Chocolate Peppermint Pie - National Pie Day - Pink Saturday

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I've been looking for a new dessert to serve on Valentine's Day. While searching for recipes for National Pie Day, which coincidentally is today, I found this lovely Chocolate Peppermint Pie on the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board web site. It would be perfect for Valentine's Day and I knew I had to try it. Any recipe that combines white and dark chocolate with peppermint and cream cheese gets my attention immediately. I must tell you I wasn't disappointed, but there are things I'd change the next time I make the pie. Forget the crust. It doesn't add much to the pie. Use a prepared chocolate crumb shell instead. It will add another layer of flavor and save a lot of time as well. I'd also make the pie 24 hours before I plan to serve it. If you look at my photo, you'll see that the layers "bled" together when the pie was sliced. I think that can be avoided with longer chilling. You might also want to add a touch of red food coloring as the crushed peppermint adds only a hint of color to the white chocolate layer. It's sinfully rich and very sweet, but it's a dessert meant for a special day, so, I gave myself absolution and will atone with an extra hour on the treadmill. I do hope you'll try it. The verdict of my tasters was "most excellent". Here's the recipe.

Chocolate Peppermint Pie...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of the Wisconsin Cheese Board

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon vinegar
5 to 6 tablespoons ice water
Chocolate Peppermint Pie:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup pasteurized egg product*
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup white chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1/2 cup (20) peppermint candies, crushed
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 9-inch baked pie crust (press-in or fancy), cooled
Optional garnish: sweetened whipped cream, crushed peppermint

Directions:
Pie Crust:
1) In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut butter cubes into flour mixture until pieces are pea-size. Sprinkle vinegar over flour mixture, tossing with a fork. Sprinkle 5 to 6 tablespoons cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, over flour mixture, tossing with a fork each time until dough is moistened and crumbly. Gather dough into a ball, flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
2) Preheat oven to 400ºF.
3) Roll dough into a 12-inch circle. Gently fold the crust into quarters, center over 9-inch pie plate and unfold. Ease crust into the plate. Trim pastry, leaving a 1-inch overhang beyond plate edge. Fold crust edge under and crimp or flute the edge using a fork or your fingers.
4) Prick pastry with a fork. Line bottom and up sides of crust with foil and add dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes, remove foil. Bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until crust is golden. Remove to a wire rack; cool completely.
Filling:
5) In a bowl, beat butter, cream cheese and sugar together. Combine egg product and whipping cream in a separate bowl; gradually add to butter mixture while beating, scraping bowl often. Beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reserve half of mixture in a small bowl. Add cooled white chocolate to remaining half of mixture; beat well. Stir in crushed candy. Spread in baked pie crust; chill 10 minutes.
6) Return reserved butter mixture to bowl, add cooled semi-sweet chocolate; beat well. Spread over white chocolate layer. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Garnish and serve. Yield 8 servings.

*Note: Pasteurized egg products are available in the supermarket. The reason the recipe calls for this product is that the filling is not cooked, and there is a salmonella risk associated with eating raw eggs.

This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound

Pink Peppermint Patties - Pink Saturday

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...We've been asked to include a favorite ornament in our post today. Mine needs a little explanation. When my parents died, I became the keeper of the things no one else wanted. Tucked among them was the Christmas angel that topped our tree throughout my childhood. Though her age was apparent I couldn't bare to get rid of her, so I used her on our tree for another 30 years. I had intended at some point to replace her, but the angels that came my way were glitzy and not at all like the ones I associated with the manger in Bethlehem. When we sold the big house and moved West she was one of the few ornaments we brought with us. As fate would have it, the van in which our things were moved had a leak and my Christmas angel never saw another holiday. She was damaged beyond repair. I wasn't aware of that until we went to put up our tree on Christmas Eve. My angel had disintegrated. We dashed to a craft store for a replacement, only to find there wasn't a lot left. I saw a large white dove and grabbed it, thinking I'd replace it the following Christmas. Bob dubbed the dove the "pigeon of peace" and she gained such renown within the family that that we never let her go. My eyes at Christmas are always clouded by sentiment, so I hope you'll forgive me if I call her beautiful - almost as lovely as the angel of my childhood.

Today's recipe is a holiday version of peppermint patties. They are very easy to do and a little different from most of the homemade candies associated with Christmas. If you keep the candy base cold you'll have no problems making these. I think you'll enjoy them. Here's the recipe.

Pink Peppermint Patties...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil (do not use peppermint extract)
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons evaporated milk + more as required
1 or 2 drops red food coloring
Chocolate Coating:
9 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon shortening

Directions:
1) To make peppermint patties: Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, smoothing out any wrinkles from foil. Lightly dust foil with confectioners' sugar. Combine sugar, butter, peppermint oil, vanilla extract, evaporated milk and 1 or 2 drops of food coloring in a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add additional evaporated milk by drops if needed to achieve a creamy texture. Transfer to a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to be rolled into balls, about 1 hour. Roll dough into 24 1-inch balls and place on prepared pan. Flatten each ball until patties are about 1-1/2 inches in diameter and 1/3 inch thick. Cover and place in the refrigerator until patties are firm, about 1 hour.
2) To make chocolate coating: Melt chocolate and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over simmering water. Remove patties from refrigerator and dip, one at a time, into melted chocolate coating both sides of patties with chocolate.olate
Coating: Melt the chocolate and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove patties from refrigerator and dip, one patty at a time, into melted chocolate, making sure both sides of each patty are completely coated with chocolate. Return to cookie sheet. Once all patties have been dipped in chocolate, return to refrigerator and chill until firm, about 1 hour. Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container for up to one month. Yield: 24 small patties.

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.com


This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound

Peppermint Ice Cream and Ice Cream Sandwiches

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Every year, around this time, I make peppermint ice cream to use in a refrigerator cake I serve during the Christmas holidays. I also use it to make ice cream sandwiches that I keep on hand for unexpected guests. This is a really lovely ice cream and buying chocolate wafer cookies makes the ice cream sandwiches really easy to put together. Once the ice cream has firmed enough, I assemble the sandwiches and freeze them on cookie sheets, in a single layer, for a couple of hours. I then transfer them to a freezer bag for longer term storage. I remove them from the freezer about 15 minutes before I plan to serve them. Children love to help make these. They also do a pretty good job of making them disappear. This is the recipe I use for the peppermint ice cream. Crush the peppermint candy to a powder if you prefer an ice cream that is perfectly smooth. If you like bits of peppermint in your ice cream coarsely chop the candy, but make sure the pieces are small enough not to harm your ice cream maker.You might also want to add a drop or two of red food coloring for better color.

Peppermint Ice Cream Recipe...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2/3 cup crushed hard peppermint candies

Directions:
1) Beat eggs and sugar together in a small bowl.
2) Place milk in a saucepan and heat until it starts to bubble. Whisk hot milk into egg mixture. Pour mixture back into saucepan, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats a spoon. Chill for several hours.
3) Stir in cream, vanilla and peppermint extract. Pour into an ice cream maker. Mix according to manufacturer's instructions, adding crushed peppermint for last 5 minutes of churning. Transfer to a freezer container. Yield: 1-1/2 quarts.

This post is being linked to:
Pink Saturday, sponsored by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound