Cream Cheese Mints
Homemade cream cheese mints melt in your mouth, leaving behind a refreshing minty flavor. Set these on your counter for guests to enjoy after a meal, or gift to friends and family around the holidays!
These cream cheese mints are smooth, sweet, and perfectly minty! Also called wedding mints, this type of homemade mint dissolves quickly and smoothly on the tongue.
They can be enjoyed as an after-dinner mint, but they’re also sweet enough to eat as a treat throughout the day. I love adding a few drops of gel food coloring to my mints so I can give them as gifts for different holidays! Red and green food coloring makes these cream cheese mints perfect for Christmas, while pastel colors suit baby showers, wedding showers, or Mother’s Day.
You need just five basic ingredients to make these irresistible mints; they’re an underrated homemade treat that everyone adores!
What You’ll Need
Making this recipe for mints with cream cheese is very straightforward and calls for just five ingredients. The food coloring is optional, but the brightly colored mints are great for giving as gifts.
Let’s review the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe:
- Peppermint Extract: It’s best to stick with peppermint extract instead of mint extract in this recipe. Mint extract has spearmint in it and can tend to taste like toothpaste, especially if you use too much.
- Cream Cheese: You must use brick-style, full-fat cream cheese to make these mints.
- Butter: I use unsalted butter because it’s what I keep on hand, but salted butter would be fine as well.
- Powdered Sugar: Sweetens the mints while keeping them smooth.
- Salt: Just a pinch of salt enhances the mint flavor.
- Gel Food Coloring (Optional): I highly recommend sticking with gel food coloring instead of liquid food coloring. Gel food coloring will give you a much more vibrant color without thinning out the dough. Americolor is my personal favorite brand to use!
How to Make Cream Cheese Mints
- Beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. I prefer using my stand mixer for this, but a handheld mixer works too.
- Add just 1 cup of powdered sugar to the cream cheese mixture, followed by the peppermint extract and salt. Keep scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl to ensure everything is evenly combined.
- Add the remaining 3 cups of powdered sugar to the mixture, one big spoonful at a time. Do NOT try to add the sugar all at once, otherwise it will be crumbly and difficult to get everything mixed together. Once all the sugar has been added, scrape down the mixing bowl one last time and beat the mixture for 1 minute.
- Add the gel food coloring, if using. You’ll want to divide the mint mixture evenly into separate mixing bowls based on the number of colors you plan on preparing. If needed, you can work the food coloring into the mint mixture(s) using your hands.
- Starting with the first color, scoop out teaspoon-sized balls onto parchment paper-lined baking trays. Roll each one into a smooth ball using your hands.
- Next dip a fork in powdered sugar and gently press the tines of the fork into each mint to create an indentation. Repeat with each remaining color.
- Let the mints air dry for two hours before refrigerating. If the bottoms of your mints are still soft, you can flip them over and let them dry a little longer.
FAQs
Food-grade peppermint oil (NOT essential oil) may be used, but I’ve only tested this recipe using peppermint extract so I can’t say for sure how much oil should be used as a substitute. You’d likely need to use less peppermint oil since it’s stronger in flavor.
Yes, of course! I just recommend avoiding anything with spearmint extract in it, because that can take the flavor of these cream cheese mints into toothpaste territory.
The small amount of butter called for in these homemade mints is what makes them melt so well in your mouth.
Yes, since the mints are made with cream cheese you must refrigerate them after the drying period.
Recipe Variations
I intentionally kept this a simple yet elegant recipe for cream cheese mints. However, you’re more than welcome to try the following recipe variations:
- Try a different color: Add a drop of gel food coloring to create pastel colors for Easter, baby showers, or wedding showers. Or change up the colors for different holidays, like pink for Valentine’s Day or red, white, and blue for 4th of July.
- Use a different extract: The peppermint extract is what technically makes these “mints.” However, you can easily replace it with lemon extract, almond extract, etc.
- Make a different shape: You can either pipe the dough into shapes or press it into a mold.
- Add some sprinkles: Instead of using food coloring, keep the mints white and add your favorite sprinkles to the dough.
- Dip them in chocolate: These mints are fantastic plain, but even more delicious dipped in a little bit of semi-sweet or dark chocolate.
Recipe Tips
- Do not be tempted to add more peppermint extract than the recipe calls for. The mints are plenty minty enough as written, and adding more extract will give them too strong of a mint flavor.
- Make sure to press the mints down pretty quickly after you roll them, this will prevent them from cracking as they’re drying out.
- If working with multiple colors of the cream cheese mixture, be sure to tightly cover the colors you’re not currently working with plastic wrap. This will prevent the dough from drying out and the mints from cracking after being rolled later on.
More Mint Desserts To Try!
- Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Mint Chocolate Cookie Cups
- Homemade Peppermint Patties
- Peppermint Bark
- Mint Chocolate Truffles
Recipe Video
Cream Cheese Mints
Ingredients
- 4 ounces brick-style cream cheese softened (113 grams)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter softened (14 grams)
- 4 cups powdered sugar divided (480 grams)
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Optional: Gel food coloring
Instructions
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth.
- Mix in 1 cup (120 grams) of powdered sugar until well combined. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl, then mix in the peppermint extract and salt until fully combined.
- With the mixer on low-medium speed, gradually add the remaining 3 cups (360 grams) of powdered sugar one heaping spoonful at a time. If needed, stop a few times and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Once all of the sugar is added, stop and scrape down the mixing bowl and mix on medium-low speed for one more minute. The consistency of the mixture should be similar to playdough. If it’s too sticky, mix in a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches the right consistency.
- Divide the mixture between several different bowls, add food coloring, and mix together until fully combined. If needed, you can dust your hands with a little powdered sugar and work the food coloring into each one. If you have multiple colors, make sure to cover the ones you’re not working with tightly with plastic wrap until you’re ready to scoop and roll them, otherwise they may dry out and crack later on.
- Starting with the first color, scoop teaspoon-sized balls of the mixture and place them onto the prepared baking sheets. Quickly roll each one into a smooth ball with your hands. Dip a fork in powdered sugar, then gently press each ball down with the tines of the fork. Repeat this process with the remaining colors until you’ve used all of the dough.
- Allow to dry at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours. If the bottom of the mints are still soft, flip them over and let them dry for another hour.
- Once the mints have dried out, store them in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.
