Cream Cheese Mints

Cream cheese mints are a melt-in-your-mouth dessert that looks so pretty on party trays for a special occasion, for gifts at Christmas, for weddings or for baby shower mints. This easy old-fashioned recipe is the perfect balance of sweet and peppermint, and only needs five ingredients.

 

Why We Love Cream Cheese Mints

• Easy Homemade Candy Treat – With only five ingredients these easy treats are fun and simple. Have the kids help roll and press and are the easiest holiday candy!
• Great For Gifts And Parties – This recipe is great for little gifts at the holidays and adds a lot of festive fun to a cookie tray. These little mints always disappear fast at a party!
• Simple Ingredients For Candy– Making home candy can sometimes be a complicated process. (usually involving a thermometer and a double boiler!) These treats use simple ingredients and produces great results for a simple recipe.
• Fun Traditional Treat – These delicious cream cheese mints are also known as wedding mints. You can find them served most commonly at Christmas, Easter, for bridal showers and weddings, graduation parties and baby showers in all different colors. These delicious mints are typically found in different pastel colors on a dessert table. I like making vibrant colors for Christmas.

Ingredients For Cream Cheese Mints

• cream cheese softened
• butter softened, salted is ok
• powdered sugar divided, 2 pound bag plus an extra half a cup, also called confectioner’s sugar
• mint extract or peppermint extract, sometimes I like to add a little vanilla extract sometimes also.
• gel food coloring I used green and red

How To Make Cream Cheese Mints

1. Combine softened cream cheese and softened butter in a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer or hand mixer.

2. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar and mint extract, then continue mixing until smooth.

3. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar 1 to 2 cups at a time, mixing well in between each cup to make sure the cream cheese, butter, and sugar mixture are well blended. The mixture will get a little thicker with each cup of powdered sugar until a dough forms.

4. Cut the dough into three pieces that are about equal size and place in bowls.

5. With a toothpick, add the green gel food coloring to one portion of the dough, and the red gel food coloring to the second bowl.

6. Stir in the colors well with a spoon, creating one green, one red and one white dough. Kneading the dough by folding the dough in can help mix the color more evenly, but be careful as the food coloring can stain hands and the work surface.

7. Cover each of the bowls with saran wrap tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
8. Line a baking sheet or cookie sheet with parchment paper. (Since we aren’t baking these cream cheese butter mints, you can use a sheet of wax paper instead of parchment.) Sprinkle the parchment paper lightly with powdered sugar.
9. Scoop out dough in 1 tablespoon scoops and roll into a ball, then add to the baking sheet.

10. Dip the ends of a fork into the powdered sugar. Press the fork into the ball to flatten and create a lined pattern. Repeat until all the dough is rolled and flattened.

11. You can eat the mints now, but they will still be soft. Allow the mints to dry on the baking sheet for about four hours, or until the outside hardens. If the bottom of the mints are still soft, flip them over and allow them to sit for additional time until dry. Then enjoy!

Can I Use These Cream Cheese Mints In A Plastic Mold?

There are so many different cream cheese mint molds you can use to turn your mints into pretty shaped creations, and they look so pretty! I prefer using silicone molds, as the mints pop out much more easily than if you use a hard plastic mold for your homemade mints.

If you have hard plastic candy molds, rolling the cream cheese mint in granulated sugar before pressing it into the mold can help you remove it easier so it doesn’t stick. If you do have one stick, use a second cream cheese mint to press into the dough to pop the dough back out of the mold, then try the shape again.

Here are some great cream cheese mint mold shapes to try for all year long, or try these Christmas cream cheese mint molds for holiday shapes.

To use a cream cheese mint mold, you simply pop the dough into the mold to shape it. Then pop the mints carefully out to let them dry. The amount of mints this recipe will make will depend on the mint size your molds make.

Can You Make Sugar-Free Cream Cheese Mints?

I have not tried this recipe using a sugar substitute like swerve or other options. I am pretty sure they would work. Here is a great way to make a sugar free powdered sugar at home. If you try an alternative kind of powdered sugar, let me know in the comments!

What Can I Use In Place Of Powdered Sugar If I’m Out?

You can make your own powdered sugar out of regular granulated sugar. You grind regular sugar in a blender or food processor. Find directions on how to make powdered sugar from granulated sugar here.

Can I Change The Colors?

Yes, you can absolutely change the colors to whatever colors you like. Make these cream cheese mints purple, blue and yellow for easter, pink or blue for a baby shower, orange and red for Thanksgiving, or leave them all white for Christmas or a wedding if you prefer no food coloring.

Gel food coloring produces the most vibrant color. If you use a drip food coloring the colors will be much paler, and you’ll need to use a lot more food coloring.

How Do I Store Cream Cheese Mints?

Store leftover cream cheese mints in an airtight container. They should be stored in the refrigerator long term due to the cream cheese in the mix, but can easily last 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator safely.

The mints can be left out overnight to dry if needed, but then place the cream cheese mints back in the refrigerator once dry.

These cream cheese mints also can be left out on party tables or cookie trays safely for 3-4 hours easily (if they last that long!). I generally don’t make these cream cheese mints if I know that it is a hot summer day, as they won’t last as long then due to the cream cheese and dairy.