It’s the beginning of a wonderful season- a season of great Food! Great dinners, treats, soups, etc… I love baking and the cooler weather lends itself nicely to great food! The beginning? Homemade andes mints (or any other flavor you like!).
Aren’t they pretty? And the best part you can do it in any color and flavor. Start with high quality chocolate and use whatever extra flavoring you’d like and this creates a terrific treat! Whatever you do DON’T skimp on the quality of the candy melts. I prefer working with Merkens, Guittards and Callebaut, they taste great and they melt well. You can use dark, semi sweet or milk chocolate and then make sure your colored chocolate are the basic vanilla.
So this was actually one of the VERY first video’s I filmed, BUT I never shared it cause it just didn’t really fit SPRING or SUMMER the way it fit’s into Holiday goodies! So this is pre kitchen makeover completed, but I thought it was still worth sharing! Enjoy!
Homemade Andes mints- this week’s treat
Ingredients
- Jelly Roll pan
- wax paper
- 10-11 oz chocolate wafers I like Guittard and Callebaut
- 10-11 oz green white chocolate I like Merckens and Guittard for this
- 10-11 oz chocolate wafers I like Guittard and Callebaut
- candy oil- peppermint is my go to
Instructions
- Melting the Chocolate:
- Get 3 oven safe bowls.
- Put the chocolate for each layer in three different bowls.
- Put them all in the oven on Warm for 20 mins.
- Then turn off the oven and pull out the first layer (leave the other two bowls in the oven to keep warm).
- Cut the wax paper to fit the length of the pan as well as come up the sides a bit. take some of the melted chocolate in each corner to hold the wax paper in place. Make sure your wax paper is pulled tight across, we don't want any bubbles, bumps or wrinkles in the paper, it will show in the chocolate.
- Stir the bowl of chocolate until it's smooth and add 7 drops of oil based candy flavoring to the bowl.
- Now QUICKLY pour the chocolate around the pan. then starting on the outer edges smooth it with your spatula.
- Then grab the side of the pan and shake/knock it on the table. After a bit of shaking/knocking the chocolate will smooth itself out.
- The key to the next layer is to know when to pour it on! If you pour to soon you'll risk mixing the layers together, they'll still taste great, but not be as pretty. AND if you wait too long the layers won't stick together!
- When the whole layer goes from glossy to matte you're read!
- Grab your colored candy melts out of the oven, add your oils (7 drops) and stir it smooth
- Then spread it over the chocolate layer, and shake it smooth and let it cool until it's matte
- Pull out the last bowl, add the 7 drops of oil and stir it smooth.
- pour it on, spread it out and shake it smooth
- like spreading if you cut to soon you'll mix your layers, if you wait too long you'll shatter the chocolate! Once it's matte take a Sharp knife and cut it!
- I like to cute the rounded edges off (and my husband likes to eat those small edges) and then cut the rest into 2 1/4 inch squares
Video
Nutrition
Neighbor gifts and goodie plate recipes
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amanda G
These look so yummy! I’ve recently discovered the Andes holiday peppermint crunch mints. Do you think crushing candy canes into almost dust, then mixing that with the top and bottom layers would cause any problems?
Ashlee
I think it would TOTALLY work, in fact I was planning on trying it myself this year, those are my daughters favorite!
Stacey
Where do you get a T Square cutter and also doesn’t the wax paper stick to the bottom of the chocolates?
Ashlee
I made the T-square from a yard stick… and you just peel the wax right off if it sticks, it’s easy.
Jennifer Sikora
That is my favoritest candy ever! I am so gonna have to make those 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Ashlee
RIGHT!!! I used red vanilla melts with crushed candy canes this year, the kids LOVED it!
Laurie Nguyen
Thanks so much for posting this recipe! We love Andes candies in our house, and we can never seem to get enough. We still may not be able to get enough (are there ever truly enough Andes candies? I think not), we will be able to have them whenever we want! YEAH!
Ashlee
YAY! I usually hide half the batch just for myself to save and enjoy (so I don’t feel like I have to race to get enough before the kids and husband eat it all)
Michelle
So, I’m a little embarrassed to admit I JUST found these! But I have a question…Do they end up with a strong mint taste like the candies, or mild like the baking chips? (Or does it just depend on how much flavoring you use?) We use the baking chips to add flavor to boxed brownies (make the mix like the box says and sprinkle the chips over the brownies before you put them in the oven). However, we’ve found more mint flavor comes from the candies, chopped up, than the chips. I’m just curious if these would work for our purposes. (Plus, I wouldn’t have to worry about them being pretty…) 🙂
Ashlee
It’s totally up to you. You can control the strength of the flavoring by how many drops of the candy flavor you add! So you could totally make sure they had a nice strong flavor (which I like too) then chop them up for baking! I will say that the chips are made out of different chocolate and made to maintain their shape, where these would totally melt in cookies or brownies in the oven. And NOT maintain their shape
Leslie
What is the yield for this recipe? What size squares (rectangles) do you cut? I am definitely going to try these next Christmas!
Ashlee
it makes a 13×18 jelly roll pan, cut then into any size you want, I do like inch and a half squares
Titan Tyler
What is the difference between Chocolate wafers and Vanilla candy melts other than brown and white? Is chocolate wafers chocolate candy melts????????????????????
Ashlee
I use high quality chocolate wafers – like guitards, or Callebaut or Merckens – you get a much better melt – candy melts aren’t chocolate at all, but candy made to melt and seem like chocolate – but not chocolate – so they won’t work as well
Stephanie
These look amazing! Could I use vanilla almond bark instead of the candy melts for the middle layer or are they not interchangeable?
Ashlee
chocolate wafers – like guitards, or Callebaut or Merckens – you get a much better melt – candy melts or almond bark aren’t chocolate at all- so yeeeeeesssss you can, you’ll need green oil dye (not water based) to get the color and the end result won’t really be authentic – as it won’t be chocolate.
Lily Sugathan
Hello,
Just made a batch and they are wonderful! One question – should I keep them out, or store in the fridge?
Ashlee
personally I keep them out – but either works – they’ll stay set at room temp – but if you like cold chocolate you can refrigerate them, but there is no need
Jo
Your video shows you adding a couple of drops of peppermint oil to each layer, but in the recipe you say to add 5-7 drops to each layer. Which one should I do?! I’m making it now!
Ashlee Marie
5-7, it’s what I add in the video too, it’s just hard to see
Kari
Hi Ashlee;
I just came across your wonderful recipe. I just love chocolate & mint. It is neck to neck with
my other favorite…choclate & orange!!! I wonder if after I make your recipe, if I can ajust
the layers to taste of orange!!! Thank you sooo much for sharing.
Ashlee Marie
just use orange chocolate and orange candy oil flavor – easy peasy
jen
Do you think I could use the doterra peppermint oil? (I believe it is food grade) but is it different from candy oil?
Ashlee Marie
I suggest just using candy oil, I do not know how the do-terra oil would effect the chocolate or if its safe to eat.
jen
Do you think I could use doterra peppermint? (I think it’s food grade). Is it different than candy oil?
Ashlee Marie
I would not use the doterra oils, they are not make for baking the way candy oils are.