Grandmama Old Fashion Pull Mints Recipes

OLD-FASHIONED BUTTER MINTS

Steps:

• To the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and salt and beat for 1 minute on medium-high speed.
• Add 3 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, milk, peppermint, and beat on medium-low speed until a dough forms. If the dough seems wet, add additional confectioners' sugar until dough combines (I use 3 1/2 cups sugar). The dough will be crumbly but will come together when pinched and squeezed into a ball.
• Taste the batter. If you want a more intense mint flavor, add additional mint extract, to taste (see note below).
• Remove dough from the mixer, separate it into 1 to 4 smaller balls, and add one ball back into the mixer. Add the food coloring of your choice to the ball by squirting the droplets on top of the dough (careful when you turn on the mixer), and paddle on low speed until coloring is well-blended. Coloring will not blend completely into each and every speck of dough if examined extremely closely, but overall, mix until color is uniform. (I separated approximately two-thirds of the dough and made it green using about 15 drops green food coloring and made one-third of the dough red-pink by using about 7 drops red food coloring).
• Wash the mixing bowl and the paddle in between each color change and repeat until all the balls are colored.
• After the dough has been colored, either wrap it with plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container in the refrigerator to be rolled out later or roll it immediately.
• To shape the butter mints, place a golf-ball sized amount of dough in your hands and roll dough into long thin cylinders about 1 centimeter wide. Place cylinders on countertop and with a pizza cutter (or knife - be careful of your counter), slice cylinders into bite-sized pieces, approximately 1 centimeter long.
• Store mints in an airtight container in the refrigerator where they will keep for many weeks.

GRANDMAMA PAMPAS' OLD-FASHION PULL MINTS

Steps:

• Place sugar and 3 tablespoons butter into a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Pour the boiling water over, and stir to dissolve. Allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil. It will boil up in the pot as if it is going to boil over, but it will settle down. Use some of the remaining butter to butter a marble slab.
• When the sugar mixture reaches the soft crack stage of 270 to 280 degrees F (132 to 140 degrees C), remove from the heat immediately. Pour onto the buttered marble slab. Add peppermint oil and food coloring if desired. Butter your hands, and start pulling up pieces of the sugar blob. Keep stretching so that it will not set up. Continue to stretch until it has lost it's shine and is stringier.
• Pull the candy out into one long string, and cut into 1 inch segments using scissors. Store candies in an airtight tin.