This chocolate mint candy was born out of my attempt at trying to be creative with all that I can do with my homemade butter mints recipe. And I must say, it was a great success indeed for I truly love how these mint candies turned out.
On my butter mints recipe page, I made the mints in 2 colors and combined them together to form twisted fuschia and gold-colored butter mints.
In this post, I am going to share with you yet another candy idea using the butter mints recipe as the base. There are no changes to the recipe from that in my butter mints page except for one additional item which is the dark chocolate buttons.
Also, the colors I used for the butter mints as I have mentioned earlier were fuchsia and gold while the mint patties on this page are tinted in green using Americolor Mint Green food color.
Overall, I must say, if you love chocolate and mint combination like me, you would really really love these chocolate mint candies. The first bite I took of one of these candies, I was instantly smitten. The taste was almost similar to After Eight mints and so you know how good these patties are.
I have to admit that the After Eight mints were my inspiration when making these candies. And while the mint is the filling in After Eight mints and the chocolate is the cover, in my chocolate mint candy, the mint is the cover and the chocolate is the filling – the opposite. I was too lazy to melt my chocolate buttons and coat them over my mint filling, so I choose to make them with the chocolate as the filling. And since I used chocolate buttons that were thin and about ¾ of an inch wide, it was just so convenient to use them individually to fill my chocolate mints. The size was somewhat just nice to make the mint patties. Regardless of the order of the mint and chocolate, the taste is as good as it can get.
How to Make Chocolate Mints
Ingredients
- Butter
- Icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- Condensed milk or milk
- Salt
- Mint extract
- Mint green food color
- Dark chocolate buttons
Making the Candies
- Measure and place the butter into a mixing bowl. Cream well.
- Sift in the icing sugar, a little at a time. It is important that the icing sugar is sifted before being added to the butter. This is because icing sugar tends to be lumpy and your mints will end up with those tiny lumps if you don't sift the sugar. Also, when adding the icing sugar, it is important that you do it in little batches. This is simply to avoid the icing sugar from flying all over as you start mixing it.
- Once the icing sugar is all mixed in, you can add the condensed milk and mint essence. At this stage, the mixture will be crumbly and that is fine.
- An important note about mint essence is that you add it in small increments. My recipe below yields mildly minted candies. If you prefer a stronger mint flavor, you can increase the mint essence. However, do it in small increments to avoid adding too much mint into your candies.
- Next is the coloring. I used a mint green color to match the mint taste. You can color yours to your liking. Again, start with just a tiny bit of color to avoid too intensely colored candies.
- At this point, if the candy mixture still appears crumbly, knead it a little with your hands. The heat in your hands will help to bring the mixture together.
Shaping the candy
- Divide the candy into half tablespoon scoop size. You can do this by scooping the mixture with a ½ tablespoon measuring spoon.
- Form each scoop into a ball and flatten it.
- Place one chocolate button in the center and cover it with the candy from the sides.
- Once the chocolate is fully covered, press the mint candy between your palms to smoothen any creases and to shape it.
- Continue with the process for all the scooped mints mixture.
- Once done, place the mints on a large tray. Let them rest at room temperature, overnight.
- The next day, turn them over and continue to let them sit for another day before consuming them.
Notes
How much mint to use?
- The amount of mint you use in these chocolate candies is really up to you. If you prefer a stronger mint taste, feel free to add a bit more of mint extract than what is mentioned in the recipe below.
- It is advisable though, to start with a little amount first. Try it out and add more if you like. Too much mint might result in mint patties that are too strong of a mint taste to suit anyone’s liking.
Best type of chocolate for the mints candy
- While my recipe below calls for use of dark chocolate buttons, you can replace them with milk chocolate or white chocolate. I personally prefer dark chocolate but the its really up to your preference on what you want to use.
How to shape the mints?
- To make sure all my mint patties are of equal size, I used my measuring spoon to scoop the mints. I used a ‘½ tablespoon’ measuring spoon for these patties.
- Once the candy mixture is scooped, flatten them as much as you can, place a chocolate button in the center and cover the chocolate up with the excess flattened mint at the sides. And then press the patties in between your palms to smooth and flatten them. You can also use the back of a drinking glass to flatten the candy.
Storing the chocolate candy
- This recipe yields approximately 420g of mint mixture. With ½ tablespoon mint mixture for each patty, I managed to get approximately 30 patties.
- Similar to the butter mints, these mint candies also need drying time. This means you would need to rest them for at least 2 days before consuming them. That allows the mint to dry and firm up. And you need 2 days simply to allow each side of the patties to dry and firm up. I turn them over after one day of drying so that the other side also gets an equal chance of setting.
- I prefer to keep my chocolate mint candy at room temperature. That way, the chocolate filling is soft when bitten into and matches the texture of the mint. Refrigerating the mints will give you a soft exterior and a hard chocolate interior. If you like it that way, feel free to keep your candies chilled.
Chocolate Mints Candy Recipe
Here is the full, printable version of the chocolate mints candy recipe:
Chocolate Mints
Ingredients
- 60 g butter
- 360 g icing sugar sifted
- 1 tablespoon condensed milk or milk
- A pinch of salt
- ⅛ teaspoon mint extract
- Mint green food color
- Dark chocolate buttons
Instructions
- Sift icing sugar to remove lumps. Set aside.
- In a clean bowl, cream butter until smooth (with a paddle attachment). Add icing sugar, a little at a time and mix until well combined.
- The mixture may appear crumbly at this point and that is perfectly fine.
- Add condensed milk, mint extract and green food color and continue beating. If the mixture is still crumbly, try pressing the mixture with your fingers, if it comes together, it is ready for rolling and cutting.
- Continue kneading by hand until the mixture comes together into a ball and the color is well distributed.
- Scoop the mixture with a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon. Roll it to form a ball and then flatten it with your fingers. Place a chocolate butter in the center and carefully cover the chocolate from the sides with the flattened fondant mixture.
- Once the chocolate is completely covered, press the patty in between your palms to flatten and smooth the mint mixture. Place the chocolate filled mint patty on a parchment lined tray. Continue until all the mixture has been used up to make the patties.
- Let the patties rest at room temperature overnight. The next day, turn them over and let them set again for another day until they have dried and set well. Store the mints in a candy jar in a cool and dry place.
Nutrition
And that’s my chocolate mint candy recipe for you.
Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
- Coconut Candy - A Quick and Easy Treat
- Coconut Candy - A Homemade Treat
- 75th Birthday Cake Idea for Dad
- Homemade Butter Mints
- Cream Cheese Candy
Enjoy!
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