Peppermint Chocolate Desserts

They do different jobs. Peppermint extract is what most recipes are written for. Peppermint oil is roughly three to four times stronger, so use about a quarter of the amount and add it a drop at a time. Crushed candy canes bring crunch, color and a little sweetness, but almost no flavor once they melt into a dough, so pair them with extract instead of swapping one for the other. Mint extract usually includes spearmint and tastes more like gum; use it only where the recipe asks for it.

Candy canes are mostly sugar, and sugar pulls water out of the air. Crush them just before you use them and sift out the fine dust, which turns tacky first. Add them after baking or in the last couple of minutes, pressed into frosting or ganache while it is still soft. On cheesecakes, pies and anything that lives in the fridge, scatter the candy right before serving, since condensation turns it syrupy. Store everything else airtight at room temperature.

Dark. Bittersweet chocolate in the 60-70% range and a dark cocoa keep the sweetness in check, so the mint tastes cool and bright instead of like candy. Milk chocolate is fine in a frosting, but the base of the dessert should be the dark part. For the darkest cookie or cake, swap a third to half of the cocoa for Black Cocoa: it bakes near-black with little to no food coloring, and crushed candy cane and white mint filling look sharp against it.

Less than you think. A teaspoon flavors a pan of brownies or a two-layer cake, and peppermint keeps getting stronger as it sits, so a frosting that tastes right today tastes louder tomorrow. Add half the amount the recipe calls for, taste, and work up. If a batch still comes out too minty, more chocolate is the fix: a layer of ganache or an unflavored frosting brings it back into balance.

Most of them. Brownies, bundt cakes and cookie dough freeze for two to three months; wrap brownies and cake layers whole and slice after thawing. Cheesecakes, silk pies and icebox cakes want a night in the fridge anyway, and ice cream pies live in the freezer until you serve them. Leave the crushed candy cane off until the day you serve, since it softens in the freezer and sweats as it thaws.

In a recipe written for Dutch-process cocoa, yes. Both are alkalized, so they behave the same with baking powder and baking soda, and the swap gives a near-black bake with little to no food coloring. Our favorite move is half and half with Dutch-Process Cocoa: the Dutch brings rich, rounded chocolate and 22-24% cocoa butter, and the Black Cocoa brings the color. In a recipe built on natural cocoa and baking soda, keep the natural cocoa, since the soda needs its acidity to lift the batter.