Simple to make and difficult to resist, our peppermint stirrers are an ideal way to keep the kids busy for a bit, while you enjoy a well-earned five minutes piece. Of course, if you leave the kids to make these unsupervised, you’ll have to spend three hours cleaning up the kitchen, but such is life!
You can use any combination of milk, dark or white chocolate, and if you wrap or box a bunch of them, these stirrers make fabulous little hostess gifts or stocking stuffers.
Equipment
One Microwave safe bowl
Parchment Paper
Yield: 8
Prep: 5 mins
Total: 30 mins
Peppermint Stirrers: Ingredients
8 Small/Mini Candy Canes
4 Crushed peppermint
8 Standard (Regular) Sized Marshmallows
1/2 cup Chocolate Melting wafers
Peppermint Stirrers: Instructions
Top Tip
We prepared the peppermint and marshmallows before melting our chocolate, but you can put the chocolate on to soften while you get the other items ready.
However, don’t melt your chocolate too far ahead, or it will begin to harden again before you’re ready to make your peppermint stirrers.
Step One
Put your peppermints into a Ziplock bag and hit them with a rolling pin, a can, or something equally as heavy. Don’t hit them too hard, or you’ll end up with peppermint dust!
Lay your crushed peppermint on a plate, shallow bowl, or a folded piece of parchment.
Step Two
Line up your marshmallows and push a candy cane into the top of each one. Try to make sure the candy cane is as upright as possible, or your stirrers will not stand up.
Step Three
Break your chocolate into small, similar-sized pieces. The exact size of the pieces doesn’t matter, but they must be roughly the same. This way, all of the chocolate will melt at the same rate.
If your microwave has multiple power settings switch to the lowest possible. You can also use the defrost setting.
Microwave the chocolate for 30 seconds, remove the bowl, and stir. If you have to use a standard or high-power setting, heat the chocolate for 20 seconds before removing it from the microwave.
Return the chocolate to the microwave and reheat for another 30 seconds, remove and stir. Repeat these steps until all of your chocolate is melted.
Top Tip
If you only have one or two small lumps of unmelted chocolate left in the bowl, keep stirring it, and they will melt in the residual heat.
Step Four
Holding onto the candy cane, dip the stirrer into the chocolate covering roughly the bottom two-thirds of the marshmallow. Holding the stirrer above the chocolate, give it a little jiggle to shake off any excess.
Step Five
Roll the stirrer in your crushed peppermint. If you are giving these as gifts, you can cover all of the chocolate. However, if you want to sit them on a plate, don’t put too much peppermint on the base, or your peppermint stirrer will fall over.
Step Six
Leave the stirrers to dry on parchment for 20-30 minutes. If you want them to set more quickly, you can put them in the fridge for 10 minutes.
More Marshmallow Mishchiviousness….
If you’re a marshmallow fan, check out our marshmallow icebergs – ideal for a winter or Frozen themed party.
