Butter Mints

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I am not a fan of peppermint, however I make a couple exceptions to that rule. Hershey chocolate peppermint candy canes, Oreo peppermint bark, and butter mints are my three minty indulgences. I have not tried making candy canes, but maybe someday that will change. This year I decided butter mints were going to be on the baking list. If you don’t like mint these can be a bit much, however you can always decrease the amount of peppermint oil to help with that. These will definitely be getting added to the yearly baking list, just because they really are quite simple and make for a pretty addition to tins.

My family does have a recipe for butter mints. Or at least I’m assuming we do because Momma has mentioned her Aunt making them. It’s probably in the church cookbook if I look. However this recipe was a Pinterest find from Trisha Haas at Salty Side Dish. Yet another really neat website with lots of yummy looking things, I need to add to my explore list. Check out her site and let me know if you find something else I’ve got to try out.

Here’s what you will need

• 1 stick butter, softened
• peppermint oil (not extract)
• powdered sugar
• vanilla extract
• half and half
• salt
• food coloring of choice

You can use your stand mixer or a hand mixer for these

However when you get started the stand mixer won’t fluff one stick of butter real well. You need one stick or 1/2 cup softened butter. Fluff it up some in your mixer to start with or as much as you can if using your stand mixer. Then slowly cream together 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon half and half, a dash of salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil. To start with, just get it so that it is dry and crumbly. ** be careful not to add too much half and half; if your powdered sugar is sifted you won’t need as much as if it is clumping together

Add 2 drops of your choice of food coloring and beat until smooth. Get a damp paper towel or hand towel and put it over you bowl while you work so the dough doesn’t start drying out on you. This is especially important if having to repeatedly stop to keep your boisterous one year old from causing you hearing damage as he bangs the double boiler lid on every surface of your kitchen. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on your flat surface to roll the dough out on. You don’t need a ton, but you may have to add more as you get more out of your bowl.

Remove a palm sized amount of dough and roll it into a long snake until the dough is about 1/2 inch in diameter. Using a sharp knife cut them into bite sized pieces and place on a cookie sheet. Let them dry overnight and possibly part of the next day if you got them a smidge too moist like me. The added bonus to this is that as they dry your kitchen/house will smell amazing!

How do I know they are done?

They should be dried out somewhat, though still soft. They shouldn’t smush on you unless you push down hard on them. The color should also be duller and not as damp looking.

Wait a minute, I just realized you said peppermint oil not extract

If you’re like me you completely skipped over that detail. Like got everything ready, butter is nice and soft, you glance one last time at the recipe and smack your forehead because you just realized you read the recipe wrong. Yep we put everything away and ended up moving it to another day because I didn’t have peppermint oil.

Why do I need peppermint oil? Technically you don’t. You can use peppermint extract; they just won’t be as strong. You also can increase the amount of peppermint extract you use to make them stronger, but then you need to decrease your amount of half and half or prepare to let them sit out quite a bit longer. Peppermint oil does what you need without having to do any recalculations. And they really are better stronger; even if you don’t care for mint.