Minty Menu Project
MATERIALS
- Envelopes
- Plain card stock paper
- Peppermint candy
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Wax paper
- Hot glue sticks
- Large oval punch
- Hot glue gun
- Star shaped cookie cutters
- Cookie sheet
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.
Generously spray the inside of your cookie cutters with nonstick cooking spray.
Put your cookie cutters on top of the wax paper and place a flat layer of peppermints inside. Crush up a few mints and sprinkle on top of the first layer. (There will be empty spaces between the mints, but don’t worry—they will melt together when heated.)
Put your tray in the oven for 5-6 minutes.
Remove when the top layer looks melted, but you can still see the peppermint’s stripes. Let cool at room temperature.
After about 10-15 minutes of cooling, gently push your mints out of the cookie cutter.
Repeat steps 3-6 so that you have two mints of each shape to make into a menu card.
Print out the menu of your holiday meal or write it on card stock paper. Cut into a square slightly larger than the width of your cookie cutter shape.
Tuck the flap of the envelope in and punch your shape at the top of the envelope.
Use your hot glue gun to secure the bottoms of the “rough” sides of the peppermints and stick the menu card in between. Let the glue cool and you’ve got your very own Minty Menu Card!
HINTS & CLUES
- It is normal for some of the peppermint to spill from the cookie cutter when baking. Simply break off those pieces around the edges.
- When removing the mints from the cookie cutters, be careful—some edges of the peppermint will be sharp.
- As you glue your stars together, be sure to only glue the bottom half so that you can slip your menus in and out.
- For fun, use any shape punch you desire. Craft stores usually have a variety of shapes and sizes. Just remember it should be large enough for the word menu to show through.
- As an alternative to printing, you can write out the menu with ink or metallic markers.
- Stars are not only for Christmas dinner; reuse them at your 4th of July bash!