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1
Warm the marble slab with a heat lamp or hot water and dry it thoroughly. Combine sugar, glucose syrup, and water in a heavy copper or stainless pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring only until the sugar dissolves, then cease stirring entirely. Cook to 145 °C on a calibrated thermometer — the syrup is a pale, barely amber thread.
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2
At 145 °C, add the natural mint oil directly into the pan. Continue cooking without stirring to precisely 150 °C (hard-crack stage). Do not exceed 155 °C: above this point the sugar caramelises too dark and tastes burnt. Pour the mass at once onto the warm marble, reserving a thin ribbon — roughly one-eighth of the total mass — in the pan or a small oiled tray without disturbing it; this is the amber stripe.
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3
Allow the poured mass to cool on the marble for one to two minutes until it holds its shape at the edges but remains pliable at the centre. Using oiled or gloved hands, fold the mass in half, then stretch it to double its length. Fold again. Repeat continuously — this is the pulling. Each fold doubles the number of internal air layers. The mass must stay warm enough to stretch without tearing: the window on cool marble is 10–15 minutes. Pull 50–100 times in total. This is where the dish lives or dies: fewer than 50 pulls yields a heavy, glassy candy; 80–100 pulls produces the millions of microscopic air layers that give the bêtise its characteristic shattering bite and satiny, opaque-white surface. The mass is done when it turns from translucent amber to an opaque, even, ivory-white with a silken sheen.
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4
Roll the reserved unpulled amber caramel into a thin rope of uniform diameter. Lay it along one face of the pulled white mass before making the final roll. Stretch the combined mass together into a long, even rope of approximately 1.5 cm diameter, with the amber ribbon running through it as a single internal stripe.
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5
Cut the rope at 2 cm intervals with scissors or a candy cutter, working quickly while the sugar is still warm enough to cut cleanly without cracking. Set the cut pillows on a lightly oiled or non-stick surface. They are done when they hold a firm pillow shape, cool to the touch, and lift cleanly from the surface without sticking.
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6
Allow to cool completely at room temperature. Each finished bêtise should be opaque white with one visible amber stripe. On tasting: the first bite shatters cleanly, then dissolves on the tongue with a slow, clean mint release — not aggressively mentholated. Store in an airtight tin in a cool, dry place to prevent the pulled sugar from absorbing moisture and softening.