I wanted to make something Christmassy with the kids last night but a total lack of energy meant that it really needed to be something super simple which is why I decided on Peppermint creams.
Based on my very vague memory of making them at school when I was in the infants, I optimistically thought that we could easily make perfect looking Peppermint Creams in less than half an hour with minimal mess and no fighting.
I laid out the ingredients that we’d need, made myself a cup of tea and shouted the kids downstairs to join me for some festive fun.
I have no idea how some parents get their children to craft and cook with them after school because all my two really want to do is play on their xbox or send Snapchat messages to the friends they’ve left not half an hour ago. It took them at least five minutes to appear at the table and even then, they didn’t look particularly impressed with my suggestion that we do something together. They looked even less enthused when I explained that as I haven’t been up to doing much with them lately that I’d be trying to do something simple with them every day when they got home from school.
All electronics were banished and we started our first festive fun session of the year.
How (not) to make peppermint creams
250g Icing Sugar
125g condensed milk
2 capfuls peppermint extract
(Optional) A few drops of green food colouring.
- So, the recipe for this is basically mix all of the above together, which we did. Unfortunately we then ended up having to add more condensed milk as it was just powder still but the kids were arguing over who would add it so somehow way more than we wanted to add ‘fell into the bowl’ which meant the addition of more icing sugar.
- Then Miss Frugal decided we needed more peppermint flavouring but that she didn’t need a cap to measure an actual capful as she could do it herself. About six capfuls later she admitted defeat and acknowledged that the best way to measure a capful is to use a cap!
- Master Frugal decided that it wasn’t green enough at this point so in went way too much food colouring, hence the luminous glow to the sweets rather than the hint of mint colour I was going for.
- We then split the mix into two and the kids dusted (covered) the table in icing sugar and set about kneading the peppermint creams as if it were a loaf of bread they were making.
- The finally rolled their peppermint cream mix out and used cookie cutters to cut out the shapes they wanted.
- We left the sweets to set for a while before they were allowed to attack them.
Even if we had a disaster making them and they look a bit weird, we had fun and they tasted nice.
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