Homemade breath mints. Josiah and I have been using these for 2 weeks now and we LOVE them!

Ingredients:

-1 cup powdered gum paste mix
-1 teaspoon-ish water
-some pepperment extract/flavor (don’t you love my exact measurements? add it until you like the taste.)
-powdered xylitol – - – or powdered sugar.

(small blurb on xylitol – thanks to our friend nick for introducing it to us! you can find it at any health food store… whole foods, wheatsville if you’re here in town. it’s a sugar alcohol and supposedly safer for diabetics! it’s “tooth friendly” and in a lot of gums and toothpastes and mouthwashes – as it’s good for oral health. it actually REDUCES plaque on your teeth. It almost has a “cold” taste by itself. yes, a sugar that’s GOOD! yay. google it for more info, i’m just a crazy person blogging, not a doctor) If you don’t wanna get xylitol, just use powdered sugar. It won’t have the health benefits but it will work as a powdered-non-sticky-substance-thing.

ok. back to the diy breath mints.

Step 1: pour 1 tablespoon of water into 1 cup of powdered gum paste and mix it up. (word to the wise, please do this in a bowl and do not attempt to mix it on a piece of wax paper like the dumb-bums that Josiah and I are….. it was such a mess.)

Step 2: Mix it/knead it until it’s all one solid mass of “dough”. If it’s too dry, add a little water. Too wet, add more gum paste mix. Common sense here, people.

Step 3: Add in some peppermint extract! Add a teaspoon and see how you like the taste. Not strong enough for your taste? Add another teaspoon. And another. And another. Maybe you’re hoping for curiously strong… just go ahead and be crazy and add the whole bottle. (just kidding, that might be crazy. but now i’m curious…)

Step 4:  Flatten it like a pancake on a surface of powdered xylitol/powdered sugar on wax paper. You could use a rolling pin but those things are my worst enemy! I always get everything all stuck to the roller. So I just flattened it with my hands. Make it the thickness of a normal breath mint…. maybe 1/4 of an inch?

Step 5: Here’s the fun part! Cut out your little breath mints. You could literally just cut them into squares. Or use a big bubble tea straw as a cookie cutter and get PERFECT sized breath mints. Pull up the left over dough and roll it out again and keep going until all your dough is done. (or until Josiah just grabs the end of the dough because he’s sick of rolling it out and just shoves it in his mouth…)

Step 6: Lightly toss them in the leftover xylitol/powdered sugar that’s on your wax paper. This helps them not stick together. 

Step 7: Let them dry out for a couple of hours. They are pretty much ready to eat – but if you want them to get a bit harder, just leave them out. Then ENJOY ENJOY!

What’s awesome about this recipe:

-You can add different extracts for different flavors! Add cinnamon instead of peppermint. Strawberry. Lemon/lime for a sour (ew, personally).
-These are actually GOOD for your teeth!
-They are easy to make. I know this tutorial was a little lengthy for “The Burlap Bag standards”, but it’s worth it.  I bet it would be fun with kids too!
-Add in food coloring if you’re so inclined!

I’m working on figuring out a recipe that DOESN’T include gum paste…. But who knows when that’ll come alive. I’ll keep you updated. For now, I’m off for some animal crackers. And then maybe a breath mint.

Go freshen that breath. You stink a little. Yeah you.