Am I seeing spots before my eyes?

This month's Rachael Ray Everyday magazine, the Halloween issue, had lots of candy. and this really easy recipe for candy buttons. Unless raw egg whites scare you, these taste just like the ones I remember as a kid. I still buy them when I see them, my kids still like them, too! There's a bit of Peter Pan in all of us around here! I remember eating bits of paper with my buttons but who cared?

If you have egg issues, you could also use powdered egg whites, or pasteurized whites, instead. But then you couldn't use this silly egg separator I got online a while back. It just makes me laugh. It's pretty gross, but I used to work in a nursery school and do baking with the kids and they got a big kick out of Boogerboy Boris, the egg separator!

Ok, it's gross, but you laughed? It's definitely a conversation piece!

Then the recipe called for using ziploc bags to do the piping for the buttons. That's where I ran into trouble. I cut the hole too big, and I got colored egg white goo all over.

and I am sure it would have worked out perfectly, just like it did for Rachael ray in her magazine had I snipped a smaller hole. All I got was mess. But I did have one more thing to try. A friend sells Pampered Chef and she had given me a decorator bottle set, thinking it would be good for the nursery school kids. Well, it worked out really well for this 49 year old, too!

Perfect buttons...

Rows and rows of them!

Candy Buttons

Source: Rachael Ray Everyday, October 2010

adapted There's always Thyme to Cook

Printable Recipe

1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1 egg white

3 drops food coloring, any color

3 drops food coloring, another color

2 zip lock plastic bags

Cut white paper into twelve 2 X 11 inch strips

Using an electric mixer, mix the egg whites and the powdered sugar until it becomes white, thick and creamy. Divide the icing into two small bowls and add three drops of color to each bowl. I used pink in one bowl and blue in the other bowl. Stir well and cover each bowl with plastic wrap until you are ready to use them.

Scrape the pink (or whatever color you use!) icing into a ziplock bag and squeeze all the icing to the bottom of the bag. Squeeze to get all the air out and then when you are ready, snip one very small corner off, but a very small tip of the corner. Pipe the icing out onto the paper in very small dots. About 3-4 dots across in even rows. When about a quarter of the pink icing is left, add the blue icing to the bag and continue piping dots. Let the candy buttons dry at room temperature until they are hardened, for about 12 hours or overnight. 

If fresh eggs are an issue in your area, you can use pasteurized egg whites from a carton, or powdered whites! Just follow the instructions for measurement on the package.

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Joining Sally from Smiling Sally for Blue Monday. My first time!

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