My mom usually visits us from SA once a year and one of the things she just HAS to bring me is Peppermint Crisps.
I guard them with my life and my family knows they are not for random snacking.
In fact, I only ever use them to make a Peppermint Crisp pudding for breaking of the fast which is usually held at an ex-pat friends house, with dozens of SA ex-pats and other anglo friends.
The dessert goes down a treat and everyone waits, spoons at the ready, for our host to bring it out.
This year we are under lock down and so we didnt have a big breaking of the fast with friends and I decided not to make the dessert. The kids were super upset and said it just wasnt chag without it. So I made it for dessert for Sukkot and we just finished the last of the leftovers while playing DnD.
Now it feels like a new year 🙂
Im including original SA ingredients as well as the Israeli substitutes you can use.
- 1 litre high fat whipping cream (or more depending on how big you want your dessert)
- 1 pack biscuits, Tennis biscuits in SA or Petit Burre in Israel
- 1 tin/tub caramel or dulche de leche (I've also used Lotus spread when I couldn't find caramel)
- 1 slab Peppermint Crisp
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Whip the cream until stiff peaks form.
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If your caramel/dulche de leche is thick or not spreadable, pop it into the microwave for 15 seconds or until its still thick but easily spreadable with a knife.
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Take your Peppermint Crisp slab and bash it around on the table or with a rolling pin so that it breaks up into small crumbly pieces.
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Take the biscuits and, one by one, spread the caramel on each biscuit and place in the bottom of a medium oblong/square glass dish or foil roaster.
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Cover the bottom of the dish in caramel biscuits and then spread half your whipped cream on top.
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Sprinkle half the Peppermint Crisp over the cream, use the bigger pieces for this layer and keep the smaller pieces and fine dust for last.
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Repeat the biscuit and caramel layer and then spread the last of the cream on top.
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Take the last of the Peppermint Crisp and sprinkle it over the cream, make sure you take all the Peppermint dust and sprinkle it over the cream too.
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Refrigerate, covered, until ready to eat. The sooner you eat it, the crispier the biscuits will be.
I’ve made this recipe parve too, use Riche’s Cream, Lotus spread and parve chocolate as substitutes. In Israel, its really hard to find peppermint chocolate in general, and parve peppermint chocolate is non existent. Instead I used plain parve dark chocolate and I found pure peppermint extract at a specialty baking store and added a few drops to the cream when I was whipping it. Its not quite the same, but delicious nonetheless.
Well, there’s a little bit left …