Who’s ready for an easy vegan holiday dessert? I know I am! I’ve had this one in my holiday recipe holster since first creating it this past summer, and have been dying for the right time to share it.
A quick note about this recipe: The pictures make it look HUGE, but it’s actually a small dessert with fairly dainty portions. I use a small 4×8-inch loaf pan. If you use a standard-size (9×5-inch) loaf pan, the dessert will have less height (but no less delicious flavour!). Hey—I’ve never complained about dessert in any shape or form, but I wanted to mention it so you don’t find yourself puzzled over a smaller-than-expected finished product.
Be sure to read my tips in the headnote and at the bottom of the recipe. You know I love to give you flexibility in your own kitchens, so this recipe is bursting with my testing notes and modifications. I actually had to cut myself off from writing more!! #nerdalert
Vegan Peppermint Patty Slice
Yield
10 small slices
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
4 to 5 hours
Total time
This peppermint patty is a showstopping dessert that's coloured naturally with spinach—though only you and I will know its nutritious secret! As an added bonus it’ll only set you back 15 minutes of prep. The filling calls for at least 4 hours of freezing time, so I like to whip it up before bed to pop in the freezer overnight. This way, all I have to do the next day is add the ganache on top and freeze it for another 10 minutes. If you’re making this dessert around the holidays, it’s delightful served with a crushed candy cane topping. My standby, year-round topping is raw cacao nibs, which also add a lovely (and nutritious!) crunch. The crunchy topping really completes the dessert, so I don’t recommend skimping on it, and be sure to serve additional cacao nibs or crushed candy cane on top of each slice before serving. Lastly, it’s important to use a very small loaf pan so the dessert has height. I use a 4x8-inch loaf pan by Baker’s Secret. You could also try making individual servings by filling a silicone cupcake mold.
Ingredients
For the filling:
- 3/4 cup (225 g) raw cashew butter*
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) pure maple syrup, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) virgin coconut oil, melted
- 6 tablespoons (90 mL) almond milk, room temperature
- 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons (5 to 7.5 mL) pure peppermint extract, or to taste**
- 1 cup (30 g) packed baby spinach***
- Pinch fine sea salt
For the chocolate ganache:
- 1/2 cup (90 g) non-dairy chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) full-fat coconut cream****
- Dash fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons raw cacao nibs or crushed candy cane, plus more for serving
- Fresh mint leaves, for garnish (optional)
Directions
- Line a small (approximately 4x8-inch) loaf pan or 6-inch cake pan with plastic wrap so the slab will be easy to lift out after freezing.
- Add all of the filling ingredients (cashew butter, maple syrup, melted oil, almond milk, 1 teaspoon peppermint extract, spinach, and salt) into a high-speed blender. Blend on high until smooth. Make sure no chunks of spinach leaves remain. Taste and add more peppermint extract if desired.
- Pour the filling into the prepared pan. Place the pan on a flat spot in the freezer and freeze for 4 to 5 hours, until the filling is solid. There’s no need to cover it unless you plan on keeping it in the freezer longer than 8 hours.
- When the filling is solid, prepare the ganache topping. In a medium pot, combine the chocolate chips, coconut cream (make sure water is drained before adding), and salt. Melt the chips over the lowest heat setting, stirring frequently, until smooth.
- Remove the filling from the freezer and, gripping the plastic wrap as a handle, lift it out of the pan. Flip the filling onto a large plate and peel off the plastic wrap.
- Pour the ganache over top of the solid filling, starting in the centre, and allow it to cascade down the sides a bit. Immediately scatter the crushed candy cane or cacao nibs all over the ganache. Return it to the freezer, uncovered, and freeze for about 10 minutes, until the ganache is firm.
- Slice and garnish with fresh mint, if you’re fancy! Sprinkle additional cacao nibs or crushed candy cane on top of each slice and enjoy immediately. Return leftovers to the freezer right away as the dessert does soften as it sits.
Tip:
* Instead of cashew butter, you can use 1 1/4 cups (180 g) of soaked raw cashews. Soak them in boiled water for 1 hour, rinse, drain, and add them into a high-speed blender (such as a Vitamix) along with the rest of the ingredients. If your blender has a hard time blending nuts smooth, I suggest that you use the raw cashew butter version instead. You can also use homemade raw cashew butter. To make your own, simply process raw cashews in a heavy-duty food processor until smooth. I don’t recommend using roasted cashew butter as it gives the slice a strong nutty flavour.
** The intensity of peppermint extracts vary by brand, so 1 1/2 teaspoons is intended as a guide—please add it slowly to taste.
*** I only recommend using spinach if your blender is good at blending leafy greens smooth. If your blender tends to leave spinach chunks in smoothies, I would suggest omitting the spinach in this recipe just to make sure you aren’t going to find spinach chunks in the slice. Or see my tip about using a food processor below.
**** Coconut cream is the solid white cream in a can of full-fat coconut milk. Chill the can overnight before using to ensure the coconut cream is solid. I like to open a mini can (160 mL) of full-fat coconut milk for this recipe; this way, there isn’t a lot left over to use up. The remaining amount is just perfect for throwing into your next smoothie!
No blender? No problem! If you have a heavy-duty food processor you can make the filling in the processor, just be warned that the spinach doesn’t break down fully (my version had some very fine green speckling resembling mint sugar), and you’ll want to run the processor for a good while to help the spinach break down as much as possible.
If you don’t have cacao nibs or crushed candy cane on hand, feel free to top the ganache with finely chopped dark chocolate.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
THIS. So so so impressed with the creativity and the ingredients – must try soon!
Thanks McKel! :)
My favorite plant – based dessert recipe so far! I made in cupcake tins and garnished with crushed peppermint candies. I need to make another batch for Christmas now because my husband and I have eaten the entire first batch. Yum!!
I’m so happy you love it so much…wow!! Thanks Christine! Have a wonderful Christmas
Hi! Can I use coconut cream in a can instead of coconut milk??? Also if so should I chill it over night as well?
Thanks :)
Hey Whitney, Do you mean instead of the 6 tbsp almond milk? If so, I can’t see why not. I think you’d need to chill it for roughly the same time.
Finally, a way to trick my kids into eating spinach! Muahah.
Seriously though, it looks delicious!
haha for real!! ;) I hope you all enjoy it!
Hello Angela, just made the greenixture tastes so good! I m just wondering how i’m supposed to cover it in the freezer, as I m going to make and pour the chocolate mix on it tomorrow, so it will be more than 8 hours in the freezer…I put a Saran wrap without it touching the mixture..and why is it important to cover it if it’s more than 5. Hours in the freezer? Thanks!
Hey Julie, So glad you’re trying this dessert! Frozen desserts like this one tend to get some frost on the top if they’re in the freezer for extended periods of time, and I find covering them helps prevent this a bit. (Either way it’s not a big issue as it’ll be covered with chocolate anyhow!). I hope you enjoy the slice!
Looks amazing! I love chocolate and mint. Do you think there is a way I can make this sugar-free? Using Stevia or something?
Hey Margy, I’m sorry but I’m not sure. I don’t bake with stevia (it gives me headaches) or other sugar-free sweeteners. Sorry I can’t help!
Hi Angela,
I made this for Christmas. It was delicious! Thank you so much for posting this.
Hey Lori, So happy that you tried it out for Christmas. Thanks for letting me know how it went! Merry Christmas!
Is there something that can be used in place of cashews? Cashews are my son’s anaphylactic allergy
Hey Cassandra, I’ve swapped the cashew butter for 3/4 cup soaked raw sunflower seeds and it worked. The flavour changes a but but still a nice option! Hope this helps.
I am allergic to cashew. Any other nuts I could replace cashew with? This looks yummy and I want to try it.
Hi Lise, I’ve swapped the cashew butter for 3/4 cup soaked raw sunflower seeds and it worked. The flavour changes a but but still a nice option! A reader also said almond butter worked nicely. Hope this helps. :)
Wow, I made this for a fitness bootcamp to start off the New Year and it came out incredible! So dense and similar to a fudge consistency. Smells amazing and I actually used almond butter and it was a hit.
Hey Erika, Oh I like the way you think…I need to go to your fitness bootcamp! lol. So glad it was a big hit. I agree with you on the fudge consistency. I’ll have to try it with almond butter. So far I’ve tried cashew and soaked raw sunflower seeds (I used about 3/4-1 cup with success).
All I can say is WOW! This recipe is absolutely amazing. I made this recently for a holiday party and it was a HUGE hit (amongst many people who had no idea it was vegan) =) Thank you!
Hey Alanna, Yay, that’s great news! Thank you so much for letting me know. :) Happy New Year!
I posted this on my Pinterest site. I love it and have made it 3 times over the Christmas holidays. We chunked it up and served small blocks as the recipe doesn’t make that much.
I used cashew butter the first time then the soaked cashews the other two and I didn’t see much difference. The last time I made it without the chocolate coating and I think I like it better that way. It is very rich and delicious. We played with the amount of peppermint extract and 1 or 1.5 tsp. worked well.
