Friday, December 13, 2013

Butter Mints

IT'S BUTTER MINT TIME!

Now I admit, butter mints seem to fall in that category of love or hate. You either love them or absolutely loathe them and will not touch them. I, of course, love them. But, you make enough of these, and ever so unexpectedly, you may start to develop a healthy dislike for them--although--this might be due to the fact I can no longer taste anything sweet. That could definitely be my problem this year.



Buttermint Recipe

The original site I got the recipe from no longer exists, but wherever I looked, I found the exact same recipe, just different batch sizes. The batch below makes about 450 to 500 mints.

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
Two pound bag of powdered sugar, plus a little extra
4 Tablespoons heavy cream
2  Teaspoons Peppermint extract

Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft and whipped. Slowly add sugar, making sure to beat out any lumps. Add cream and extract. Beat until it's a fine crumble.

On a lightly dusted surface (dusted with that extra powdered sugar), compress and knead dough into a nice satiny ball.

Separate dough into 3 balls.

Knead a few drops of food coloring into each ball. Red, Yellow, Blue, Green -- your choice. Careful, the liquid food coloring likes to squish out and pop back at you, staining your hands and your clothes. Knead each batch until uniform in color. Wrap 2 of the balls in plastic wrap while you work with the third batch.

Now this is where I finally figured a way to roll out the little logs for cutting.



Using a large piece of parchment paper as your rolling surface, pull out a small handful--maybe a 1/4 cup--and roll it out into a 1/2" thick rope.

Cut rope into 1/2" mint pillows.

Slide the cut mints while leaving them on the parchment paper to a tray. Let dry for several days. When the mints are dried and firm enough to handle, store them in air-tight containers until serving.

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