As part of my drive to try new recipes and skills, I made Peppermint Creams on Monday. They didn’t set after two hours in the fridge (as the recipe suggested) so I left them in until Wednesday afternoon, by which time they needed chipping off the plate.
They seemed to have set, though I was concerned that they might soften up once they were out of the fridge. I had to keep testing them on a regular basis to see how they went. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it, and attention to detail is important.
It’s been a bit of a learning curve. (I originally wrote “curse” there by accident, which was also pretty close to the truth).
First I learned that the mixing of peppermint creams acts as a magnet, attracting a couple of unwanted bits of shortbread from the neighbouring workstation and incorporating them into the mix in a brown spotty sort of way. It wasn’t attractive.
Next, as I kneaded the mix, (and it takes a bit of doing when the only liquid is an egg white, spoonful of flavouring and the juice of half a lemon), I noticed it was turning blue. It’s slightly better than brown, but it’s still not what I really wanted. When I stopped to think about it I deduced that the mixture was lifting the blue dye from the checked table cover.
Third bit of learning – dry them on baking parchment, not direct onto the plate.
And four – when photographing them it might be a good idea to brush them down first and get all the debris off them (see top picture).
Cutting out – the shapes – note coloured spots!
The good news is that they taste good. They are quite strong and were referred to as “grown-up” peppermint creams by one of the testers, which, in turn, means that most of the group don;t like them (so more for me!)
The bad news is that I’m going to have to test the recipe again due to setting and colouring problems.
But the other good news is that I will have to eat more to test them.
It truly is an ill wind that blows no good. 🙂
