Old Fashioned Butter Mints Recipe 445

OLD-FASHIONED BUTTER MINTS

Steps:

• To the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and salt and beat for 1 minute on medium-high speed.
• Add 3 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, milk, peppermint, and beat on medium-low speed until a dough forms. If the dough seems wet, add additional confectioners' sugar until dough combines (I use 3 1/2 cups sugar). The dough will be crumbly but will come together when pinched and squeezed into a ball.
• Taste the batter. If you want a more intense mint flavor, add additional mint extract, to taste (see note below).
• Remove dough from the mixer, separate it into 1 to 4 smaller balls, and add one ball back into the mixer. Add the food coloring of your choice to the ball by squirting the droplets on top of the dough (careful when you turn on the mixer), and paddle on low speed until coloring is well-blended. Coloring will not blend completely into each and every speck of dough if examined extremely closely, but overall, mix until color is uniform. (I separated approximately two-thirds of the dough and made it green using about 15 drops green food coloring and made one-third of the dough red-pink by using about 7 drops red food coloring).
• Wash the mixing bowl and the paddle in between each color change and repeat until all the balls are colored.
• After the dough has been colored, either wrap it with plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container in the refrigerator to be rolled out later or roll it immediately.
• To shape the butter mints, place a golf-ball sized amount of dough in your hands and roll dough into long thin cylinders about 1 centimeter wide. Place cylinders on countertop and with a pizza cutter (or knife - be careful of your counter), slice cylinders into bite-sized pieces, approximately 1 centimeter long.
• Store mints in an airtight container in the refrigerator where they will keep for many weeks.

HOMEMADE BUTTER MINTS & CHOCOLATE BUTTER MINTS

Steps:

• In a mixing bowl, combine the soft butter and salt. Beat for a moment to combine. Add the condensed milk and beat again to combine. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time, beating to combine thoroughly. Add the peppermint, taste and adjust as needed. The dough will be mostly crumbs, but should stick together when squeezed into a ball. It should not be sticky at all.
• Remove the dough from the mixer and pull off golf ball size sections. (At this point, you can also wrap the dough tightly and store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to roll them out.) Roll each ball out into a long skinny strip about 1/2" in diameter. Slice the strips into tiny mint-size pieces. I used a pizza cutter to easily roll back and forth and slice them quickly.
• Alternative method (for the impatient): Roll the dough out to approximately 1/4" thick. Use a knife or pizza cutter to slice the dough into 1/2" (or smaller) squares. They might not be as cute or as authentic looking, but it will only take a couple minutes to cut out all of the mints.
• Spread the soft pieces across a baking sheet and allow them to sit at room temperature overnight. You could speed up the process and put them in the refrigerator uncovered. Mine were fine on the counter though. When they have hardened enough to store, transfer the mints to an airtight container. Enjoy!