This candy hearts recipe is easy to make and they are pretty enough to give away as hand made gifts. I mean look at them, aren’t they gorgeous?! Or try making Nutella Truffles, just as pretty but full of chocolatey goodness.
You guys, these cream cheese melts are FUN to make! I felt like a kid again playing with play-doh. Adding food coloring, mixing it in and watching the dough change colors, using little cutters, getting colored sugar everywhere. So great…and very therapeutic.
I love that that this candy heart recipe is very customizable, you can change out the coloring options, flavors, and shapes of your candies to suit any season!
I’ll be making these for every holiday…green shamrocks for St. Patricks Day, Easter eggs for Easter, red, white, and blue stars for the 4th of July. The list goes on and on.
Just Two Ingredients to Make Cream Cheese Melts!
Only 2 ingredients are needed to make these Valentine’s Day candy hearts. Cream cheese and powdered sugar. The flavoring, food coloring, and sugar sprinkles are completely optional.
Most of the time, these candies are made with peppermint extract which is great for the holiday season and you could use it for Valentine’s Day. But, I wanted a different flavor for this heart candy. I actually wanted to try strawberry extract to make these, but couldn’t find any. I chose to try almond extract in them because it’s a flavor I love.
Easily learn how to make Candy Hearts with this easy Valentine’s candy recipe. If you love making candy for holidays, try these gum drops.
While making these I came across some slight obstacles. Make sure to check out the helpful tips list (down below called Tips for Making the Best Cream Cheese Candies) to use along the way to make it easier for you to make this candy heart recipe.
Cream Cheese Melts Ingredients
- Cream Cheese: Full fat cream cheese.
- Powdered Sugar
- Extract: I used almond extract. You could use vanilla extract or any other flavors. The flavorings are optional.
- Food Coloring: The food coloring is optional. You can keep the candy white or add make it any color you want.
- Sugar Sprinkles: These are optional. I prefer no sugar sprinkles.
How to Make Cream Cheese Candy
- Add softened cream cheese and flavoring to the bowl of a mixer and mix until blended.
- Add in 1/2 of the powdered sugar and mix.
- Hand mix in the rest of the powdered sugar.
- Separate the dough into as many sections as you have colors. Add one or two drops of food coloring (I used neon pink), mixing completely after each drop till you reach your desired color. Roll each colored dough section into big balls.
- Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Pull out of fridge and flatten balls (I used my hands) into discs to a couple centimeters thickness. Press in cookie cutters. Place the cut shapes on parchment or wax paper on a cookie sheet. (Or shape into 1/2-inch balls, roll in sugar, and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Press each ball with a fork to flatten.)
- Let stand 1-2 hours until firm. Store in fridge.
Tips for Making the Best Cream Cheese Candies
- I liked my biggest heart shaped cutter the best (the blue one in the picture below), it is about 1 1/2 inches across at the widest part of the heart.
- I found it easiest to flatten the dough out with my hands rather than trying to use a rolling pin.
- Once you get everything mixed, it should be the consistency of a soft dough. If it’s too sticky, you can add more powdered sugar. If it’s too dry just add in a little more cream cheese.
- I found it easiest to make these on a sticky surface, like a granite countertop so that the cut shapes stay on the surface and you aren’t trying to pry them out of the cookie cutters. Or try coating the cutters in some powdered sugar to keep the dough from sticking to them.
- I’m not gonna lie, the sugar sprinkles on these were a bit of a pain. I originally sprinkled the sugar on top of the dough before cutting with cookie cutter. They were cute, but the sugar didn’t fully want to adhere to the dough. You could mix the sprinkles into the dough if you like, but I think the next time I make these, I think I will leave off the sugar sprinkles.
- Once you run out of area in the flattened dough to make shapes, just roll dough back into a ball and flatten back out again to do more cutting.
Cream Cheese Melts Variations
- Try other flavored extracts in this recipe like strawberry extract or banana extract.
- Use different colored food coloring in these cream cheese melts.
- Roll the cream cheese dough into 1/2-inch sized balls and flatten with a fork instead of flattening all the dough out and using a cookie cutter to make shapes.
- Work the sugar sprinkles into the “dough,” sprinkle on top of candy hearts, or omit completely.
- Make these as thick or as thin as you like.
Storage Instructions for Candy Heart Recipe
- How to Refrigerate Cream Cheese Melts: Store the candy hearts layered between parchment or wax paper in a glass container or BPA-free airtight plastic container or zipper bag. The candy should last about 4-5 days in the fridge.
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Cream Cheese Melts
Ingredients
- 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional
- 3 cups powdered sugar, divided
- colored sugar, optional
- food coloring, optional
Instructions
-
Add softened cream cheese and flavoring to the bowl of a mixer and mix until blended.
-
Add in 1 1/2 cups of the powdered sugar and mix well.
-
Hand mix in the other 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.
-
Separate the dough into as many sections of colors you want to make.
-
Add one or two drops of food coloring, mixing completely after each drop till you reach your desired color. Roll each colored dough into a big ball.
-
Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
-
Pull out of fridge and flatten balls (I used my hands) into discs to a couple centimeters thickness. Press cookie cutters into the dough. Place the cut shapes on parchment or wax paper on a cookie sheet. (Or shape into 1/2-inch balls, roll in colored sugar if you like, and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Press each ball with a fork to flatten).
-
Let stand 1-2 hours until firm. Store in fridge.
Recipe Notes
- I found it easiest to flatten the dough with my hands instead of a rolling pin.
- If dough is too sticky, add more powdered sugar. If too dry just add in a little more cream cheese.
- Use any flavoring, food coloring, or cookie cutter shapes you want.
- Cream cheese melts will last about 5 days stored in the refrigerator.
* Please note that all nutrition information are just estimates. Values will vary among brands, so we encourage you to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.
Nutrition Information
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