Peppermint Creams

Peppermint creams always remind me of my school days. The first time I ever tried one was in a physics class. We were learning something about waves traveling through space when a girl passed a little sugary disk under the desk and into my waiting palm. "They're home made," I remember her whispering as I popped it into my mouth just as the teacher turned around to glare at us. "What's that in your mouth?" I remember him snapping and I replied "Nothing!" quite truthfully since the minty disk had already dissolved on my tongue.

Probably because of this, these little treats have always left me feeling naughty. Nowadays, the naughtiness comes from knowing just how much sugar is in them. Then again, everyone needs a treat now and then and if you have just one or two...

So how do I make them? They really take no time at all (and even less if you don't have to do all the mixing by hand!) To start with, you will need:
450g of icing sugar (plus another 50 or so grams to sprinkle)
juice of half a lemon
one egg white
two teaspoons of peppermint flavouring
a little chocolate sauce (or chocolate) for spattering

Start by whisking up your egg white until it becomes stiff- when done properly, you should be able to tip the bowl over your head and nothing will come out!

Then beat in your lemon juice, flavouring and icing sugar. The mixture will now be quite hard to mix as it becomes a thick paste.

Next, you need to roll out your paste. It's very sticky, so sprinkle some icing sugar over your work surface and rolling pin. Then roll out your paste, making it as thin as possible.

Now all you need to do is cut out your disks. You can make them any shape, but we went for the conventional round. However, we did this the not-so-conventional way- using shot glasses as our cookie cutter...

(Nearly there!) Lay your creams out on a board or baking tray. Then get your sauce (we used M&S fudge sauce which is delicious!), heat it up a little so it's quite runny and then splatter it over your creams. The darker (so more bitter) the chocolate in the sauce, the better contrast it'll be to the sweetness of the creams. (If you don't have any sauce,  just melt some chocolate instead.) Lastly, pop your creams in the fridge to set for a few hours.

There we are, naughtiness on a platter!