Name: Cream Cheese Mints
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 1470 min
Ingredients: 90 g cream cheese at room temperature; 200 g icing sugar; ⅛ tsp peppermint extract; Food color (optional); ⅛ tsp Salt

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These easy cream cheese 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 simple ingredients, you get refreshing mint candies in no time!

A glass jar of blue and green mints. — Homemade Cream Cheese Mints - Perfect for Baby Showers, Bridal Showers, Weddings and Other Special Occasion

These cream cheese mints are almost similar to butter mints. The only difference is that these candies use cream cheese (without any butter) 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 delicious mints. 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 the Mints
Notes
Like this easy homemade mints recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out
Recipe (Printable)

How to Make the Mints

Ingredients

Cream cheese at room temperature
Icing sugar (powdered sugar)
Peppermint extract
Food color (optional)
Salt

Making the 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 softened cream cheese until it is smooth (with an electric mixer on low speed). 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.

Shaping the mints

To shape the candy, take a small section of the cream cheese mixture and roll it into a thick strip (about 1 cm in diameter). Cut the strip at 1.5cm intervals to make little mints.
Shape each section into squares by pressing the sides flat such that there are 4 sides to each candy.
Place the shaped cream cheese mints on a tray line with parchment paper in a single layer.
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.

Square blue and green cream cheese mints on a rectangle brown plate. — Old Fashioned Cream Cheese Mints Recipe - Simple Recipe for the Best Cream Cheese Mints

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.

Peppermint 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 minty flavor.

Coloring the candy

You can color your candy in any color you like. The most common ones are pastel colors.
In this recipe, I used 2 different colors. I separated the mints mixture into 2 separate bowls. First half of the mix was tinted in AmeriColor Electric Blue gel food coloring while the other half was tinted in Electric Green. You can also use liquid food coloring.

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 small 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 bottom of a 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 the tines of a fork – Shape the mixture into small balls and place on a parchment-lined tray or cookie sheet. Use a fork dipped in icing sugar to press the little balls flat while leaving the fork lines on them. Let the mints dry and set before storing.
Roll and cut – Roll 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 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.
Shaping with candy molds or silicone molds - Dust the molds lightly with powdered sugar. Pinch some of the mints mixture and shape into a round ball. Roll into some powdered sugar or granulated sugar. And then press firmly into the molds. Flip the mold and gently push the shaped mint out. For best results, use soft flexible silicone molds.

Setting and storing the mints

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. The mints are best kept in an airtight container.

A stack of 6 blue and green cream cheese candy mints. — Cream Cheese Mints - Perfect as Wedding Mints and Baby Shower Mints

Like this easy homemade mints recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full, printable version of the cream cheese mint recipe:

Cream Cheese Mints

Deliciously easy cream cheese mints that can be whipped up within minutes and are a great addition to any party dessert table.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cream Cheese Mints

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Resting time: 1 day

Total Time: 1 day 30 minutes

Yield: 290 g

Author: Priya Maha

Metric - US Customary