Mints is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store them, what to substitute, and 8 recipes to get you started.

What are mints?

Mints, in a baking recipe, almost always means mint candies rather than the fresh herb. This is the catch-all category for the soft, sweet ones.

That covers the pastel cream and butter mints that melt on the tongue, the after-dinner thins, and the chocolate-and-mint layered candies like Andes that everyone knows from a restaurant check.

The defining trait is that these melt rather than crunch. They are built mostly on sugar and fat with a little peppermint oil, so heat turns them soft and pourable instead of shattering the way hard candy does.

That single property decides how you cook with them.

Cooking With Mints

The most useful trick is melting. Chocolate-style mints like Andes go straight onto a hot cookie the moment it leaves the oven, where they soften into a glossy frosting you spread with the back of a spoon. That is exactly the move in Andes Mint Cookies.

Soft cream and butter mints behave differently. They are too delicate to bake into, so they work best as a finishing layer, scattered crushed over a set dessert or pressed into frosting for color and a cool hit of mint.

Chopped or crushed, they fold into no-bake bases beautifully. Thin Mint Cheesecake and Sandwiched Mint Surprises both lean on chopped mint candy stirred through a creamy filling, where it keeps its flavor without needing to survive the oven.

For a quick holiday tray, melt mints with a splash of cream and spoon the mixture over brownies, or press whole pastel mints into the top of frosted cutouts like Mistletoe Mint Cookies.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Mint candy was born to pair with chocolate, and the two carry most of these recipes. It also works against vanilla and cream cheese, both of which give the sharp peppermint something rich to sit on.

The first mistake is scorching. Mint candies are mostly sugar and burn fast, so melt them gently off direct heat and pull them while they still hold a little shape.

The second is melting them with water. Even a few drops will seize a melting mint candy into a stiff, grainy paste, the same way it seizes chocolate. Add cream or a neutral oil to loosen, never water.

The third is treating soft mints like hard peppermint sticks. They will not give you crunch on top of a cake; for that you want crushed peppermint stick candy or candy canes instead.

Substitutes

If a recipe wants the melt-and-spread of chocolate mints, Andes thins and chocolate after-dinner mints both work, and chopped peppermint patties get you close. Each brings the same mint-over-chocolate layering.

For soft pastel cream mints, the closest swap is white chocolate or candy melts tinted green and flavored with a drop or two of peppermint extract. It melts the same and you control the strength.

When you only need the flavor, peppermint extract alone covers it. Use it sparingly, around ⅛ teaspoon at a time, since it is far stronger than the candy and easy to overdo.

Buying and Storing

Soft mints stack up around the winter holidays, but the wrapped chocolate styles and bagged cream mints sell year round near the checkout candy. For melting recipes, buy the chocolate-coated thins; for decoration, the pastel butter mints.

Store mint candy cool and dry in a sealed bag or jar. Sugar pulls moisture from the air, so loose mints left out turn tacky and the cream ones harden into chalk.

Chocolate-coated mints have a second enemy, which is heat. Keep them well away from the stove and out of a warm car, since once they bloom and streak white they look dull, though they still taste fine and melt normally.

Stored properly, both styles keep for many months, since high sugar and low water give them a long shelf life.

Quick facts

In Chinese

薄荷糖

British (UK) term

Mints

en français

menthes

en español

mentas

Recipes using mints

There are 8 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 8 recipes