Spring has sprung.
The birds hereabouts are very, very busy nest building.
Lambs and calves are being born.
Pigs are nearing farrowing.
And it is almost St. Valentine’s Day!
Heart shaped mints for your Valentine
Ok, the cynic in me will say just another commercialisation and opportunity for the retail trade etc. to make some money…. but hey why not, they have to live too!
So we had friends coming to dinner at the weekend, and despite all the other pressures of cleaning the house, getting animals fed and watered, and a little bit of nursing! 🙂 I decided to put myself under pressure and revisit the after dinner mints I’d made at Christmas from the December 2011 issue of BBC Good Food.
Let me warn you this is a sticky, sticky job! And also everytime I make these the telephone rings! You try answering touch screen phones with your hands covered in sticky mess…… not good!
Besides the mess they are relatively easy to make and are rather good to eat! 🙂
So go on…. get the ingredients together and impress the love of your life!
Ingredients:
- 225 g/8 oz icing sugar
- 4 – 6 tbsp condensed milk
- 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
- red food colouring (optional)
- Dark chocolate to decorate.
Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Gradually add the condensed milk and the peppermint extract. The first 4 tablespoons of the condensed milk are definitely needed…. but after that I would recommend adding half a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together.
Add in your food colouring – you can add colouring to all the mixture or do as I did and split it in two and just colour one half.
And here’s the messy bit…. and what are the bets the phone will ring!!!!
Sprinkle lots of icing sugar onto a work surface. Shape the dough out and press down with the palms of your hands, moving it about quite a bit and adding more icing sugar if needed. You may find you have to restart this part a couple of times!
When you feel the consistency is right – it should be just like any dough – easy to lift off. Cut into shapes. As we are thinking St. Valentine’s Day I used heart shapes.
Place on baking parchment in a cold room overnight.
Next day melt some dark chocolate. Drizzle or dip…. let your imagine take you!
This quantity makes about 50/60 little heart shapes.
Share with your loved ones! And spread the love!
Spread the love with heart shaped mints and rose petals!
Enjoy!
A Year In Redwood 
Oh – I love these Margaret. I have a recipe for Peppermint bark that I need to dig out and share. Yum. I hope you and A have a lovely Valentines day xx
Peppermint bark sounds nice too! We did a taste test with some shop bought and home made… of course, mine won!
They look great…very professional looking. Bet they taste good too!
Bridget,
Thank you! They do taste good and are quite simple (if sticky) to make!
Thank you for reading!
Margaret
Great idea to give your friends a home-made mint (0r 5!) I see lots of lovely truffle recipes around, but this the first time I’ve seen one for mints. The only ingredient I don’t have is peppermint extract. I will hunt it down! Gorgeous 🙂
Thank you Colette…. the peppermint extract was the only ingredient I didn’t have either… it took a bit of shopping about to get it!
And they keep for about 10 days in the fridge too!
M
They look lovely Margaret – wish I had time to make for tomorrow! Where did you get the peppermint extract? Have been looking for that recently and had a hard time finding!
Lisa,
I had a hard time sourcing it too! Tried a few shops in Galway and eventually got it in Organic Store in Birr!
M