Chocolate Mints

Think of pastel-colored after dinner mints that melt in your mouth...  Then, think of Thin Mint cookies or Andes mints... Now smash them together!  It took me a few tries, but I finally got these candies to be chocolaty, minty, and melt-in-your-mouthy!  And the real treat is that they are super easy to make. =)

Ingredients

4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature and soft

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

3 cups 10x powdered sugar (confectioner’s sugar)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 tbsp half and half

Directions

1.  Beat the butter, mint, and sea salt until its mixed well.

2.  Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder together.  Then mix it so the cocoa powder is evenly distributed.  Don't skip this step or you will end up with unevenly flavored mints.

3.  Beat the sugar-cocoa into the butter, one cup at a time, until each cup is incorporated. Go slow so that the sugar does not fly everywhere.

4.  Beat in the half and half.  The mixture will look really crumbly- don't worry, it will come together in the next step.

5.  Take about 1/2 cup of the mixture in your hands and knead it together.  It should have the consistency of play-dough (not too sticky and not too dry).  The dough ball should stick together and look uniform.

6.  Gently roll the ball into a rope about the thickness of your pinky finger.  Cut the rope into 1/2-inch pieces.  The size I make yields about 200 mints total.  Arrange the cut mints in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

7.  Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until all the dough is gone.

8.  Place the cookie sheet in your oven to let the mints dry at least overnight (make sure the oven is turned off).  Taste them to make sure they are dry.  If not, just let them dry out a little longer.

9.  Store it in an airtight container.