Mint chocolate is my thing…Andes Mints have my favorite chocolate for as long as I can remember. Minty freshness with a hint of sweetness just makes my day. Any other chocolate simply have no appeal to me. With the holiday season came the thought of trying to make a healthy adaption of peppermint patties for a fun little treat and gift for others. I came across Elana’s Pantry version and knew I just had to give it a try. I prefer using raw honey in replacement of agave nectar for the increase nutritional value, so I adapted the recipe as follows. I also found you could use maple syrup just as easily. I also increased the peppermint extract because it needed a bit more. I doubled the recipe below and it made about 20 small peppermint patties. It turned out simply scrumptious and received rave reviews to the recipients that I shared it with. It is a simple 4 ingredient little treat for anyone!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut oil (solid state – firm at temperatures below 76 degrees)
1/4 cup raw honey or maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2-1 cup dark chocolate chips, melted and cooled slightly (I found it easiest to melt them and thin slightly with a Tablespoon of milk to get the best consistency. Cooling is essential for it to stick correctly.)
Directions:
1. Combine the coconut oil, honey/maple syrup, and peppermint extract in a food processor or blender till smooth.
2. Place in freezer until the ingredients are fairly solid (15 minutes or so).
3. Scoop out mixture with a 1.5 teaspoon scoop or whatever you have on hand (I used a standard Tablespoon) and form small balls on a parchment paper/wax paper lined cookie sheet. Press down into flattened rounds. (It will naturally melt a bit when brought in contact with your hands, so quickly form little mounds but don’t stress for perfection, because it will not happen. 
4. Transfer back to the freezer to solidify again.
5. Remove from freezer after they are firm again and dip with a spoon into your melted cooled chocolate until fully covered. Allow 10 minutes or so to harden. Store in refrigerator until you are ready to consume.
Yield: 10-12 small patties (if you want to make them larger, go for it!)
Enjoy!
I have made this recipe but used a couple of drops of stevia instead of agave/honey and also used a blend of coconut oil and coconut butter. You could even stir through a handful of desiccated coconut for some chunky texture if you are not after a perfectly smooth finish!
Absolutely delicious!
Lindsay, you are a woman after my own heart … all my favorite ingredients… how’d you know?
Your Healthy Peppermint Patties will be wonderful college-care-package-stuffers for that beautiful, peppermint-pattie, mint-chocolate-chip-ice-cream, dark-chocolate lovin’ daughter of mine! The icing on the pattie (yeah, pun most definitely intended! 
is that it has honey, coconut oil AND dark chocolate … deliciously healthy, antioxidant-rich & conveniently available in my pantry! I may freeze mine in the bottoms of mini-muffin tins instead of forming them with my hands before dipping them in the melted chocolate. Will they make into my daughter’s care package? hmmm
Mini muffin tins-genius! I can’t wait to try this!
Those look amazing and a healthy alternative to processed chocolates. Can’t wait to try them.
would palm oil work? i’m thinking it might help the peppermint stand out more, and won’t melt as readily.
Definitely a good alternative.
I am so excited about these! My local health food store sells some natural peppermint patties that I love but they are so expensive. I whipped up a batch of these, and left them in the freezer too long the first time. Then they are so difficult to shape into patties. I came up with a solution I thought might be helpful to you, and even skips a step! Instead of putting it in the freezer, take it out of the food processor, place into a ziploc bag or frosting bag, cut the corner off, and squeeze into small patties on a paper lined baking sheet. Then place the baking sheet in the freezer and wallah! You have perfectly shaped peppermint pieces ready to be dipped in chocolate. Thought you might appreciate a shore cut. Thanks for the great recipe!
Great idea…I am going to try it that way!
Hi y’all.
I’m curious. Can you use olive oil instead of coconut oil?
Thanks so much
Definitely not unfortunately. The consistency and solidity of coconut oil is required for these to hold together. Olive oil would leave you with a very runny product.
After further thought, it just might work as olive oil does get solid at very cold temperatures if you were to freeze it completely. But coconut oil is still more in texture like shortening which makes it very workable for making balls. But then I thought of the flavor and olive oil would certainly affect the flavor. The flavor of olive oil is so strong and far from sweet, which makes the coconut oil very pleasant.
Adding these to my pinterest board now!
I added the milk to the chocolate and it made it hard and clumpy…not sure what I did wrong.
Kayla, that happened to me too! I have never added milk to melting chocolate before and it was NOT a good idea. It made ganache instead of chocolate and then it wouldn’t set up. Skip the milk people.
Also, my coconut oil mixture was VERY clumpy. It wasn’t smooth and it wouldn’t stay together. The maple syrup leaked out.
This was not a success.
I love Elana’s Pantry as my daughter is diabetic and I am pursuing a low carb diet. As much as I love my grain mill, I’ve been researching a lot about no-grain diets. It’s been interesting to see that grains might not be necessary to our bodies as our bodies can produce the necessary sugars. Whereas our bodies do require fats and animal protein in diet form.
This is an awesome recipe, Lyndsay! Definitely going to make these. Thanks for sharing! Are you into raw foods at all? This is almost raw:).
Yes. I like to eat raw foods as we are able…green smoothies is a favorite there in addition to our raw protein bars. Yum!
A really yummy *almost* raw treat is banana peanut butter ice cream!
It’s so easy…
Freeze 4 bananas.. once froze slice them into 1 inch chunks, put in your blender (having a blender with a plunger is really helpful) and add 2 tbs or more of all natural peanut butter (or raw almond butter or any nut butter!)..
Just thought I’d share a recipe in return for all that you share!
These sound wonderful! I can’t wait to try the recipe
thank you profusely!
These sound amazing. I will have to try them… thanks for sharing!
Oh these sound good!
Do you see any reason why Sally Fallon’s chocolate chip (or carob chip) recipe wouldn’t work for these? Sounds yummy!
I don’t see why not!
I have a similar choc chip recipe on my blog. They just won’t be as solid as regular chips. I have found that the NT chips don’t melt well – have you had that problem?
Where do you find good dark chocolate chips that aren’t full of junk? I have some mini chips from Enjoy Life that are pretty good but don’t think they are dark chocolate. Will have to go look. Can’t wait to try this recipe… anything chocolate and mint are my weakness
The Enjoy Life are semi-sweet, which is the same as dark chocolate. I’ll be using those to make these very soon!!!!
One word: YUM! Those look out of this world good! !
Dude, I am so making these! I love the chocolate mint combo, too.
4 ingredients that are all yummy on their own. This looks super yummy.
Brilliant! I love these! And such a great idea to use the coconut oil!
These look great! I love peppermint.. Thanks!
I’m super excited to try these!!!
Tried ‘em. They turned out clumpy and when I added the milk to the chocolate it turned to ganache. Back to the drawing board.
add a little of the coconut oil to the chocolate instead of the milk and you won’t have a problem. The chocolate is oil base so you can’t add anything with a water base.
What a great idea! I’m making a conscious effort to make healthier treats so this is perfect. That coconut oil is such versatile stuff….
These look great! I’ve done the mounds type ones but not these yet. Thanks so much!