Food lies at the heart of our bodies and our culture; it is there for celebrations and sustenance. NOMaste features a local fierce foodie each month, in four weekly segments. First, an interview, then a top 10 list, followed by a recipe to share, and finally a food review. This food corner will not just feature local chefs but also restaurateurs, buyers, suppliers — any woman involved in any aspect of the food chain, from farm to food truck. Join us each week as we get to know another Foodie in the city. Part I of this month’s series can be found here, and part II can be found here.
Ingredients:
Small Candy Canes
Melting Chocolate
Sprinkles
Wax Paper
Directions:
Lay the candy canes down on the wax paper so that the tops touch and form a heart shape. Melt the chocolate and spoon them in the middle. Add sprinkles when they are still wet & let dry a few mins. Bam — super easy, Christmas treat. Perfect to do with the kids!
This recipe, while stone cold simple, was still a slight challenge for me. They say the easiest-looking things are the hardest — well, that wasn’t entirely the case here, but it also wasn’t entirely NOT the case. I melted the chocolate in a double boiler, but the chocolate was hardening a touch too fast for my liking. Maybe if it was hotter it would have been easier to spoon, but my chocolate was getting a little too lumpy for me. I kept having to reheat it, but that’s not the end of the world. They still turned out pretty good — not professional, but better than average if I say so myself.
I was able to make about 40 of these peppermint chocolate hearts in just a few hours. It took as much time to get the wrappers off of the candy canes as it did to actually assemble them with the chocolate. I only had some fine green and red sprinkles, but with some super cute chunky holiday shapes thrown in there, they would have been even cuter.
The taste was exactly what you would expect — white chocolate and peppermint candy — classic, and simple. I found them a bit hard to bite into like a candy, so instead I ate one like a lollipop. I think a great way to eat one is melted into a hot chocolate or coffee to add some rich flavors.
No matter how you eat them, they are a super quick, fun, and easy treat to make for small gifts or little ‘holiday wishes’ to give people. I am actually mailing some to my family in California tomorrow in their Christmas box! I recommend this as a great simple treat to bang out in a short amount of time, when you need to shower many people with a small little treat.