When I was a kid, I got a book for a birthday or Christmas called 365 Things to Make and Do. And while I only made or did a few of the 365 things, this book lives pretty “rent free” in my head, as the kids say. Most of the crafts and activities were not ones I was going to do, but it was fun to flip through and look. And naturally, I was most interested in the “In the Kitchen” section, which should surprise nobody! But what I remember the most is how many of the recipes were just entirely incorrect!!!
I remember there was a recipe for milkshakes that I was excited to make, and they included banana in the ingredients. My siblings and I added the banana, thinking it would be disguised by the ice cream and peanut butter. But… no… they were just banana milkshakes then. Or rather, banana smoothies with ice cream in them? But nowhere in the title was it advertised as a banana milkshake recipe?
However, the real highlight were these chocolate-dipped peppermint candies. My siblings and I made them frequently – they were on our rotation like banana bread. Yet, every time we made them, we had to add about 17 times more powdered sugar than the recipe called for. Truly, it was beyond comprehension. The recipe calls for only 12 tablespoons. That’s 3/4 cup. But we would have to add what felt like a whole bag of powdered sugar before the candies would come together. They were delicious, of course, when they were finally thick enough to come together. And very cooling and minty. I suppose it’s not a shocker that they were good, given how much powdered sugar is in them. And then they were coated in chocolate, which we gobbed on in excess.
So naturally, I think of these candies often. Because I simply needed to understand!! What were we doing wrong?!! It occurred to me a few years ago – maybe the egg white was meant to be whipped into stiff peaks or something. I tried making it like that about a year and a half ago, and failed. I ran out of powdered sugar because it seemed to make no difference. But when my brother texted saying he wanted some of these for the holidays, I knew I had to try again. And I simply HAD to get to the bottom of this mystery that has been plaguing me since age seven.
I began my internet sleuthing by finding the source material. I almost purchased this book again just to find this recipe, but then I made an account on Internet Archive and was able to uncover this ancient text.
Now, there’s a lot to unpack on this page. Firstly, as discussed previously, there’s how incorrect the actual ingredient amounts are. The “You may need to add a little more icing sugar” in Step 1 still cracks me up… “You may need to add 7 more cups of icing sugar” is what it should say. Then, in the description, they say you can make “marzipan fruit,” even though… these are peppermint? Not marzipan? And then on top of that, they throw in some instructions for chocolate dipped cherries?? On the “Peppermint and Chocolate Candy” page?! This whole page is just chaos!! And yet, it’s imprinted on my brain. Looking at all those pear-shaped candies (that look NOTHING like anything we were ever able to produce), and that kid grinning in the corner, it really takes me back.
I started by doing some research to see it there’s any other recipes on the internet that even vaguely resemble this one. The only thing I could find that is remotely similar to this recipe is this TikTok, which I found by Googling “12 tablespoons icing sugar 1 egg white peppermint flavoring.” And they say they use 340g of icing sugar… aka, TWO CUPS. Not 3/4 cup, as this recipe prescribes. But also nothing near the amount we used. They also appear to beat the egg whites, but not even until stiff peaks. Just “fluffy but not stiff.” This recipe from Anna Banana is similar to the TikTok, but only calls for 300g of powdered sugar.
So then I Googled “can you make peppermint patties with just egg white and powdered sugar.” And of course, to make this even more confusing, Google gave me an AI response saying that the egg whites should be whisked until stiff. Shockingly, I’m not going to be trusting AI with recipes any time soon. The first recipe from this search result – this one from Melinda Strauss is the first honest recipe I found. It calls for FIVE CUPS of powdered sugar to the one egg white. But, it also calls for corn syrup, so it’s not a total match for this recipe.
I’ll stop recapping all my Googling, but the point is that this recipe seems to be what the internet calls “peppermint cremes,” but the amounts of sugar cited in those recipes are all over the place.
So I took to the kitchen, and found that I needed 2 1/4 cups of powdered sugar. AKA 36 tablespoons. So, it was closest to the TikTok recipe. And not as much as I have in my head from when we were kids. But it was 3 times as much as it called for! That’s not a margin of error! When I added 12 tablespoons, it was still fully liquid! It’s just mind boggling that they got it so wrong.
I also think I could have added 1/4 cup or so more, to make them a bit drier like we made them as kids. It’s pretty flexible, but it will never be just 12 tablespoons.
The other big upgrade I made was to use my gel food coloring instead of liquid food coloring. WOW these colors were vibrant. Far more vibrant than what we were able to achieve as kids. Not that it needs to be vibrant, but when I saw the color of the green, I figured it would be fun to try a peppermint swirl shape. But the green, slightly oblong shape is the classic. I don’t care that they look a little misshapen and vaguely sloppy. I’m reconnecting with my roots. Going back to a classic. Tradition is that they aren’t perfect.
So, Merry Christmas to my brother! I made enough for us all to share your gift 🙂
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PinIngredients
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
Instructions
Beat egg white and peppermint extract until frothy. Then, add your powdered sugar one cup at a time until a dough forms.
Roll the dough into a log and allow to chill for an hour before chopping into slices. Or, you can just scoop out some of the dough and form them into shapes and then chill them for an hour.
After an hour in the fridge, melt your chocolate chips and coconut oil. Dip your peppermint candies in the chocolate as desired, and set them on a wire rack or plate lined with parchment paper. Put them in the fridge to allow them to set. You can keep them stored in the fridge (they’re good cold!), or at room temperature.