Recipe Round Up ~ Melt-in-your-mouth Buttermints

Sherry from Semicolon is hosting this month's Recipe Round Up and she requested Holiday Recipes, specifically "those special Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hannukah recipes that make your family’s celebration a little richer and those that get you all into the holiday spirit".

Since DOZENS of great recipes were posted the week Lisa-the-Food-Snob hosted Fun Monday, I decided to go with a holiday treat, half of which we eat, and half of which we give away (*give or take a percentage) (and be sure to follow Lisa's links for some DELICIOUS recipes!).

Noni's Melt-in-your-mouth Buttermints

Noni is my mother-in-law and she s.m.o.k.e.s. in the kitchen (the "good" kind).  She has made THOUSANDS of these mints over her lifetime, and has passed on the art form to me and my daughter.  They only require a few ingredients and pressing out the mints goes pretty quickly.

Here's what you need:

1 Box 10X Confections Sugar
3/4 stick of margarine, melted (yes, margarine, NOT butter...oh, the irony!)
2-3 Tbl evaporated milk
8-9 drops Peppermint OIL
Food coloring, if desired

Mix it all together; make a stiff dough (similar to Play Doh); pinch off enough mint dough to fill mold; press out onto waxed paper.  Allow 24 hours to air dry (but you can sneak a bite whenever you want ;) ).

That's it, folks. 

But, to help you out, here are a few additional "Cook's Notes":

• When Noni says "10x Confectioners Sugar", she means it.  I've been too chicken to try it with anything that doesn't say "10x".

• Peppermint OIL is NOT the same thing as Peppermint EXTRACT.  Be prepared to pay A LOT (but don't buy more than an ounce--a little lasts for YEARS, literally).  Also, you won't find this in a grocery store; you'll find it in a PHARMACY that compounds prescriptions.  Apparently, online would be the way to go, but I didn't realize that when I bought mine (and it's lasted for several years....).  I've never substituted extract for the oil, so I don't know if that would work.  Come to think of it, I've never substituted butter for the margarine.  I don't cross Noni...evah!

• Don't be tempted to use PLASTIC molds you can find at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.;  either search on-line or try a specialty candy store.  Rubber molds are easy to use when pressing out individual mints, plastic wouldn't last very long.

• If you'd like more than one color per batch, divide your dough after adding only 1 Tblsp of evaporated milk.  Then add add color a drop or two at a time--a little goes a loooong way and you can always add more; you can't remove it, though.  If it's still dry, THEN add a bit more liquid.

• Number of mints/batch depends on the size of your mold.  For instance, the fleur-de-lis mold pictured above is VERY deep--it requires almost twice as much dough as the peppermint-shaped mold on the right.

• Mints keep 3-4 weeks (longer if you freeze them in an air-tight container).

• Package them nicely and use as hostess gifts, teacher gifts, or gifts for people you want to treat to a little something special--they're FABULOUS cercies  sursees  surcies!

OOooo!  I'll be hosting Recipe Round Up in January and I hope you'll join in!  I've chosen "Crowd-pleasers" as the theme, so that can cover everything from main courses to casseroles to side dishes to appetizers to DESSERT!  Anything you're "known" for at parties or pot lucks or family gatherings (as long as it'll feed a small army) would be perfect.  Visit Rebecca for details and I'll post a reminder next month :).