Introduction: Cream Cheese Mints or Candies

By
About: I work on a Yacht where I am the Chef and SCUBA instructor.

Cream Cheese Mints or Candies

This is a slightly unusual but super easy use for Cream Cheese

This instructable will take you through how to make Cream Cheese mints.
In the last step I will go over how to switch up the ingredients to make candies.

Step 1: What You Need

Ingredients

4oz or half a cup Cream Cheese 
1 Tablespoon of Unsalted Butter 
3-5 Cups of Powdered/Confectioners Sugar
Food Colouring
Water
Regular granulated sugar
2-5 drops of Peppermint oil

Equipment

Bowls
Spoons
Forks
Cookie cutters
Knife
Sieve
Paper towels
Small Paint Brush ( that has not been used for paint)
Silicon baking mat or parchment paper
baking trays
Fridge/freezer


Step 2: Mix Butter, Cream Cheese and Peppermint Oil

Take butter and cream cheese and put them in a bowl with the peppermint oil

You will need to wait till they are softened so that you can work them with a fork.
If you have just removed them from the fridge or are too impatient to wait for the
natural melting process, then just blast them in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Do not over blast because you will liquefy the butter and then have to put it back in
the fridge and wait for it to chill again

Once the butter and cream cheese is soft enough you will need to mash them
together with a fork until they are well Incorporated

Step 3: Add Sugar

Take a sieve and put it over the bowl - sieve the sugar over the butter and cream cheese mix.
After each cup of sugar mix with a fork 

Commonly asked question

DO I REALLY HAVE TO SIEVE THE SUGAR

*my answer
NO, but although powdered/confectioners sugar is sold in powder form it retains the unique
and irritating ability to create tiny lumps which is a total downer for the texture of your mints/candies
or any other recipe where you use this kind of sugar. So NO YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SIEVE the sugar
but you have been warned

Step 4: Mix

Keep Mixing

Like your life depends on it - your arm will get tired (but I don't care so stop moaning, do you want great mint/candies or what??)

You will need to keep mixing until you form a dough. If it sticks to your hands then its still too wet so add some more sugar. If it is dry and cracking then you have put too much sugar in and you will need to fix this with a few drops of water.

Cut the Dough in half and add different food colour to each half


Step 5: Knead

Knead each half separately until the colour is even throughout the entire dough ball

You may want to wear gloves for this step because the food colouring gets all over your hands.

If you need a stronger colour just add more food colouring and knead some more


Step 6:

Once you have some awesome coloured dough balls put them aside to rest for a few minutes while you make some girly
decorations

Step 7: Making Coloured Sugar

This is how to make coloured sugar, This is totally optional so you can skip it if you want to leave them plain !!!

Take the regular granulated sugar and pour a little in to a bowl/ramekin 

Add a few drops of food colour

Step 8: Mix

Mix with fork untill the sugar is evenly coloured.

Step 9: Sieve

Push sugar through a sieve
( see previous steps for my sentiments on sieving sugar)
It will go through, you just have to encourage it with a spoon.

Put (NON LUMPY) sugar aside for a moment

Step 10: Powder the Worksurface

If your anything like me your workspace will look something like the above.

If you are one of those neat freak chef's then you will need to throw some powdered
sugar on the work surface, disorganise you equipment, knock a few things over
and generally live a little:)

Step 11: Roll and Cut

Roll out the first dough ball to about 1/2 inch thickness, go wild with the cookie cutters

Put dough shapes on the silicon baking mat, tray or parchment paper

Repeat with other dough ball

Step 12: Brush With Water

Use a paint brush to lightly brush each shape with water, then lightly brush each shape with a paper towel. 
You do not want the shapes too wet

Step 13: Sieve

Grab your sieve and the coloured sugar. Dust the damp shapes with the coloured sugar.

Step 14: Refrigerate

You want a nice thick coating of coloured sugar

When your done dusting the shapes with sugar cover with plastic wrap, make sure the plastic is not touching your mints, then put them in the fridge.

If you can wait for the minty goodness then place trays in the freezer for 2 hours to allow the shapes to set. If you can wait then place in the fridge for 24 hours and reap the benefits

Step 15: Storage

For unused dough

- spray the inside of a Ziploc with Pam or grease with olive oil
- place remaining dough inside
- spray again and seal
- keep in the fridge
when you are ready to use you may have to kneed the dough with water before you can work with it

For the candies/mints (if you have any left)

- air tight container
- fridge

Step 16: Ideas

Presentation

- For the cover pic I wrapped 4 of the mints in clear cellophane - the same stuff you wrap flowers with. I twisted the ends and used sticky tape to seal them. Beautiful table decorations or a lovely addition to any child's lunch box.

- If you do not want to dust the mints in coloured sugar then you can leave them plain or make them shiny with a light spray of Pam or brush of olive oil

- You can use any shape or size cookie cutters and the dough is just right to mold by hand .

- These make great cup cake or regular cake toppers.

Changing from mints to candies

- instead of adding peppermint you can substitute this flavoring for any other. for example you could use vanilla, almond extract, fake rum flavoring, lemon juice lime juice, different spices, rose water or orange blossom water

- you can add different textures to your mints/candies by adding crushed up chocolate chips or popping candy