Any tips for perfecting the Mint Triangles & Banana Trifle recipe?

[lovecookn]

I made both of these for the first time yesterday to take to dinner at my in-laws along with the peanut butter trifle and mini carrot cakes. There latter two were a breeze to make. The first two gave me a ton of trouble!So maybe someone can tell me where I went wrong...The banana trifle from the current SB- there was not nearly enough of the pudding mixture to complete the layers and the trifle bowl was only a little over half full when I had used up my ingredients. I ended up adding a 5th banana, 6 more crushed crackers and making up another box of pudding + whip topping, because I wanted to fill the bowl at least 3 quarters of the way full.The mint triangles I had never done either but had tasted them at a mtg when another consultant brought them. So it calls for 2 packs of cookies which made a really thick layer of crust in the med sheet pan. Then is says you could use almond bark or the candy coating melts. So I have no idea where to get almond bark, I usually use the candy melts and get those from Michael's the craft store. I assume you are supposed to use white because it also says to add 6 drops of green food coloring. I did not have white on hand but I did have a pack of green so I thought I'd try that and omit the food coloring. I thought that maybe with the white cream cheese the green would lighten up... but it did not. The color it self wasn't too appetizing :yuck: because it was such a dark kelly green color. However the color was the least of my problems. When combined, the cream cheese and candy melts were thick and ooozzy. My kids said it looked like Flubber...you know, the disney movie...and it did! The picture shows the top layer being applied with a spreader but no need for that. Mine just poured right on. I don't think it fully set up like it should have either. They were a pain to cut into because the green stuff was soft and would stick all over the mini serving spatula. The green layer was very thin as well. In the picture they are about the same thickness, the choc crust and the light green top layer.Somewhere I went wrong but the color of the candy coating melts really should not have mattered right?Anyone ever have these troubles????

 

[wadesgirl]

Did you whip your whip topping too much or use a smaller size than requested? I've made this numerous times at parties and it's usually 3/4 or fuller. I do normally add more graham crackers to each layer but have never had a problem with the pudding/whip topping part.Not sure on the mint triangles. When I made them I don't think I had enough almond bark so my topping was almost transparent looking instead of creamy looking.As far as almond bark you can find it in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips. It comes in white and chocolate. And is usually in a big brick.

 

[ChefKelebel]

Not sure about the Trifle but I did a "bake off" with my friends and the same thing happened with only one batch. This was the batch that my friend made using the candy melts which she melted for toooooooo long in the microwave and it looked like goop. We tried to freeze it to harden it up a bit and it really didn't make it look much more appealing.
My guess is that bark is really the way to go. I found it at Ralphs (a grocery store in So. Cal.) in the baking section in little 2 oz. bricks (super nice, I just used 5 each time!) Mine came out good each time I've done it (now about 5 times, I'm on mint overload right now:yuck I'd have to say just use the vanilla bark with the green food coloring and watch your microwave (20 second intervals, it took about 4 times to melt well)
Good luck next time, remember...Pampered not Perfect
Kelly

 

[esavvymom]

Almond bark is usually found int he baking aisle of the grocery store- look with the other Chocolate and Baking chips. It doesn't usually say "almond bark" in my stores- usually just a White Chocolate Coating and a Chocolate (Brown) coating. I've never seen actual almond-flavored...but the one I bought tonight for a recipe has how to make it almond (but that's probably not needed for the recipe- it's mainly the coating)....I bet it would be a thicker texture than the melting candy. Haven't made the triangles myself yet though...sorry.

 

[CathyP]

I've made the Mint Triangles a few times. I also use candy melts and I never feel as if the mixture sets up properly. What I do is put them in the freezer, cut them up, and re-store them in the freezer. The filling seems to stay together better this way and people LOVE them ice cold. Any time I've made them, they're gone in a flash. I did tweak the recipe a bit, though. I cut down on the amount of food coloring (down to 3 drops) 'cos I felt the color was too green as well and I cut the amount of peppermint extract down to 1/4 tsp. One full teaspoon made them so minty, my tongue tingled, but everyone else thought they were great. I did get more complements using less mint, though, so I'm going to continue making them that way.

 

[shelly.nurse]

I made the mint triangles once, first the crust didn't hold together. Then the topping was so thick, I had a hard time spreading it out on the cookie crust. I wasn't big on the flavor either. Not a big fan of chocolate/mint combo.

 

[Ginger428]

If you go behind CC there is a video of Karen & Lisa making the Mint Triangles. Maybe If you watch it, you might see something that might help you....HTH

 

[Shannen]

I made the triangles recently and they turned out fine, other than I bought the choco almond bark so there was no green color to the topping.

One thing I noticed when working with cream cheese is if you use the lowfat kind or neutaful (sp?), it turns out runny. Not sure if you used that, but just a tip. I made frosting with low fat cream cheese and it was dripping instead of staying to the cake. Sometimes you can't cut those corners in terms of calories.