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This time of year, one of the best treats to warm your soul and tummy is my Heavenly Hot Chocolate served with these White Chocolate Peppermint Stirring Sticks. 

They are both a snap to make and your friends and family will love you for it. As I tell my friends… drinking my hot chocolate is an “experience!”

To get started, you will need full sized peppermint candy canes. The most labor intensive part is unwrapping each candy cane, but I found that unwrapping them this year was a breeze… thank you candy cane companies for making it a much less frustrating experience!

Next, I cut my candy canes instead of breaking them and they cut perfectly and exactly where I wanted ( I use Cutco scissors). I cut them right across from the end of the cane part to get them all the same length. I then put all the curved cane parts in the food processor to get finely crushed. 

Take your white chocolate pieces or chips and melt them (Make sure you melt enough chocolate to dip the marshmallow in. It should be at least a couple inches deep if not deeper). I microwave mine in a glass measuring cup (I start at 1 minute and add 30 second increments at a time until they are melted. You have to stir with a little spoon or spatula to check if they are melted through as the chocolate holds it’s shape even when melted). 

Take your candy cane sticks and pierce a full sized marshmallow with it making sure it stands straight. Some marshmallows in the bag do not have a flat top and bottom. Make sure to use ones that are flat and will stand straight when pierced with a peppermint stick (Jet Puff brand has better shaped marshmallows than the generic brands). 

Dip the marshmallow in the white chocolate making sure to remove some of the excess chocolate, rotating it around the sides of the bowl.

Immediately roll it in the crushed candy canes, making sure to cover the bottom and sides. 

Place on a parchment lined surface to cool and harden. 

Serve these with my amazing hot chocolate and some gingerbread men on the side, snuggle up by a warm fireplace and enjoy the season at  it’s best! 

Click HERE for my Heavenly Hot Chocolate and White Chocolate Peppermint Stir Sticks recipe and enjoy the “experience!”

At our home, making these gingerbread men is a yearly tradition. It actually started when I volunteered to make them for my kid’s kindergarten classes when they were reading about The Gingerbread Man. As a class, they made one big gingerbread man and took it to the school kitchen to bake it. When they returned to the kitchen to get the gingerbread man after it was fully baked, they discovered it was missing. It had run away! Off the class went to find the runaway gingerbread man throughout the school. After being told about the many gingerbread man sightings… it eventually led them back to their classroom where the baked big gingerbread man was found along with a gingerbread man cookie for each student. I loved to make these and the big gingerbread man for the classes throughout the years. My kids loved getting into the decorating action and it became a favorite yearly family affair. 

I didn’t always like gingerbread men. Most were dry and not very tasty. So I sought out to make good ones. Ones the kids would love to eat as well… as they can be the most picky. Here is my recipe and I hope you enjoy it and make this your family holiday tradition too. Just make sure to keep an eye on the oven as they bake….. or they may just run away! Mischievous little guys!

Here are the ingredients you will need.

Give them a good mix. Smells wonderful!

Take half of the dough and form it into a round disk and place on a well floured surface. Make sure to flour the top of the dough too before rolling it out. You will roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness. I like mine soft and thick. 

Cut out as many as you can (my younger son did all the cutting out). Re- roll the dough and repeat. Do this for the other half of the dough left in the bowl. I use a thin, well floured spatula to transfer the unbaked gingerbread men to a cookie sheet. 

Be sure to lay a piece of parchment paper on your cookie sheet first. These bad boys are ready to hit the heat. In the oven they go!

The fun part…. decorating them! I put the icing in a pastry bag to make decorating them easier. Two eyes, a smile, buttons and all the trim. Teamwork!

We love the taste of M&M’s much more than red hots, but you can use what you like for the buttons. I also love the pop of color they give.

The finished product! I just love, love love the look of these guys. 

We are proud of our work and ready to dig in!

Ya baby… so good! Tastes like Christmas!

Happy Holidays everyone and I hope you are enjoying your own traditions. I would love to know what traditions you do. Maybe I can follow some of yours!

For the full recipe click here.