It’s probably a cliché, but if there’s one thing I think most South Africans – myself included – miss when they’re abroad it’s Peppermint Crisp. You see, to us it’s not just a chocolate bar, it’s also possibility. There’s the Peppermint Crisp tart, of course (recipe in Journal 4), using the crispy centre as a straw through which to drink chocolate milk, and then there’s crushing it to garnish anything from milkshakes and ice creams to cakes. This recipe is the kind of thing you might expect to find at a bazaar or tuisnywerheid, but that I myself have never seen. I think it’s my new favourite cookie sandwich!
PEPPERMINT CRISP CHOCOLATE COOKIES
TIME: 45 minutes | MAKES: 17 cookies
140 g (150 ml) butter, cut into cubes
200 g (250 ml) brown sugar
200 g (250 ml) white sugar
2 eggs
30 ml milk
100 g (250 ml) cocoa
350 g (625 ml) cake flour
5 ml baking powder
1 ml salt
brown sugar, in which to roll the cookies
2 x 49 g Peppermint Crisp chocolates, finely chopped
1 x 360 g tin caramel
Heat the oven to 170 °C. Place the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a flat beater, then beat until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs and milk together and add to the butter mixture.
Sieve the cocoa, cake flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well until a dough forms.
Then, form balls in the palm of your hand and roll it in brown sugar. Place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and press a hole in the centre of each dough ball.
Fill with the chopped Peppermint Crisp and close with the dough. Place in a tray lined with baking paper and flatten the cookie. If you want all the cookies to be the same size, trim the edges with a cookie cutter. Sprinkle a little brown sugar on top and place in the oven. Bake for 6 – 8 minutes.
Take out of the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking tray. Once they have cooled, sandwich them together with the caramel.