Mint Candies (known as Pink Cookies in my household)

I've made this recipe annually for 50 odd years to the delight of friends and family.  This buttery smooth candy gets a lot of requests.

This past Christmas, the recipe went missing, as did my favorite rolled spice cookie recipe.  I looked EVERYWHERE and I have sooooo many recipes.  I checked this blog in hopes that I'd posted it here.  But, nope.  I searched the internet which had many recipes for mint candy, most of them involved cream cheese and no cooking.  The recipes I tried were met with disappointment from my test audience, my grandchildren.  

Happily I stumbled across BOTH recipes recently.  I'm posting this now - just in case.   


From top left:  Spice cookies; Pink mints; Pistachio Brittle; Blonde Fudge; Chocolate Crinkle Balls. Bottom left:  Brown Butter Sugar cookies

Looking at this photo makes me long for Christmas.

Mint Patties

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 lb sifted powdered sugar - divided (sifting now is easier than smoothing out lumps later!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp peppermint extract
pinch salt
Food coloring - few drops

On stovetop in 3-quart pan 
Stir butter, corn syrup, and half the powdered sugar over low heat, until bubbly.  Increase heat to medium-low.  

Cook to 220 degrees F, stirring constantly.  Quickly stir in remaining sugar, vanilla, and peppermint extract, pinch of salt, and food coloring.  Remove from heat.  

Stir until mixture holds shape.  Pour onto greased plate. Cool until candy is lukewarm.  Knead until smooth. 

Roll into small balls, press with a fork or a small cookie press.









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