recipe - it looks divine!
    The link to Fig Jam and Lime Cordial no longer works and i need the recipe for the filling. Please help and post the recipe.

    cheers
    Sharon

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  4. Hi Sharon, it should still work but just in case here is the recipe from Fig Jam & Lime Cordial's blog:

    375g sifted icing sugar
    25g softened unsalted butter
    2 teaspoons pepermint extract
    1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
    60ml heavy cream
    tempered dark chocolate, for dipping

    1. In a stand mixer, combine the sifted icing sugar mixture, butter, extracts, heavy cream and mix on low speed until combined, then beat at medium until the mixture is well blended and creamy.

    2. Shape the mix into a long thin log (mine was about 2.5cm/1″ thick) and wrap in parchment paper, twisting the ends to seal. Chill in the fridge for about an hour.

    3. Unwrap the log and slice it into thin discs. Lay these out on a tray lined with parchment paper and return them to the fridge while you temper your dipping chocolate according to the instructions here.

    4. Dip the peppermint centres in the chocolate and allow them to set on a tray lined with parchment paper. Store the finished chocolates in the fridge and try not to scoff them all at once!

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  5. Thank you soooo much! Will try it this weekend.

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