How to Make Candied Peppermint for Christmas

Making candied peppermint for Christmas is a twist on making candied pretzels and candied peanuts. Covering peppermints with a chocolate or almond bark coating is very easy to do and makes excellent gifts for teachers, neighbors and friends. In this article, you will learn how to make four different candy presentations, all by using the same ingredients. Not only is this a simple project to do, it is also very inexpensive.

Things You'll Need

• 1 pound bag of round peppermint candy
• 1 package of peppermint sticks
• 1 package of candy canes
• 2 blocks of chocolate bark
• 2 blocks of almond bark
• double boiler
• tongs
• hammer or rolling pin
• sealable storage bag

Instructions

1. Set up double boiler. Fill a large pot with a small amount of water and turn on medium high heat. Place a small saucepan on top of the water and allow the chocolate or almond bark to melt completely inside of the small saucepan.

2. Cover round peppermint. Submerge the round peppermint candies until each one is covered by a chocolate or almond bark coating. Remove each individual candy from the saucepan with tongs. Grab the candy on the sides to avoid marking the candy coating. Place on wax paper to cool and harden.

3. Dip peppermint sticks. Dip peppermint sticks half way into the melted chocolate and the other half into the almond. Allow dipped half to cool and harden completely before attempting to dip the other half. Place on wax paper to cool and harden.

4. Embellish candy canes. Dip candy canes half way into the melted chocolate or almond bark. Before coating sets, dredge coated candy canes in decorative sugar. Place on wax paper to cool and harden.

5. Crush peppermint. Place several unwrapped peppermint candies into a sealed storage bag. Place a towel over the bag and pound with a hammer or rolling pin to crush the peppermint candies. Empty the crushed contents of the bag into melted chocolate or amlond bark. Sitr gently, then pour mixture evenly on to wax paper to cool and harden. Break candy by hand into bite size pieces.

Tips & Warnings

• If you would like to coat peppermints in both chocolate and almond bark at the same time, you will need to set up two double boilers.

• The sides that the candy lay on to cool will be flattened. You should not expect the candy pieces to be perfect from every angle.