1. Add the salt to 420 g of the powdered sugar and mix them together. (420 g equals 3 cups of homemade or 3 1/2 cups of store-bought.)
   

2. Add the two extracts to the light coconut milk, then pour the mixture into the bowl with the powdered sugar. Add the 40 g of shortening and start mixing the peppermint filling together.

3. The shortening will not fully incorporate until you start kneading the filling. First, though, you need to get the filling thick enough to knead. I had to add another 140 g (1 cup) of my homemade powdered sugar. You may or may not need to add more, depending on the sugar you use and the humidity in your house. Once your filling is stiff enough, knead the filling for several minutes until it is smooth, pliable, and no longer sticking to the bowl or your hand. 

4. For patties: Divide the filling in half. Pat half of the filling into a circle on a square of waxed paper. Top with another square of waxed paper, then roll out the filling until it is about 1/4″ thick. Transfer the rolled-out filling (still on the bottom piece of waxed paper) to a cookie sheet. Chill in the freezer for about five minutes. Use small cookie cutters (about 1 1/2″ tall) to cut out shapes. Peel off the scraps, and roll them out again (or use them to make truffles.) Repeat with the other half of the filling. Chill the shapes (still on the waxed paper) in the fridge for 30 minutes. You can chill them longer if you need to, but then you will need to cover the shapes with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.

5. For truffles, scoop or pinch small balls of filling. You want them to be about one inch in diameter. Roll each ball in your hands to shape it, then place it on a sheet of waxed paper. Chill the balls (still on the waxed paper) in the fridge for 30 minutes. You can chill them longer if you need to, but then you will need to cover the shapes with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.

6. When you are ready to coat your candies, temper your chocolate, and get half of your peppermint shapes out of the fridge. Place one shape or ball upside down onto the tempered chocolate. Use a fork to flip the shape over, making sure it is completely covered in the chocolate. Lift it out of the chocolate, scrape the bottom of the fork on the edge of the bowl to remove excess chocolate, then carefully place the dipped candy on a sheet of waxed paper to harden. Get the rest of your shapes out of the fridge and dip them as well. (I still had some balls left when my chocolate level got too low to keep dipping, so I just rolled them around in the remaining chocolate. They weren’t pretty, but still tasted great!)

You can serve the candies as soon as the chocolate hardens, but wait a day if you can for the flavor and texture of the filling to mature. They will be good for a couple of weeks, but ours never last that long!