How to Make Cream Cheese Mints
Homemade Candy Brings a Distinctive Touch to Social Gatherings
Apr 27, 2009
Homemade mints take very little time to prepare and add an elegant touch to wedding receptions, baby showers or Christmas parties.
A few generations ago, when our grandmothers were home to spend time in the kitchen, they cooked more of their own foods. Then, entertaining was something they took pride in as a chance to show off culinary skills.
During that time, it was common to find homemade mint candy at many social gatherings. But now, when working mothers are more likely to buy cookies and muffins at a bakery and re-package them for a class picnic or bake sale, homemade mint candy has been replaced by pre-made, foil-wrapped butter cream mints.
But it doesn't have to be this way. All you need is a few ingredients and tools, the willingness to get your hands a little dirty and some elbow grease.
Cream Cheese Mints Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 14 oz square of cream cheese
- 3 c. powdered sugar
- Food coloring
- Crème de menthe
- Granulated sugar or colored baker's sugar
- Silicone candy molds in assorted shapes
Directions:
- Combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and 2-3 drops crème de menthe for flavor. Mix until the combined ingredients reach the consistency of putty.
- Add 2-3 drops food coloring and mix well. For weddings, it is fun to divide the mint mixture and make half of your mints in the wedding colors and leave the other half white. The ideal colors for baby showers are pink or blue, the more gender-neutral green and yellow, or create mints that match the baby's nursery colors. For Christmas, green and red are common mint colors.
- Roll the mint candy into marble-shaped balls. Roll these balls into granulated sugar to coat them. This will prevent the mints from sticking to the molds when you shape them. You can also dust your hands with granulated sugar to prevent the mint candy mixture from sticking to your hands. [Another fun tip is to use baker's colored sugar instead of granulated sugar. This is especially striking using white mints and colored sugar.]
- Press the mints into the Silicone candy molds to shape them. Good wedding shapes include roses, fern leaves and hearts. Christmas mint shapes include wreaths, stockings and stars. Baby shower mint mold shapes include baby buggies, bottles and safety pins.
- Unmold the mints by turning the mint mold inside-out.
Tips:
- The mints may be placed on wax paper to keep them from sticking to the counter.
- Mints may also be stored in airtight canisters for longer periods of time.
- If you don't have candy molds, you can use a fork to flatten the mints in a crisscross shape similar to peanut butter cookies
The copyright of the article How to Make Cream Cheese Mints in Pies/Cookies/Squares is owned by Tracy Morris. Permission to republish How to Make Cream Cheese Mints in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
 |
