Cream Cheese Candies

Now that Thanksgiving is past, I feel I can truly get into the spirit of Christmas. We bought our tree yesterday, and it along with the house are now decorated and ready for Santa’s visit. That means time for making Christmas goodies! This is one of my childhood favorites. Don’t be scared away from this if you’ve never used candy molds before. They are super easy and make the prettiest cream cheese candies. Rolling in super fine sugar before pressing into the mold helps the candy to release cleanly. If you can’t find super fine sugar, just use regular white sugar – run your sugar in a food processor for a few seconds to make the grains smaller.

Ingredients:

3 oz cream cheese, softened

½ t flavoring extract (peppermint, maple, rum, almond, lemon, or your favorite)

Food coloring (to match the flavor you choose)

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Super fine sugar (not powdered)

Directions:

Place softened cream cheese in mixing bowl. Add desired flavor and color and mix until incorporated.

Mix in powdered sugar, kneading with your hands, until combined.

Roll into small balls (enough to fit into candy molds) then roll in super fine sugar. Press firmly into mold.

Once all molds are filled, unmold onto wax paper to harden. They will stay somewhat soft in the middle, but feel hard on the outside when touched. Once hardened, store in container in refrigerator, placing sheets of wax paper between layers of mints.