FollowWhy not make these easy, yet elegant White Winter Orange and Chocolate Cream candies for Christmas? Impress your guests with these delightful treats.
Winter White Orange and Chocolate Creams
Ingredients:
3 ¾ cups powdered sugar
¼ to ½ teaspoon pure orange extract (depending on how strong you would like the flavor to be).
4 ounces of softened cream cheese
8 ounces of milk or dark chocolate for centers
small and large nonpareils
Directions:
Prep: line baking sheets with parchment or wax paper and clear enough room in your refrigerator for them.
You may opt to use your hands or a mixer to combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar. If your cream cheese is still a bit too chilled then the heat of your hands will help soften and combine everything easier.
Slowly add the powdered sugar to your cream cheese, we did about ½ to 1 cup at a time, make sure it was fully incorporated and then added more. You’ll be looking for a consistency that is moldable but not sticky. Once fully combined you’ll add the orange extract, again, mix or knead thoroughly.
Remove the kneaded ball from the bowl and loosely wrap up in a damp cloth or paper towel. Make sure it does not start to dry or it will crumble and your candies won’t stay together. Use your hands to create uniform balls, you may choose any size you like or a mix of sizes. They make brilliant tiny bites as well! You’ll only want to form a few balls at a time before creating the indent, we used the end of a honeycomb stick, a melon baller, smaller teaspoon… would also work to create a shallow well for the chocolate in the next step. Once all of the candies are created cover tightly and chill for a few hours.
Once your orange creams are fully chilled you may start the chocolate step. Following the instructions on the package melt the chocolate, we used the microwave method. Use a very small spatula to scoop and pour into each cream well (we found this method to take a little time but was less overall work and less messy)!
Although the creams are still cold the chocolate will start to set very quickly. With this in mind you’ll want to sprinkle the nonpareils onto the chocolate after every 4-8 creams. Gently pressing the larger ones in will help them stay in place. Cover tightly and put back in the refrigerator to fully set. They should be fine to be out for a couple hours during a party, keep in mind they are done with cream cheese, so keep chilled and covered as much as possible. Enjoy!
