Butter Mints

These were fun. There's just something about them that screams old-timey candy shop on main street. Maybe because one time I was on a main street and I had ice cream called "after-dinner-mint ice cream".

Easy, too. I thought that I was going to be able to make them without a trip to the grocery store, but alas. We didn't have powdered sugar. Like, we had sweetened condensed milk, but no powdered sugar. Since when does that happen?

So just mix up your butter and salt, then add the sugar, milk, and extract. Then add color and roll/mush together (a long time I might add) and roll into logs and cut and you're done!

Now, don't be worried that you'll need more butter. I know, it looks like it'll never in a million years be enough butter. I was a little more than skeptical. But it worked.

I actually made two batches of these. The first were the super adorable, baby shower perfect purple and white. Then, I had the amazing idea to make blue ones. Crystal blue. In honor of BREAKING BAD!!! So excited for the premier tomorrow!

This is a really versatile recipe. I didn't have quite enough condensed milk for the second batch, so when I was rolling them and they just were not coming together enough, I added a little bit of water and it worked fine. And one time a long time ago, I made a butter mint recipe from a magazine and it was a penguin and it was sooo cute! So you can make penguins in addition to pillows and meth!

Recipe (adapted from Averie Cooks):

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon (or more) peppermint extract
food coloring

Beat butter and salt for about 1 minute. Add sugar, milk, and extract and mix again. Add food coloring if you are using it and roll until it comes together in a ball. Roll into logs and cut.

You could actually add the food coloring at two different spots in the recipe. You could put it in before you roll into a ball, or after. I added it after I rolled it for the purple batch, and before for the blue. I don't know if this is related, but I used gel coloring for the blue and I found it harder to get the color to disperse that time. It was probably a combination of the texture of the coloring and of the dough.

Okay. Now for what all I changed from the original. First, I used less sugar. That's all up to you and how it turns out. If it looks too wet, add more sugar. Easy. Second, I put in a little more than 1/2 a teaspoon of extract. Do what you like, but always taste before you do any crazy amounts. Also, you can use different flavors of extract. Probably not together unless you like that sort of thing, but you could easily do spearmint or something if you wanted. But I don't like spearmint. So don't send any of those my way. You could even forgo the mint and do orange or something. That would be nice!

This point gets it's own paragraph. So. My dough didn't come together in a dough when I was using the mixer. It was very crumbly. I want to say gravel-y. See picture above. But when I squished it with my hands, it came together. But it took more than a little bit of mixing/kneading/squishing to get it to where it needed (ha) to be to be able to roll into logs. In fact, if I was working with one portion of it and when to get another, I had to warm that one up in my hands before I could roll it or it would crumble. So just be warned. 

Also, something odd happened when I took these out of the refrigerator. There were little dots of, I don't know, it seemed like condensation or something. I thought maybe it was some of the extract coming out of them, but I really have no clue. Any guesses?