“I like my pudding and toothpaste separately, thanks.”
~ My dad~
You can probably guess from the quote above that my family did not make many Peppermint Crisp Tarts when I was growing up. They preferred traditional baked puddings like Apple Tart or Milk Tart. It’s probably because Peppermint Crisp Tart is relatively “new” on the dessert scene. If you want to know more about the origins of the recipe, have a look at this article by Tony Jackman for the Daily Maverick. Definitely a South African invention, and of course we are all proud of it.
Peppermint to the power of caramel
The Peppermint Crisp Tart gets its name from the very South African chocolate bars used in the recipe. The bars consist of ultra-thin tubes of green peppermint-flavoured candy (called cracknel according to the wrapper) smothered in chocolate. Some people like to eat them by biting off the top and bottom part of the bar and sipping tea or coffee through it. Not my personal taste – I find it much better in a lovely creamy, caramel pudding! Yes, the peppermint chocolate bar is paired with airy whipped cream and another South African favourite Caramel Treat. This is our version of caramel condensed milk or Dulce de Leche conveniently produced in a tin by Nestle.
Is this even a recipe?
As Tony Jackman suggests, you can make the Peppermint Crisp Tart much more posh. He makes a crushed biscuit base and adds cream cheese and gelatine to the filling. But I have made Peppermint Crisp Tart many times in a much simpler way. This is truly a recipe anyone can make. All things considered, it’s just a set of instructions, to be honest. I use whole Tennis biscuits as the base and in between layers. Then I just mix whipped cream with the caramel condensed milk as the filling. Now all that is left is to scatter crushed Peppermint Crisp bars in between each layer to taste, and you have a quick and easy and very South African pudding!
Peppermint Crisp Tart
Ingredients
- 2 200g packs Tennis biscuits If you can't find Tennis biscuits, any other coconut biscuit will do.
- 1 to 1½ 360g tins Nestle Caramel Treat, depending on how sweet you want your dessert to be. Or a similar amount of another brand of caramel condensed milk or Dulce de Leche * See note
- 500 ml whipping cream
- 2 - 4 Peppermint Crisp chocolate bars ** See note
Instructions
- Pack Tennis biscuits into a dish that is at least 5cm deep in one layer. It helps to use the Tennis biscuits which are square in a rectangular dish. I do cut some biscuits smaller if needed. *** See note
- In a large bowl, whip the cream to the soft peak stage. It should not be too stiff or dry.
- Empty the contents of the tin of caramel into another bowl and loosen the caramel with a whisk or spatula. Now fold the caramel into the cream.
- Spread a 1 to 1,5cm thick layer of caramel cream over the base layer of biscuits.
- While still in the foil wrappers, crush the Peppermint Crisp bars by bashing them with a rolling pin on a wooden board. Use your fingers to break up larger pieces if necessary.
- Sprinkle as much crushed chocolate over the caramel cream as you desire.
- Continue layering biscuits, caramel cream and crushed chocolate as many times as you like, ending with a nice evenly thick layer of crushed chocolate. I sometimes also sprinkle the top with a light dusting of cocoa powder.
- Cover the tart and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.
Notes
- * If you are unable to find tinned caramel condensed milk, you can make your own by using a pressure cooker, microwave oven or convection oven.
- ** Peppermint Crisp bars are truly South African and you might need a South African grocery store if you don't live in SA. However, we have had times when Peppermint Crisps were out of stock, so I have tried other peppermint chocolate bars. Nestle's Aero Bubbles Mint works very well, as do Cadbury's Top Deck Mint. It might not be authentic, but I now use a combination of Peppermint Crisp and Aero Mint in my tarts. You can of course use more chocolate bars in your dessert. In the case of Peppermint Crisp Tart, you can really measure with your heart!
- *** The dish I used in the photos is 32 x 22 x 5 cm. You can use something smaller and deeper to do more than two layers. You can also add another half tin of caramel condensed milk to the whipped cream to bulk up the caramel cream if you need more.
- I find it is generally a good idea to buy double of the ingredients when shopping as this is a particularly good set of ingredients to keep in the pantry for emergency pudding-making. If you can hide those Peppermint Crisps well enough!
Leave a Reply