The Simple After-Dinner Butter Mint

This recipe is adapted from a “Buttermint Twists” recipe I found on the Land O Lakes web site. I was looking for a simple butter mint recipe. I use the mints to make a cookie on a long list of holiday cookies I will bake in the coming weeks. The cookie recipe calls for butter mints which crushed and added to the cookie dough give it a subtle, but noticeable mint flavor. I’m crazy about the cookies, but as I think about it, I don’t recall that they were ever mentioned by my cookie recipients, who often tell me which cookies they love the most. I make a mental notes on their comments, but with all the other stuff I keep crammed in my head, who knows?

Anyway, I didn’t want to buy a bag of whole bag of butter mints, when the cookie recipe calls for only a scant cup of mints. So, I searched for a simple butter mint recipe and Voila!  They taste just like the mints I remember loving when I was a child.

Buttermints

1/4 cup softened butter

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar

3 tablespoons light or heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 to 2 drops food color (optional)

(Above is the original recipe cut in half, because I didn’t need that many mints. But, as I think about it, maybe next holiday cookie bake-off, I will make the whole recipe and add some to the packages of cookies I give to family and friends. If you love mints go to the LOL website and try the full version.)

Put softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping down sides occasionally, until creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients, sugar, cream and mint extract. Continue beating and scraping down for another 2-4 minutes until mixture forms a soft dough.

Now here you can get creative and divide dough using a scant drop of color for each section of dough. I used only red color, because I want my cookies to have a pinkish hue.

Place dough, on a surface lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar and knead until smooth. Immediately cover with plastic food wrap to prevent drying out. Roll 1 heaping tablespoon of dough into 4-inch rope. (If you have more than one color dough, again get creative and twist colored ropes together.) Add more powdered sugar, if necessary, when rolling. Cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces. Place twists onto waxed paper-lined plate or baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Let mints stand uncovered at room temperature until surface is dry (8-12 hours). I left them overnight.

Store by layering mints between sheets of waxed paper in airtight container. Refrigerate up to 1 month or, store in freezer up to 2 months.

I’ll probably never buy store-bought butter mints again. And the beauty of it is, I only had to roll and cut out a few. Since you must crush the mints for the cookie recipe, I made a few as a test and just crumbled the rest of the dough and left it to dry. Simple!