Candy Cane & Peppermint Patty Frappés

Happy holidays all! Peppermint is a classic winter holiday flavor, and one of my personal favorites. There was rarely candy or storebought sweets in my house when I was growing up. Holidays were an exception, and I always stuffed my face with peppermint filled chocolates around Christmas time. My mom would buy candy canes to decorate the tree and so of course my sister and I would get our paws on some of those as well. It's been a great many years since I had any interest in sucking on a candy cane, but these peppermint-flavored protein-rich frappés certainly hit the spot!
Yield: 1 large frappé of about 2 cups (500ml)
Macros ​(Candy Cane): 305 calories | 20g protein | 22g fat | 4g net carbs
​Macros ​(Peppermint Patty): 340 calories | 23g protein | 24g fat | 7.5g net carbs
Prep: 10 minutes
Equipment required: a blender
Storage: for 1-2 hours in an insulated cup/bottle.
Ingredients:
  • 1 cup (about 150g) ice cubes (or more)
  • 1 cup (240ml) unsweetened soy or pea milk or plant-based milk of choice ✎
  • ¼ cup (60ml) canned full-fat coconut milk or low-carb plant-based cream of choice
  • (for Peppermint Patty version) 3 tablespoons (15g) unsweetened cocoa/cacao powder 
  • 2 tablespoons (14g) vanilla-flavored protein powder ✎
  • 2 tablespoons (25g) granulated allulose or equivalent in keto-friendly sweetener of choice
  • ¾ teaspoon sugar-free peppermint extract ✎​
Directions:
  1. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until ice is well crushed.
  2. Enjoy soon after making.
Make It Lower Fat/Calorie: replace the coconut milk with additional soy or pea milk. This will reduce the calories per frappé to 220 (Candy Cane) and 255 (Peppermint Patty). Protein will increase slightly (by 1g) and net carbs decrease slightly (by 0.5g).
✎ Notes:
  • Using an alternative milk will likely reduce the amount of protein in the frappé. A cup of soy or pea milk tends to have roughly 8g protein. Beware of high carb plant-based milks such as oat. Check your labels.
  • You could use more protein powder, but I find that the flavor of protein powders can overwhelm the other ingredients and so I prefer to use a high protein milk and less protein powder. If using more powder, you may wish to reduce the amount of additional sweetener. A chocolate protein powder could be used for the peppermint patty variation.
  • I'm using an oil-based peppermint extract. This contributes 30 calories to the macros. If your extract isn't oil-based, you can omit these calories. Potency of extracts will vary, so you may with to start with ½ teaspoon and add a little at a time until you find an amount that suits your palate. Note that adding too much to the peppermint patty version of the frappe will hide the flavor of the chocolate and so you may wish to use less with this version.
  • Unfortunately, the candy canes and chocolates in the picture are not vegan keto. Making vegan keto peppermint patties is on my to-do list and I will be sure to let you know when I've created a recipe. In the meantime, ChocZero makes some vegan keto peppermint filled chococolate squares that have good reviews.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the coconut milk (Aroy-D), protein powder (Vega Sport), and peppermint extract (Simply Organic).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.