Peppermint Dark Chocolate

In case you didn’t notice, I LOVE chocolate and peppermint, especially together! In December, I made peppermint patties, which turned out better than the real thing (and if you’re really getting technical, are even REAL-er than the “real” thing, ingredient-wise).

Part of the recipe for peppermint patties calls for melted chocolate. It’s easiest to use chocolate chips and just melt them with butter, BUT we didn’t have any chocolate chips! We stopped buying them because most of them contain soy lecithin, which is most likely genetically modified unless otherwise stated.

So what to do? I decided to experiment with my own chocolate recipe! Sans the soy! ;)

A few months ago, Frank and I decided to buy organic cocoa butter (buy here) to make chocolate in our house. But until we made peppermint patties, I hadn’t gotten around to playing with it.

Here is the delicious chocolate recipe that resulted from my playing around in the kitchen!

Homemade Peppermint Dark Chocolate

• 1-1/2 cups cocoa butter (buy here)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (buy here)
• 3 TBSP unsalted butter
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (buy here)
• 3 TBSP maple syrup (buy here)
• 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of cocao powder (buy here)
• 6 drops peppermint oil (buy here)

First, make sure your pan and whisk are EXTREMELY DRY. Any water will make the chocolate seize.

Then, melt the cocoa butter, coconut oil, and unsalted butter in a double boiler, and whisk together.

Remove the melted butters from the heat, and whisk-in the vanilla and maple syrup. You may want to add more or less sweetener, to taste.

Gradually whisk in the cocoa powder until it reaches a bold chocolate flavor. I like my chocolate more bitter, so I added close to a half cup of cocoa.

Once the chocolate reaches a smooth consistency, mix in the peppermint oil. I only had to use 6 drops! It’s potent stuff!

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and pour the melted chocolate onto the paper.

Freeze to set, and once set, break or cut the chocolate into pieces.

Store the chocolate in the freezer.

UPDATE – *To make solid at room temperature, substitute more butter for the coconut oil and allow to set at room temperature for 24 hours to solidify.

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I LOVE these little chocolate bars. They are delicious by themselves, on top of raw milk ice-cream, or as a lovely chocolate coating/shell.

I haven’t figured out how to make them stable at room temperature, but I store my chocolate goodies in the freezer anyway, so it doesn’t make much difference to me.

When I used to eat Girl Scout cookies, I would always put the thin mints in the freezer. OOooo! I need to figure out a recipe for real food thin mints. Oh, thin mints, how I miss thee.

Until then, make these chocolate bars! Because they are awesome.

The end.

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This post is part of Fight Back Friday, Sunday School, Domestically Divine Tuesday.