ORANGE CREAM CHEESE MINTS (2024)

Published by Jessica on November 27, 2023

Orange Cream Cheese Mints made with 5 ingredients in just minutes! Perfect creamsicle flavored treats for parties & holiday trays!

These dessert mints are a fun no-bake holiday treat that are easy to make and OH SO delicious! Make this cream cheese mint recipe easily using minimal ingredients and about 20 minutes of prep time.

Easy Holiday Dessert Mints

These little cream cheese butter mints are one of the simplest treats and are perfect for adding to goodie bags or gifting in holiday dessert exchanges. Traditionally these butter mints are shaped into balls and flattened into circles, which we do for this recipe (using a fork for a fun appearance!). But you can change it up and make them into fun shapes using small cookie cutters. This is a fun and festive recipe to switch up the flavoring, shape and make a different treat every time!

Festive Tips & Tricks for Butter Mints

• Make different colors. Divide the dough into however many sections you want and addthe food coloring of your choice and continue to mix the dough well until the color is fully incorporated into the dough. This would be fun for Christmas, make red and green cream cheese mints to share with family and friends.
• Create shapes! To make shapes other than circles, roll the dough out so it’s about 1/4″ thick and then use these tocut out the desired shapes or these fun holiday shapes! If you find that the cookie cutter is sticking to the dough, you can spray it with a little bit of non-stick cooking spray or dip it in melted butter and then dip in granulated sugar in between cutting each shape out.
• Add more sweetness! If desired, place a small amount of granulated sugar in a bowl and then coat the candies on all sides with a thin layer of sugar. Place the formed butter mints in a single layer on waxed paper. The candies will “set” within a few hours – they will remain soft, but the outside sets up enough that the mints are no longer sticky at all and can all be placed together in a container.

Cream Cheese Mint Ingredients

Cream cheese: For the amazing flavor in these soft mints, you will need 4-oz of softened cream cheese.

Butter: Adding in 1 TBSP of butter, softened, gives these little treats a wonderful rich taste.

Orange extract: You will want to add in ½ tsp of orange extract or orange oil flavoring to give these mints even more amazing flavor.

Powder sugar: Using 4 cups of powdered sugar will create a great texture and make the mints nice and sweet.

Orange zest: Add 1 tsp of fresh orange zest to give these mints some subtle color and a nice citrus flavor.

Orange coloring (optional): If desired, use 1-2 drops of orange food coloring to give these mints a vibrant pop of color.

How to make Orange Cream Cheese Mints

Prep

In a small bowl, soften the cream cheese and butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds. You don’t want to melt them, just soften them up a bit.

Then, zest the orange to get the required measurement for this recipe.

Combine

Next, combine the softened cream cheese and butter with the orange extract, and orange zest in a large mixing bowl. Mix all ingredients well.

After that, add in the powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, and mix until you get a dough-like consistency that isn’t sticky.

Shape

Proceed to scoop the cream cheese mixture into ½-inch balls, roll until smooth and place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Continue to press each mint down with the tines of a fork.

Then let the mints cool for an hour in the refrigerator before serving. Enjoy!

How do you Soften Cream cheese?

Here in the US, cream cheese comes in an 8-oz brick wrapped in foil packaging. Most recipes call for softened cream cheese, which can be done in a few different ways:

1. Microwave it! Just 20 seconds or so in the microwave will sufficiently soften cream cheese. Be sure to remove the foil packaging first and to place the cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Hot towel wrap! This is what I tend to do most often. All you do is get a clean kitchen rag, get it soaking wet with hot water, then ring it out quickly and wrap the hot towel around the foil package of cream cheese. It takes just a few minutes and it’s softened!
3. Let it sit out! If you can plan ahead, the absolute easiest way to soften cream cheese is just to let it sit on the counter for an hour or two. Easy!

WHAT KIND OF CREAM CHEESE DO I USE FOR BUTTER MINTS?

I usually use regular cream cheese, but you can use low-fat or non-fat cream cheese and the recipe will still work well and the mints will taste great.

What other flavors can I use for these Cream Cheese Mints?

There are so many possibilities with this easy butter mint recipe, it can be changed up for any holiday! For Christmas time consider using peppermint or mint extract, using red and green food coloring. These little candies would be delicious flavored with cherry, strawberry, or even raspberry extracts. Give these a try with many different flavors and colors, comment below and let me know which flavor is your favorite!

Looking for more holiday recipes? Try more great ideas here:

• Chocolate Caramel Bars
• Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups
• Easy Cracker Toffee
• Tiger Butter Fudge
• Holiday Cookie Salad
• Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
• Homemade Peppermint Patties
• Christmas Candy Puffcorn
• Peppermint Ice Cream Cake Roll
• Festive Vegetable Trays
• Christmas Bark
• Christmas Cream Sodas

Orange Cream Cheese Mints are simple to make using only 5 ingredients and less then 30 minutes of prep! These dessert mints are a perfect creamsicle flavored treat to serve at holiday parties!