Funny thing… the omnivores had a hard time believing there was spinach in this dessert. It is so little and the other flavors are strong that it just colors it.
Hey Annabelle, Oh I love your feedback so much. Thank you! No one ever believes me that there is spinach in it too. It’s such a fun conversation starter. ;) Thanks for the pin too!
I made this today (using soaked cashews instead of cashew butter). It is fantastic! It is already my husband’s favorite dessert.
I have yet to try a bad recipe from this site. Thank you!
Hey Sasha, Oh wow, that’s so exciting…thank you! I’m so happy you’ve loved the recipes so much. :) Thanks for the feedback!
This was SO delicious! I am already dreaming of pouring the filling into popsicle molds and coating with homemade magic shell to make “dilly bars” OSG style!
OMG what a great idea!! How good would that be?
I have just made this peppermint dessert and as usual it was amazing. I put them in cupcake wrappers , removed the papers when frozen and then put the ganache over top and sprinkled with crushed chocolate. I made them into individual desserts for ease of serving. It reminded me of your pumpkin dessert with the sunflower butter. I have never been disappointed with any of your recipes, they are always crowd pleasers. Everyone in my family, except my husband the last hold out, is a vegan so your recipes are always a welcome part of all of our family gatherings. Thank you so much!
Hey Debbe, I can’t thank you enough for your support and kind words! I’m so flattered that you and the family make so many of my recipes. :) I love that you make this slice into mini servings too…it’s so easy that way!
Made this tonight and it was phenomenal. The texture was creamy like nothing else (creamier than ice cream, gelato, brie, etc). I didn’t want to spend $5 on peppermint extract so I used my peppermint essential oil (20 drops), the flavor was perfect. The ganache was not glossy or pourable though, I wonder if it would work better melted in a double boiler instead of right in the pan? Thanks for an excellent recipe!
Hey Christy, So glad you loved it! I go nuts for anything chocolate and peppermint…so refreshing, isn’t it? About the ganache, mine was pretty thick and I wouldn’t call it pourable..I had to scoop it out of the dish (check out that photo action shot if you’d like). Also, it’s important when you add the coconut cream not to add any coconut water along with it as water can “seize” the mixture. Hope this helps!
Thanks for this easy/ quick to assemble recipe!! I have made this several times. The first, exactly as the recipe is written. The second and third without the chocolate topping. It is delicious unadorned and a bit too sweet for me with the chocolate. The non vegan, non health foodies as well as the vegans in the gatherings were very impressed and surprised that this contained spinach. My next experiment is to see if I can get the mint flavor without the extract using fresh mint. I’ll wait until summer when mint is prolific for this.
Hey Annabelle, Thank you so much for your feedback! I’m so happy it was a hit. We’re all peppermint fanatics in this house. ;) I will be trying it with fresh mint in the summer too. Mmmmmm can’t wait.
I absolutely love this recipe! I made it for cookbook club a few weeks ago and it was everyone’s favorite of 20 dishes! I do have a question, though: how long does it last in the freezer? Thank you!
Aww that makes me so happy! Thank you :) It should last in the freezer for 1-2 months. Making sure it’s frozen solid first, I then wrap it with plastic wrap or tinfoil tightly and place it inside a freezer bag or an airtight container.
Thank you! Even my kids, who will not eat anything that a green vegetable has touched, couldn’t get enough of it. Delicious!
Looks yummy!
Question: why do I need to soak the cashews in boiled water? Could not normal soaking for 6 hours be fine? I’m just concerned losing the nutrients by pouring boiled water over the nuts.
Thank you!
Oh great question (I meant to clarify this!), I used it as a “quick soak” method, but soaking for a longer time (6 to 10 hours) in regular room temp water is totally fine too :)
Quite the drool-worthy recipe! Just the smell of it is enough to get the saliva glands hopping.
But I have been having trouble with getting it to freeze solid even overnight. It’s not the freezer; everything else freezes fine. I have been using commercially available cashew butter (I assume you mean the kind that’s like peanut butter) BUT I have had to substitute soy milk for almond milk due to an almond allergy. I freeze it in a sealed plastic container. It still tastes great but is a tad too gooey in the center! Is it the milk that is the problem, do you think?
Cheers!
Hey Floyd, Thanks for trying this out! It could be the soy milk (it’s higher in protein than almond so not sure if that would impact it) or the cashew butter. I would check the cashew butter label to make sure that it only says “cashews” on the label and doesn’t have any other ingredients added to it.