Making your own Altoids®

We used to go through a lot of Altoids®.  I was not able to find a decent copycat recipe, so I invented my own.  This makes about 20 tins, with about 180 calories per tin.  (We ended up with lots of tins that I was able to use once we were satisfied with this recipe.)  These satisfy a sweet tooth with not too many calories.

First gather the equipment needed:

bench scraper

pan scraper

1/2 cup measure

small stainless bowl

small wire whisk

pizza wheel or pie crust cutter

teaspoons

rolling pin

heavy duty stand mixer (mine is Cuisinart) with paddle
3 cookie sheets

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cool water in the stainless bowl
4 teaspoons gelatin
       After this has softened, melt over low heat to fully dissolve.

1/2 teaspoon Xanthan gum 

Then whisk like mad to get out the lumps.  Xanthan gum likes to clump.

  

Put two teaspoons peppermint oil into the stand mixer bowl.  Make sure you buy food quality pure oil.  I made the mistake of using another that was peppermint in a strange oil.  Nasty.  Extract will not work.  You must use oil.  The little bottles of Loran oil will work - use two whole little bottles or more.  I make this often enough to justify the large bottle.

You will probably use slightly less than 2 pounds of powdered sugar.

I hold back about two cups from a two-pound bag to begin, and then add until it is a texture that is not too sticky to roll out.  `

I prefer to work on a cookie sheet than on the counter.  I worry about the oil being absorbed into the counter.  I sprinkle some of the reserved powdered sugar onto the cookie sheet to keep the candy from sticking and sprinkle some on top, too.  Then roll it out like pie dough.  About that thick, too.

 Then cut it with a pizza wheel or piecrust cutter.  We like the ruffled edges of the pie cutter.

Use the bench scraper to transfer the squares to another cookie sheet to dry.  Two pounds of sugar needs three cookie sheets (the half-sheet pan {18" x 13"}) to dry.  My house is not very dry much of the year, so I put the cookie sheets in the oven with the light on, and they dry in two to three days.  Then they can be stored in tins.

I did see a recipe once that suggested getting a straw from bubble tea (it's a large diameter), and use it like a cookie cutter.  You would have nice round mints.  Much too fussy for me.  We'll live with squares!