Mint Slice

Did you see Vaala's recent post about her veganised mint slice?  I took one look and immediately said "I want".  Of course, she posted this recipe on Boxing Day, when we still had all kinds of food and sweets and ice cream in the house, so it seemed like a bad idea to add another sugary concoction to the house.

Well, we finished all of those sweets.  And I had a look in every supermarket we went to for a few weeks, trying to get ahold of some peppermint essence.  Amazingly, there was none.  At all.  I could have gotten peppermint essential oil and used a lot less of it, but instead we got a few packs of candy canes, reduced to 50 cents after Christmas.

I knew from previous hot chocolate experience that candy canes melt pretty easily, and infuse their peppermintyness into the liquid they melt into.  The only trouble was that Vaala's delicious-looking recipe only has a tablespoon of liquid.  So I scouted around the internet and found a non-vegan recipe that used half a cup of cream, so I adopted that for my filling layer.  The result was a bit pinker than Vaala's version, but it was delicious.

The first step is to mix up and bake the base, and I would suggest doubling the recipe for that - just so you can eat lots of the dough before it is cooked!  I had a teeny taste and it was so morish that I found myself wanting to eat the whole batch before it went in the oven!

125g margarine, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup shredded coconut

Heat oven to 180, line a slice tin with baking paper.  Cream together the margarine and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the rest of the ingredients until just combined and then press into the prepared baking tin.  Try not to eat all of the dough, unless you've prepared by making more than you need. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

While the base was in the oven, I got to work on making some minty soy milk.  

4 regular sized candy canes (I'll probably use 6 when I make this again)

1/2 c. soy milk (or whatever milk you fancy)

Break up candy canes roughly and put into a small saucepan with soy milk.  Heat over low heat until the candy canes are fully melted - your milk should be nice and pink, and super pepperminty.  Let this cool off before you use it.

1/2 c. vegan butter

3 1/2 to 4 c. icing sugar

3 T. candy cane milk

To make the filling, you could mix up the ingredients using some kind of electric beater, just like you're making icing.  I don't have one, so I mixed it all by hand - stir up the butter with a fork to soften it, and then add the icing sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until it's fully incorporated.  When you've added 3 c. of icing sugar, stir in the pepperminty milk.  Add the remaining icing sugar until it's thick enough that you're getting a sore hand - it can be slightly sticky still.  Spread on top of the cooled base and chill.

Then make the topping.  Again, I deviated from Vaala's recipe slightly due to a lack of supplies in my house.

100 g. dark chocolate

remaining candy cane milk

In a bowl over a simmering bowl of water, stir the chocolate and milk until the chocolate melts.  Pour this over the pink minty layer, spread it out, and chill until the chocolate is set.  Then, do your best not to eat the whole tray of mint slice in one sitting.

Thanks Vaala for a delicious recipe!