The last recipe did manage to cream, but after about 2 days. They were pretty crunchy, and I wonder if I cooked them too long. But I think we certainly didn't pull them enough.
We tried another batch of the same recipe tonight, but this time only made a half recipe. I took the cool spatula thermometer out of its spatula (leaving just a stick) because it wasn't clear that the temperature measuring bit would be low enough in the liquid to measure. It turns out that it would have been fine: after adding the butter it bubbles up considerably, but we had forgotten that.
I resolved to take the mints off earlier (at 256 or 257) so that it wouldn't get so crunchy, but just at the end the temperature went up and up and up very fast---totally unlike my experience with cooking candy, so I suspect that the thermometer (or the thermometer holder, me) was doing something wrong. We poured it on the slab and commenced pulling according to directions. This time we added a few drops of gel food coloring, since the bride's colors are blue and pink.
We pulled and pulled. I felt it was very sticky, but Luke said "just add butter!" At the end between the two of us we used up almost the entire leftover half stick of butter. It didn't seem to be getting hard to pull or less sticky, so I kept pulling and being annoyed that the temperature was wrong or the food coloring changed things or... All of a sudden I said, "This isn't pulling right. It's just falling apart!" All at once the piece in my hands became solid and lighter blue, it creamed! It actually seemed to get hot---some sort of exothermic reaction? It tasted creamy and buttery and not at all crunchy, just like the cream cheese version but with sugar and butter.
Two other things I tried: first, I slowed down the boiling when dissolving the sugar so that I could see that it was all dissolved (last time it was not, perhaps leading to crunchiness). Also, I concentrated on moving the gel around on the granite counter to cool it down faster. The recipes all call for marble slabs. Don't know if granite counter is better or worse.
I think there is clearly some potential for research. Is anyone interested in doing their doctoral dissertation on butter mints?
Just now I realized that we used twice as much butter as called for (since we didn't cut the amount in half). I might look for recipes with a higher proportion of butter, but I don't think I'll double it again on purpose! However, if I can get the mints to be the texture of the "mistake" I made, I'll feel successful.
Here's another news article:
https://www.newsobserver.com/living/food-drink/article119250208.html
We tried another batch of the same recipe tonight, but this time only made a half recipe. I took the cool spatula thermometer out of its spatula (leaving just a stick) because it wasn't clear that the temperature measuring bit would be low enough in the liquid to measure. It turns out that it would have been fine: after adding the butter it bubbles up considerably, but we had forgotten that.
I resolved to take the mints off earlier (at 256 or 257) so that it wouldn't get so crunchy, but just at the end the temperature went up and up and up very fast---totally unlike my experience with cooking candy, so I suspect that the thermometer (or the thermometer holder, me) was doing something wrong. We poured it on the slab and commenced pulling according to directions. This time we added a few drops of gel food coloring, since the bride's colors are blue and pink.
We pulled and pulled. I felt it was very sticky, but Luke said "just add butter!" At the end between the two of us we used up almost the entire leftover half stick of butter. It didn't seem to be getting hard to pull or less sticky, so I kept pulling and being annoyed that the temperature was wrong or the food coloring changed things or... All of a sudden I said, "This isn't pulling right. It's just falling apart!" All at once the piece in my hands became solid and lighter blue, it creamed! It actually seemed to get hot---some sort of exothermic reaction? It tasted creamy and buttery and not at all crunchy, just like the cream cheese version but with sugar and butter.
Two other things I tried: first, I slowed down the boiling when dissolving the sugar so that I could see that it was all dissolved (last time it was not, perhaps leading to crunchiness). Also, I concentrated on moving the gel around on the granite counter to cool it down faster. The recipes all call for marble slabs. Don't know if granite counter is better or worse.
I think there is clearly some potential for research. Is anyone interested in doing their doctoral dissertation on butter mints?
Just now I realized that we used twice as much butter as called for (since we didn't cut the amount in half). I might look for recipes with a higher proportion of butter, but I don't think I'll double it again on purpose! However, if I can get the mints to be the texture of the "mistake" I made, I'll feel successful.
Here's another news article:
https://www.newsobserver.com/living/food-drink/article119250208.html
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