ZSweet® Cocoa Cream Cheese Mints

yields 50-60 mints

Ingredients:
1 cup ZSweet®, ground to powder (I do this in the coffee grinder)
2 tablespoons cocoa*
few drops of mint oil (to taste)
4 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
addtl. 1/4 cup ZSweet®, ground to powder, for rolling mints in

*Note: If you leave out the cocoa, be sure to add a pinch spirulina or 1 teaspoon ground mint leaves for green color

Equipment you will need:
bowl
wire whisk / 2 forks / pastry cutter
wax paper lined baking sheet
flexible molds or a rolling pin
small container (to shake mints in)


Mix 1 cup ground ZSweet® and cocoa together in a medium-sized bowl. Cut in cream cheese with a wire whisk or a couple of forks (or a pastry cutter, if you have one). The resultant mix will be dry and crumbly. At this stage, mix in the mint oil to taste and knead the mixture with your fingers until it starts to clump up into a dough (the heat from your hands helps to further soften the cream cheese).

Once you have one big ball of dough, pinch off pieces to put in your flexible molds and fill them, one at a time, mashing them in well, and scraping off the excess. If you do not have molds, you can also roll out the dough onto wax paper with a rolling pin till about .25" thick and cut into 1" squares with a butter knife.

Take the small container and put the 1/4 cup of powdered ZSweet® into it. Pop out a few mints at a time into the container and shake until well-coated, and tap each coated mint against a flat surface (I use the container lid) to release any extra ZSweet®. Lay each mint onto the wax paper-lined baking sheet in rows. When all the mints are finished, cover with a dry cloth and let sit for 24-48 hours to dry out completely. Put in a sealed container and store in the fridge (if they have not dried out yet, the container will get condensation on the inside of the lid). They will last in the fridge for a couple weeks, or can be frozen for up to 6 months.

Recipe Author: Paula Bishop, North Carolina