I think the final countdown to Christmas has begun. I don’t dare look at my calendar to confirm, afraid I don’t have as much time as I’m pretending I do to package and put together gifts for neighbors, friends, teachers, service workers, family, kids, husband, chihuahua. There’s totally time, right?
We’re out of school this week, so something lovely needed to be created for the teachers before Friday. I’ve seen the piles of mugs and Starbucks cards sitting forlornly on their desks just before vacation begins, and I always want to give them something useful and unique. So this year, we pulled together a batch of handmade “Altoids.” And holyheck, they are brilliant! Easy, fun, tasty, quick, and totally kid helpable. That’s not a word, whatevs. There’s not time to go back and change that sentence. We’ve got Christmas gifts to make!
All you need is a 1-pound bag of gum paste. I purchased mine in the baking aisle at Joann. The sticker price was 10 bucks a bag, so toting in a 60-percent off coupon really brought the price to a reasonable amount. You’ll also need some red food coloring, peppermint essential oils, and a bit of powdered sugar for dusting.
Here’s how easy the mints are….just open the gum paste and drop in 15-20 drops of peppermint oil. Knead it together until your kitchen smells like a candy cane forest.
Split your gum paste in half, then drop a bit of red coloring paste into one of the halves. Use your sexy hands to knead. Or be smart and grab yourself a pair of kitchen gloves befores you get going.
Grab your mounds of gum paste and split each into half.
Roll into four thick ropes, then place them together, cut the roll in half, then roll into two long, thing ropes.
You want your ropes to be about ½ inch in diameter. Work quickly to keep the exterior of the rope from drying out and looking crumbly. Working on a long piece of parchment or cutting board to protect any workspace from bleeding dye.
With a super-sharp knife, slice the ropes into ¼″ pieces. They might get squished a bit, so gently press them into rounds to make pretty little dots of mints.
Toss all those mints on a baking sheet and allow them to airdry for 48 hours before packaging them.
We purchased a pack of 10 metal bead tins, washed and dried them thoroughly, then hand printed labels for each tin. The 1-pound bag of gum paste made almost a perfect amount of mints to fill 10 small tins, with a handful of extra’s left over for tasting.
Yummy yummy.
Handmade Candy Cane Altoids
Ingredients
- 1 1-pound package of gum paste
- 15-20 drops high quality peppemint essential oils
- ¼ teaspoon red food coloring paste
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 10 small metal tins for wrapping
Instructions
- Open the gum paste and drop in 15-20 drops of peppermint oil. Knead it together until your kitchen smells like a candy cane forest.
- Split the gum paste in half, then drop a bit of red coloring paste into one of the halves. Knead until the red coloring is fully mixed into one half. TIP: grab yourself a pair of kitchen gloves befores you get going.
- Split each mound of gum paste into two.
- Roll into four thick ropes, then place them together, cut the roll in half, then roll into two long, thing ropes.
- You want your ropes to be about ½ inch in diameter. Work quickly to keep the exterior of the rope from drying out and looking crumbly. Working on a long piece of parchment or cutting board to protect any workspace from bleeding dye.
- With a super-sharp knife, slice the ropes into ¼" pieces. They might get squished a bit, so gently press them into rounds to make pretty little dots of mints.
- Toss all those mints on a baking sheet and allow them to airdry for 48 hours before packaging them.
- We purchased a pack of 10 metal bead tins, washed and dried them thoroughly, then hand printed labels for each tin.
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