This peppermint creams recipe is so simple, it could easily be the first thing that your children make all by themselves.
There are very few ingredients involved, and lots of potential to get creative with colours and added chocolates or sweets.
It doesn't even matter if the ingredients aren't exactly right; add more or less liquid if you think it needs it.
If your peppermint creams turn out well, you could easily produce enough to make a cute home made gift for Christmas. And if they don't turn out so well, you'll have fun licking the bowl.
So here's how to make Peppermint Creams:
You will need:
A big bowl for mixing. There's lots of icing sugar in this recipe, and it does tend to billow up in the air when you start to mix it.
Wooden spoon (or similar for mixing)
Plates or baking trays to set your mints on whilst they're drying out
Foil to cover your baking trays so they don't stick whilst they dry
Rolling pin (a milk bottle, wine bottle or a big cup will do too).
Ingredients:
A few drops of Peppermint essence
Approx 450g Icing sugar
4 tablespoons of condensed milk
Optional extras: Food colouring, chocolate. Some recipes use egg white instead of condensed milk. See here for that version of the recipe.
Method:
Mix the icing sugar and the condensed milk together to form a thick paste. Add a few drops of peppermint oil. Work it all together until you get a fairly solid lump. Roll this out on a board - use a bit more icing sugar on your rolling pin and surface to stop the peppermint cream from sticking. Cut it into small shapes with a knife or cookie cutters and set these aside on the baking trays to harden. They'll harden in around half an hour.
Variations:
Add food colour for traditional green or any colour other than white mints - blue and pink look pretty. Make the recipe until you have a solid block, then separate that block into smaller pieces. Put a few drops of food colouring on to one of these pieces (more if you want an intense colour). Knead in these drops of food colouring. At first the colour will look marbled, so stop there if this is the effect you want. Keep kneading and the colour will eventually look uniform. Then roll out the piece of peppermint ice, cut into shapes and leave to set.
When your mints have set, you can also melt some chocolate, dip them in, and leave it to harden for home made chocolate peppermint creams.