These easy cream cheese candy mints are another one of my super easy-to-make candies (click here to see my butter mints recipe and chocolate mint candies recipe). And just like the name suggests, these pretty candies are indeed super easy to make. No cooking involved and with just 3 main ingredients, you get refreshing mint candies in no time!
These cream cheese candies are almost similar to butter mints. The only difference is that these candies use cream cheese and the butter mints use butter. Quite obvious, isn’t it?
The other difference between these 2 recipes is that the butter mints have condensed milk added to them. Cream cheese candy is purely cream cheese, icing sugar, and mint other than a pinch of salt and food color.
I truly love these candies – not just for their refreshing taste but also for their versatility. They are not only awesome as simply candies, they can also be used at any party as dessert table goodies. You can color them to suit the party and you can even shape them to suit the theme. And they don’t require out of the ordinary ingredients and are so easy to make which means they can be made super quickly too.
In terms of taste, these cream cheese candies have a slight hint of the cream cheese sour taste to them, while the butter mints don’t. Other than that, they are both pretty much alike in terms of taste and texture.
How to Make Cream Cheese Candy
Ingredients
- Cream cheese at room temperature
- Icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- Mint extract
- Food color (optional)
- Salt
Making the cream cheese candies
- Start by sifting the icing sugar to break all lumps. This is an important step to avoid your candy from having tiny lumps of sugar. Set the sugar aside.
- In a medium-sized bowl, cream the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add salt and one-third of the icing sugar into the cream cheese. Do this a little at a time to avoid the sugar from flying all over.
- Add the mint extract and beat again.
- Continue with the rest of the icing sugar.
- Once the icing sugar is all done if you wish to color your candy, add the color now. Start with just a tiny bit, especially if you want your candy to have pastel shade. Add more if you want a more intense color.
- To shape the candy, take a small section and roll it into a thick strip (about 1 cm in diameter). Cut the strip at 1.5cm intervals.
- Shape each section into squares by pressing the sides flat such that there are 4 sides to each candy.
- Place the shaped cream cheese candy on a tray.
- Let them sit overnight at room temperature. The next day, turn the cream cheese candy over and continue with another day of setting before storing them in a candy jar.
Notes
Is salt necessary?
- I have added a pinch of salt to the recipe. This is a candy recipe but that little bit of salt makes a whole lot of difference to the taste.
Cream cheese
- Get the cream cheese to be at room temperature. It’s much faster to cream it that way.
- Always sift your icing sugar. This is to make sure it is free from lumps. These lumps can remain in the mixture. And your candies will end up with tiny lumps of sugar here and there.
Mint extract
- When adding the mint extract, always start with a small amount first. Taste the mixture before adding more so that you don’t end up with cream cheese candy mints that are too minty to eat.
- While the recipe below calls for the mint to be added halfway in between the addition of icing sugar, you can always add in more at the end of the process. Just make sure you knead/mix it in well so that it is well distributed throughout the mixture. The amount of extract indicated in the recipe below is just nice to give these candies a mild mint flavor.
Coloring the candy
- You can color your candy in any color you like. The most common ones are pastel shades. In this recipe, I used 2 different colors. Half of the mix was tinted in AmeriColor Electric Blue while the other half was tinted in Electric Green.
Cream cheese candy shaping options
These candies can be shaped in the same way as the traditional butter mints, some of which are as follows:
- Round balls – Pinch the mixture into small portions and roll them until smooth into tiny candy balls. Place on parchment and let them set.
- Flat discs – Similar to the round balls above, place the rolled balls on a parchment-lined tray, making sure the cream cheese candy balls are well spaced from one another. Using the back of a drinking glass that has been dipped in icing sugar, press the balls to form flat discs. Let them set before storing them in a candy jar.
- Flatten with a fork – Again, similar to the round balls above, place the cream cheese candy rolled balls on a parchment-lined tray. Use a fork dipped in icing sugar to press the mints balls flat while leaving the fork lines on them. Let the mints dry and set before storing.
- Roll and cut – For fancier candies, roll the mixture in between 2 plastic sheets and cut various shapes using cookie cutters. Dip the cutters in icing sugar before cutting to avoid sticking. Rest the cutout candies on parchment until they are set and firm.
- Twisted ropes – This is the method I used to shape my homemade butter mints. It involves twisting 2 colors of the mints into ropes and then cutting them into equal intervals. That way you get 2 colors prettily twisted in each mint piece. Click here to see how I did this with my butter mints.
Setting and storing the cream cheese candy
- Once shaped, let the cream cheese candies rest overnight. This helps to dry them up. And then turn them over so that the other side of the candies dry up as well.
- I normally place the candies on a parchment-lined tray and keep them in my oven (with the oven switched off). I like to leave the cream cheese candies in there so that I can leave them uncovered not worry about any lizards or ants getting to them.
- You can store them any way you like. But do not keep them covered as that will not allow them to dry and set well.
Easy Cream Cheese Candy Recipe
Here is the full, printable version of the cream cheese candy recipe:
Cream Cheese Candy
Ingredients
- 90 g cream cheese at room temperature
- 200 g icing sugar
- ⅛ tsp mint extract
- Food color optional
- ⅛ tsp Salt
Instructions
- Sift icing sugar to free from lumps. Set aside.
- In a clean bowl, beat cream cheese (using a paddle attachment) until it is smooth and creamy (and no longer clumpy). Add in ⅓ of the icing sugar, a little at time, beating well after each addition.
- Add in the mint extract and continue beating. Add the remaining icing sugar in small batches and mix until all the sugar has been incorporated into the cream cheese mixture.
- Add food coloring if you wish at this stage and mix until the color is well distributed.
- Roll the mint mixture into long strips and cut them into equal intervals. Flatten the mints and shape them into squares by pressing the sides flat with your fingers. If the mixture is too soft for rolling or shaping, dust it with icing sugar.
- Lay the shaped mints on a parchment lined tray and let them set overnight. Turn the mints over and continue to let them dry another day before storing them in a candy jar.
Nutrition
And that is pretty much my easy cream cheese candy recipe.
Hope this was useful.
Happy candy making 🙂
Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Coconut Candy Recipe – A Quick and Easy Treat
- Coconut Candy – A Homemade Treat
- Orange Chocolate Cupcakes with Candied Ginger
Enjoy 🙂
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