Homemade Butter Mints

Butter mints are one of those weird things that I forget that I love until I see them sitting in a candy dish at a baby shower. Those little pillows of chalky, pastel goodness are weirdly addictive.

I was putzing around twitter the other day when I saw someone post a picture of a homemade version of these……and I couldn’t get them out of my head.Which is kind of unfortunate, because right now I have about a kajillion other things that I should be doing instead of making these….start packing the apartment for our upcoming move to NY, move ahead on some music therapy projects, and oh yeah, start getting ready for little Ava’s arrival in August! But, as Steve knows well…once I have an idea on the brain, no one can rest until it’s in motion!

These were actually super fun to make….and incredibly easy! It’s kind of like making play dough (although I’ve never actually made play dough). I could see this being a really fun kid-friendly activity in the future.

You just mix butter, powdered sugar, salt, sweetened condensed milk, and peppermint extract in a stand mixer until it forms a crumbly dough. Take it out, mush it around with your hands a little and you get a really flexible, dough similar to play dough. Get out some food coloring (I have these FANTASTIC gels courtesy of my mother-in-law!) and divide the dough into as many sections as you have colors.

I took a toothpick and added a tiny bit of the gel color to each of my little dough balls. Then I just smushed the ball around until the color worked itself through (yeah, we’re super technical around here).

*I should note that the process might be a little different if you were using regular food coloring…probably a bit messier. You might want to mix it in the stand mixer instead of using your hands.

Once you have all your colors mixed in, you’re ready to start making little mints!!

Roll each of your colored dough balls (teehee) into log shapes that are about 1 cm thick.

Using a pizza cutter, cut each of the logs into 1 cm pieces.

Aaaannd that’s it! You have butter mints!

And if you have a husband that is OCD like mine..you can line them all up perfectly like this.

Here’s the official recipe!

Homemade Butter Mints

adapted from Averie Cooks

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar plus more for rolling out

1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Food coloring (I used the Wilton Gel Coloring)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and salt until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and sweetened condensed milk and mix. Add in the peppermint extract – make sure you taste as you go! Peppermint extract can be awfully strong!

2. The dough will still look pretty crumbly at this point. Test it by pinching some of it with your fingers. If it sticks together, then you’re good! If it’s sticky, you need more powdered sugar….if it falls apart, add just a little more sweetened condensed milk.

3. Work the dough with your hands until it resembles the texture of play dough. Divide the dough into as many pieces as you would like to color. If you’re using coloring gels, put a tiny bit of color on each piece of dough and work it through with your hands. If you are using regular food coloring, mix it in the color in the bowl of your stand mixer. (Make sure you wash the bowl out between colors!)

4. Once you have all your color worked into the dough. Roll each ball out into a long rope that is about 1 cm thick. Use a pizza cutter, cut the rope into 1 cm pieces.

5. Lay your butter mints out on a flat surface and let them dry out for a few hours or so. (You can totally eat a few along the way….) These will keep in a covered container in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

Enjoy!!