Choco Mint Cannon balls

Choco mint cannon balls

A select few combinations evoke a sense of utter pleasure and chocolate and peppermint/mint is one of them. I’m a sucker for After Eights and back in university, all of my friends knew what to get me as goodies. Year after year, I’d get a big stash of them and I’d ration them so that they would last. When we started getting them in India, I was over the moon. But I still waited for my holiday stash (greedy me). Once, I found a box that had After Eight balls, not your usual square ones. I still remember, back then, that it was priced at Rs 400 bucks or more for a small box the size of your average mint box. Quite a lot to pay for a treat so tiny, back then, living on a meager stipend from my first job. Nevertheless, the love for chocolate and mint made me take the plunge and I don’t regret it one bit. Sadly, since then, I never found it.


I always looked out for it but in vain. When I rediscovered my joy of baking when I took a short break in my career, this was one of the first things I attempted. I remember whooping with joy when I made them and memories came flooding back of me buying that box at Landmark one evening and having that eternal debate in my head over whether I should be spending so much money on this, was it worth it, was I being wasteful, so on and so forth. We all have that voice in our head, don’t we? And boy am I glad I didn't listen to it. Biting into them balls of melting minty yummiliciousness is a memory that this very forgetful girl still remembers vividly.


This recipe is an oldie and one that’s very special to me and I hope it can be to you’ll as well.

Chocó mint cannon balls
(Makes about ten bite-sized cannon balls)


Ingredients: 

• 1 cup and 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon slightly softened unsalted butter

  

  The mint filling

• 1 teaspoon peppermint or mint extract or essence (more or less depending on personal preference)
• 1 tablespoon cream
• Dark chocolate (melted) to dip the peppermint/mint balls in
• Optional: - 1 teaspoon honey (or light corn syrup if you want the filling to be stark white. I’d recommend going natural and using honey).

Method:

• In a bowl, mix the icing sugar, butter and cream. Add the extract one drop at a time and keep tasting a teensy bit till you get your desired strength of peppermint. I like mine extra strong, but it depends on individual taste. 
• It will be a crumbly mixture at first, but keep mixing till it comes together. If after 5 minutes of mixing, you still find it crumbly, add in the honey if it isn't coming together. If it’s too sticky, add in more icing sugar. So basically add more dry ingredients if it’s too wet and add in a teensy bit more cream or honey if it’s too dry. It all depends on how gooey you’d like your filling to be and adjust the recipe according to your specifications. It’s one of the most forgiving recipes you’ll find, so you can play around with it. Refer to the picture above to see the consistency of filling you’d need.
• Cover the bowl with cling film and store in your fridge for a couple of hours or if you are pressed for time, keep it in the fridge for half an hour and then stash it in the freezer for a few minutes till it firms up.
• Use a melon baller or a teaspoon and scoop out tiny balls of the mixture and roll it between your palms to make a tiny ball. Continue, till you use up all of your mixture. It will be gooey, so coat your hands with a bit of butter if necessary. Place them on a tray lined with foil and put them back in the freezer for ten minutes or more to firm up. 
• Melt your chocolate and drop the frozen peppermint balls into the chocolate and take them out using two forks and drip off the excess chocolate before placing them on a foil lined tray for the chocolate to set. Because the balls are so cold, the chocolate will set almost instantly, so be quick. Repeat the process for all the balls. You might need to place the tray back in the freezer for a while if you see the balls softening before you put them into the melted chocolate.
• Store refrigerated if you aren't eating them the same day. Before serving, keep them out for 20 minutes or so for the filling to come to room temperature and go slightly gooey.
• If your chocolate cracks or you have a few spots that you missed, you can see the gooey peppermint filling oozing out of the spots and I personally love that.

This recipe makes about ten bite sized peppermint cannon balls. If you want more, just double the recipe and so forth. Since they are very strong, one goes a long way. They are like a fancier version of dessert and an after dinner mint fused together.

So till next time, Get, Set, Bake!!!