Sunday, December 14, 2014

25 Days of Christmas - Day 13: #peppermintpinterestfail

I saw some cute ornaments on Pinterest the other day and wanted to try them because they were advertised as cheap and easy.

They delivered on the cheap promise. All I needed to buy was a bag of peppermint candies. If I was shameless I'd go to a restaurant that offers free mints after dinner and grab a couple handfuls. But I can't do that.

I suppose they were easy enough. I found some festive, holiday cookie cutters in my baking cabinet and put them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. I sprayed the crap out of the inside of the cookie cutters with baking spray so the mints wouldn't stick to them. Then I dropped some mints inside each cutter - there will be some open spaces but as the mints melt in the oven they will spread out to fill the entire shape of the cookie cutter.

The blog I referenced said to bake them at 350 for 5-10 minutes, but that seemed like a long time range, so I pulled a chair over to the oven and watched them melt. I wanted them to melt but not disintegrate.

I noticed as they were cooking that the mints were seeping out of the cookie cutter at the bottom. So if anyone makes these, maybe put another cookie sheet on top to make sure the cutters are flat against the parchment paper and hard surface of the sheet?

After 10 minutes I took them out and they looked adorable! But see the seepage? While they're warm I poked a hole at the top with a skewer coated with baking spray.

This one was a total fail - should have put 2 mints standing up in there rather than 1 lying down:

I let them cool for about 20 minutes until they were hard to the touch. Then came the hard part. Taking them out of the cookie cutter. I'm not known for being gentle - and that trait hurt me in this process. I tried to separate the cookie cutter from the mints too fast and they shattered.

I lost 3 of them. RIP peppermint :(

But 1 turned out OK!

W00t! Although you'll notice that the hole at the top closed up. Andplusalso as soon as I tried to add a new hole it cracked in half. RIP 4th peppermint.

So I have no ornaments to show for this 20-ish minutes of my life. Oh well.

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