For Christmas this year I made five kinds of homemade candy to give as gifts. I had a lot of fun making it and it was fairly inexpensive too! I started with Candy Buttons because I thought they would be the easiest. There are only three ingredients and not many steps but I found them to be the most time consuming of everything I made. The reason for this was partly because there was so much icing pipe and partly because the bags I used kept breaking. Even with better bags, I would say the total time for this recipe could still be as much as 45 minutes (It took me about twice that).
All you need is 3 cups of confectioner's sugar, one egg white and red and green food coloring. You should also cut up paper into strips to pipe the candy onto.
Beat the sugar and egg white together for five minutes. Then, separate the icing into two bowls. Add green food coloring to one. It took about eight drops to get the above color. For the red you see below, it took me at least 15 drops.
Scoop one of the icings into a plastic bag. You can use pastry tubes if you have them. I used a simple fold-over sandwich bag and cut a hole in the corner. Cover the other bowl with plastic wrap so it won't get hard while you work.
When I squeezed them out, they had little peaks on them. If you want them rounded, make sure you push the peaks down right away. They start drying before you even finish a strip and then the peaks will just snap off.
By the time I got to the green, it had become so stiff that it wouldn't squeeze out properly so I had to roll each button between my fingers. That's why the plastic wrap over the bowl is so important.
When you have finished piping out all the icing, allow the dots to dry overnight the pop them off and enjoy!
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