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Peppermint Drops
Place a pound powdered sugar in bowl with ten drops peppermint extract, a half gill water, and sharply work with spatula for five minutes. Drop preparation into a paper cornet, cut a small piece off at end, press on a well cleaned marble into drops a half-inch in diameter and let thoroughly dry.
An uncooked fondant drop: sugar, water and flavouring worked to a paste, piped and air-dried. The whole recipe hinges on getting the water right.
- Half a gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup (2 fl oz). For a pound of powdered sugar that is on the generous side and the paste can slump into puddles rather than domes. Hold back a tablespoon or two and add it only if the mixture will not come together.
- Powdered sugarThis means confectioners' sugar, which today usually contains 2-3% cornstarch. That starch tends to make the drops set slightly softer and duller than plain sifted sugar would; it does not stop the recipe working.
- Extract, not oilTen drops of peppermint extract is mild. If you substitute peppermint essential oil, it is several times stronger by volume and two or three drops will do for a pound of sugar.
- Paper cornetA cone rolled from parchment or a small disposable piping bag with the tip snipped to about 1/8 inch. Work quickly; the paste crusts inside the cone and blocks the opening.
- The marbleMarble was the standard confectioner's surface: cold, non-porous, and it lets the set drops be lifted with a thin blade. Parchment on a sheet pan works as well and lets you move the whole batch out of the way while it dries.
- Consistency testPipe one drop before committing. It should hold a low dome with a faint peak that settles smooth in a few seconds. Spreading flat means too much water; a torn, ragged surface means too little.
- Drying"Thoroughly dry" means uncovered at room temperature until the tops are firm and no longer tacky - usually 8 to 12 hours, longer in humid weather. Do not speed this in a warm oven; the sugar surface will crack and weep.
- YieldOnce fully dry they keep several weeks in a tin between layers of parchment.
Peppermint drops belong to a family of "uncooked fondants" that filled the confectionery chapters of turn-of-the-century cookbooks: sugar, water, flavouring, no thermometer and no sugar boiling, which put them within reach of a domestic kitchen at a time when hard candy work meant judging syrup stages by eye. The instruction to work the paste on a marble slab, and to pipe from a rolled paper cornet, is professional pastry practice carried straight over into the household book - Alexander Filippini, who compiled The International Cook Book, spent decades in New York restaurant kitchens and wrote in their vocabulary throughout.