Lindor Mini Mint Truffle empire biscuits- National Mint Chocolate day.

It was National Mint Chocolate Bar on Saturday 19th February. As mint is my absolute favourite flavour for cakes and ice-cream, I had to create something to celebrate this day on the Foodie lovers calendar!

I was actually in London all day on Saturday so my post is three days late. A very early start leaving my home in North Yorkshire at 6.15am and driving to Doncaster to catch the train. Then I was home at 9pm after a fantastic, but tiring day. But it was worth it.

Do you love mint as much as I do? I don’t know why I love the flavour so much but I remember my first ever taste of mint choc chip ice cream as a child. Since then, that’s always the flavour I go for. Closely followed by pistachio if they have it or even rum and raisin. I’ve always loved mint chocolates: After Eight Mints, Elizabeth Shaw mints and Mint Toffees. The only mints I’m not so keen on are Extra Strong Mints. My daughter doesn’t share my love of mint, she says why eat something which tastes of toothpaste? As I love mint flavours so much, you might notice a few mint flavoured bakes on the blog.

Yesterday, when thinking about what I could create to celebrate Mint Chocolate Bar Day, I looked in my baking cupboard for inspiration. I only had one mint chocolate item left and that was a bag of Lindt Lindor Mint Mini Truffles. I’d bought two bags at Christmas. One had got used in some Mint Colin The Caterpillar themed Rocky Road and there was another bag left over. What could I do with them? The obvious answer was to eat the lot and believe me, I was so tempted when I was tired.

As you’ve probably seen in other posts, my favourite biscuits are Empire Biscuits. So I ended up choosing to make Mint Chocolate Empire Biscuits as the mint truffles were the perfect size to put on top of an Empire Biscuit.

The biscuits themselves were a chocolate mint flavour shortbread sandwiched together with a mint chocolate ganache and then finally topped with a mint chocolate glace icing and the mini truffles. I am a huge fan of Sugar and Crumbs’ icing sugars and have used them for a lot of my baking over the last seven years. As I love mint so much, the flavour of their mint chocolate icing sugar is a huge favourite.

MINT CHOCOLATE EMPIRE BISCUITS

Makes 15 (30 biscuits sandwiched together)

You will need four baking trays lined with baking parchment (or 2 trays baking in 2 batches). You will also need a 5cm circular cutter, which can be plain or fluted.

INGREDIENTS:

200g unsalted, softened butter

200g caster sugar

350g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

1 large free range egg

1 tsp peppermint extract

For the ganache filling:

150g dark chocolate

100ml double cream

2 tbsp Sugar and Crumbs’ Mint Chocolate Icing Sugar

For the topping:

175g Sugar and Crumbs’ Mint Chocolate Icing Sugar

Water to mix to a spreading consistency

80g bag of Lindt Mini Mint Truffles

Pre-heat your oven to 160oC (fan)/ 180oC/ 350oF or Gas Mark 4.
Line your baking trays with baking parchment. I have four baking trays but two will be fine if you bake in two batches.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a free-standing mixer until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
Add the egg and the peppermint essence. Beat into the creamed sugar and butter mixture.
Finally, add the flour and the cocoa powder to the bowl. Bring it all together into a ball of dough.
Roll the dough into a disc and cover carefully with cling film.
Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Dust your worktop and rolling pin with some flour and roll the dough out to the thickness of a one pound coin. Cut out circles of dough.
Gather up all the off cuts and re-roll and cut out circles until you have 30 circles.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes (two trays at a time, unless you have a mamoosive commercial kitchen!)
Leave the biscuits on the baking tray for 5 minutes to harden slightly and move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Repeat with the second batch of biscuits.
While the biscuits are baking, prepare the ganache and the topping. Melt the chocolate and heat the cream gently in a pan and stir until it becomes smooth. Fold in the icing sugar and leave to cool.
Make the topping by adding water to the required consistency of icing sugar. It needs to be runny enough to be able to spread, but not so runny that it drips off the side of the biscuit.
When the biscuits are completely cool, sandwich pairs of biscuits together with the ganache.
Then top the biscuits with the glace icing, followed by a mini mint truffle.
These biscuits should keep for up to 5 days in a lidded container.