CREAM FONDANTS

These hand dipped chocolates have been a Christmas tradition in my family since I was little.  I remember helping my mom as she dipped them and now my kids are helping me.  These are the kids' favorites.  This year I divided the fondant in half and added some mint extract and green food coloring to half as an experiment and I love them! They look big in the pictures, but really they are bite sized pieces of candy...and one recipe makes a whole bunch! The fondant can be mixed in a stand mixer, but don't try to do the whole mixing process with a regular electric mixer or you'll burn out the motor.

CREAM FONDANTS

1 cube butter, melted

1 8 oz. bar cream cheese, softened

1 12 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

3 lbs. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

approx. 4 bags of chocolate chips (I use semi sweet but I have used milk chocolate and I've also added some Andes mint chips--just don't do straight mint chips because it's way too strong!)

Mix melted butter and cream cheese until smooth.  Add condensed milk and vanilla. Mix in powdered sugar a couple of cups at a time until it's all in and mixed well.  The mixture will be very thick but a little sticky.  Cover tightly and chill fondant in refrigerator for at least a couple of hours or overnight.  Roll into small balls (about the size of boulder marbles) and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and chill again for several hours.  

You can melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler but this last time I used the microwave and melted the chips in a Pyrex measuring cup.  I melted one bag at a time, cooking for 30 seconds then stirring.  When the chocolate was almost done melting, I stirred it well and let it sit for about another minute and it finished melting from it's own heat.  I stirred in 1 teaspoon canola oil for each bag of chips to thin and smooth the chocolate, and to give the finished candy a shiny appearance.  Drop the fondant balls one at a time and roll them around to coat (I use 2 forks), then place on waxed paper to set.  You have to work fast or the fondants will melt (don't remove the fondants from the fridge until you're ready for them)  When the pan is full, put them back in  the fridge. If the chocolate starts to cool and get too thick, put it back in the microwave for about 10 seconds.  Because I was melting one bag at a time, I was able to do different kinds of chips...so I did 3 bags of semi sweet and one bag of milk chocolate.  

Because some of my fondants were mint, I melted a half bag of white chips, added a teaspoon of oil, and drizzled over the vanilla ones, then added a touch of green food coloring and drizzled the green over the mint ones so we would know which was which.  Store the finished candy in the refrigerator.