After Eight mints were usually reserved for company visits. (Well, in my family, you were lucky if the mints made it until after four.) We even had a silver-plated container to hold the box. My mom was the portrait of sophistication as she passed the mints around, bathed in Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion perfume, asking if she could boil anyone another cup of Nescafé.
These mints reminded me of those company visits and After Eights. I realize that mints made with mashed potatoes might not sound too appetizing. But they’re pretty good. So long as you mash the potatoes really good. (No one likes a chunky mint.) And since potatoes are vegetables, it's safe to assume there’s a vitamin or two in each fluorescent one.
½ cup mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon peppermint flavouring
Food colouring to suit
2 ½ cups sifted icing sugar (see note)
Combine potatoes and half the sugar, add flavouring and colouring. Mix in remaining sugar until still. Knead until smooth. Roll into long rolls, then cut into bite-sized pieces. This mixture may be divided and different colours added – with one left plain (e.g. red, green, yellow, white). Good!
Note: I used more icing sugar to get the right consistency for kneading. It ended up being closer to 3½ cups.
Wow, those are really...bright. What kind of food coloring do they sell up there anyway?
ReplyDeleteThese mints sound kind of good, actually, and better than my recipe for after dinner mints: let blobs of toothpaste dry on edge of sink. Serve.
I love "asking if she could boil anyone another cup of Nescafé..." You need to get your mom to do a guest post.
Funny you should ask about the food colouring, Veg-o-matic. I'm about to launch a new line called "Caker Colouring." The two colours I used for the mints were Nuclear Yellow and Hot Flash Pink. Be on the lookout for them next time you're watching QVC.
DeleteWhile dried blobs of toothpaste doesn't sound very appetizing, I can imagine that your dentist is poorer than mine. Icing sugar comes with a heavy price tag.
I'll see if I can get my mom to agree to a post. I think there's a star waiting in the wings...
Why use real mashed potatoes when there's a box of instant in the pantry?
ReplyDeleteYou raise a very valid point, Godzilaw. See, folks? Cakers don't simply offer shortcuts. We go one step further by offering shortcuts to the shortcuts.
DeleteThese would also count as a veg and starch.
DeleteYou'd have to prepare the potato flakes with just hot water, rather than the milk and butter/marg that you'd normally use to reconstitute the flakes, otherwise you'd have fat and dairy in your mints, which would affect both the texture and flavour, as well as significantly shortening their shelf life. I can't imagine that cold potato mints are intended to last long, but after a couple of days out, milk products start to smell like sour death.
DeleteEven worse, they probably taste like sour death, too. Not that I've ever actually tasted sour death.
DeleteWow, you were really fancy, we keep the towels on. Those mints sound AWESOME!!
ReplyDeleteFifi Laru, my mom kept our living room furniture so well covered, we didn't even know what the couch looked like for the first three years we had it.
DeleteEh...I don't know how I feel about this. What if you use garlic mashed?
ReplyDeleteBARF.
Wouldn't mashed garlic defeat the purpose of a breath mint in the first place?
DeleteMy mother added icing sugar to a hot boiled potato until the potato wouldn't hold anymore sugar, rolled them into balls, the balls into cocoa and then into flaked coconut. She made these "snowballs" every Christmas. They were so sweet, they made our teeth ache.
ReplyDeletePeople gave me a hard time about this recipe, but I bet there's potato starch in store-bought mints. I'm very familiar with the "teeth aching" thing. It describes most of my childhood. Needless to say, I kept my dentist busy.
DeleteWhile this sounds totally disgusting, it's probably way less disgusting than what's in actual store-bought mints. Starch, sugar, dye....as long as you don't think about it, I'm sure it tastes great.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Kate. And the "don't think, just eat" rule applies to most caker fare.
DeleteMy partner, who's family is from Québec, introduced me to this candy they made at home, they call it Bonbons Aux Patates (I wonder what's in it). Take one small cooked (boiled and peeled) potato, mash it well in a mixing bowl with a fork. Add enough icing sugar so it is a stiff dough and not sticky (depending on the size of your potato, could be 2-3 cups. Use a very small potato the first time you do this.) Then, roll it out to about 1/4" thick rectangle and spread liberally with peanut butter. Roll it up like you're making cinnamon roll and refrigerate a bit to stiffen up (or not, just go to the next step). Cut into many tiny slices, as small as you can manage as these are very sweet. Store whatever's left tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or an airtight container in the fridge. Oh these are awesome and a big hit!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this recipe, Rana. I'll have to try it out sometime. Although, I'm not sure if the addition of peanut butter takes the original recipe to new heights...or new lows.
DeletePotato candy! These sound divine, believe it or not. I would make them for a special occasion
ReplyDeleteMy mother made them for Xmas each year. Red and green. Always put in the same candy dish
ReplyDeleteWe made these at grandma’s every year, but with left over mashed potatoes. And, no, butter, mill, salt, pepper, even garlic, does NOT ruin the texture, or the taste! Unbelievable- until you try it! The mint extract is powerful enough to hide anything! We made ours in very pastel colors, rolled them into small balls, flattened them with a drinking glass or our hands & make small ridges with a fork. They looked quite elegant &everyone asked for the recipe. These were served at all kinds of weddings & the colors were easy to customize!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that. I have my doubts about the garlic, but will take your word for it.
DeleteHi, How much does this yield?
ReplyDeleteBrian here. It's been a while since I made these, but I'd say they make somewhere around 50 mints, if you cut them the size as what's in the photo.
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