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Rose Cream Mints
1 1/2 cups sugar White 1 egg 2 tablespoons white corn syrup 4 drops oil wintergreen 1/4 cup water Pink coloring Put sugar, corn syrup and water into a smooth granite saucepan, heat gradually to boiling-point, and boil without stirring until syrup will spin a long thread (238 degree F.). Pour slowly on to the beaten white of egg, and beat until mixture will hold its shape. Add flavoring and coloring. Force on to an oiled paper, using a pastry bag and rose tube. The work must be done quickly.
This is boiled icing piped into small candies rather than spread on a cake, which is why it sits among the frostings. Everything depends on getting the syrup to the right temperature and then working fast, because the mixture stiffens in the bag.
- The hinge: work while it is warmOnce the meringue holds its shape you have only a few minutes of piping time. Have the oiled paper, bag and tip assembled and the coloring measured before the syrup goes on the boil.
- Granite saucepanGranite ware is enamelled steel or iron. Any heavy non-reactive pan does the job; the recipe's emphasis on a *smooth* pan suggests avoiding a pitted or thin pan, where sugar catches and grains or scorches.
- 238F, not the thread test238F -- Modern tables put the thread stage a few degrees below 238F, which they class as soft-ball; this book equates the two, so go by the thermometer. Wash sugar crystals down the sides of the pan with a wet brush before boiling, and do not stir once it boils.
- Oil of wintergreenUse a food-grade flavoring oil sold for confectionery. Pharmacy oil of wintergreen is concentrated methyl salicylate and is not intended for eating in any quantity. Four drops of a candy oil is right for this batch; add it after the syrup has cooled slightly so it does not flash off.
- Corn syrupTwo tablespoons of light corn syrup is the anti-crystallizing agent here; without it the mixture is much more likely to grain. Glucose syrup can be substituted.
- Rose tubeA rose tube is a petal tip. A small star or plain round tip, dropping small buttons, is easier to manage with a stiffening mixture.
- Pink coloringAdd it to the meringue a drop at a time; modern gel colors go much further than the liquid dyes of the period.
- Drying and yieldDrying -- Leave the piped mints uncovered at room temperature for several hours until the surfaces are dry and firm, then lift them off the paper. Damp weather will keep them tacky, so pick a dry day.