Are you drowning in leftover candy canes? Did you find some at your after Christmas sales and, now that you’ve bought boxes and boxes of candy canes, you haven’t a clue about what to do with them? (Hint: if you wait until around Jan. 1 you can get them for about 10 cents a box! WhooHoo!) Here are 10 easy ways to use those leftover candy canes.
10 Ways To Use Leftover Candy Canes
It’s easy to end up with an overabundance of candy canes after the holidays, but they have a lot of tasty uses besides filling stockings and decorating trees! These ideas will help you make use of those tasty candy canes!
Grind them into peppermint sugar. Keep it in a handy container and then sprinkle in or on things like:
- Cupcakes
- Hot Chocolate
- Brownies or Cakes
- Ice cream (especially good on chocolate)
- Tea
- Coffee
- Frosted cookies
- Add to your favorite sugar cookie recipe
- Dip pretzels in white chocolate then roll in it
- Dip cookies in white chocolate and roll in it.
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Peppermint Candy
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 & 1/2 Bags of White Chips
1 Cup Crushed Candy Canes
Melt white chips and milk in microwave until smooth. (This takes about one minute in my microwave. I use 30 second intervals, stirring at the end of each.). Stir in crushed candy. Spoon on wax paper to cool.
Delicious…enjoy!
Angie M,I love your idea of the peppermint candy recipe. Did you use a small or regular size can of sweetened condensed milk in your recipe? I was not sure about the measurement.
Thanks for sharing your recipe idea. I am going to try making this. It sounds very simple and easy to make.
My husband asked for lemon merenge pie. I love the stuff but can’t eat it so he asked sort of joking since he figured I wouldn’t go to the work. I used splenda so it had less effect on his diabetes.
For me I made a chocolate cream pie but I crushed a bunch of candy canes and it was so good.
Just crushed a handful and tossed them in so I had chocolate mint pie. Will not go back to plain chocolate again.
Mom used to make plain milk pudding and put in crushed candy canes so this was a take off of her using leftovers after christmas.
For leftover Candy Canes, you can also melt some white chocolate chips (in microwave if you watch it closely so it doesn’t burn and stir often), pour on a cookie sheet and spread the peppermint chips, slivers all over. Push them into the chocolate just a little so they stay on. Looks and tastes like you worked on it for hours. You don’t even have to cut it, just break it up. Depending on how many bags of chips you use, the thickness will differ. Use your best judgment. I just do 1 bag for a large cookie sheet so the fudge is thin and easy to break. All my office teammates think this is the best fudge EVER! So very easy. My husband hammers the canes so they get really beaten up and this is his candy-making contribution. All he needs is a hammer, a board and ziplock bags. Try it!
homemade thin mints- take a ritz cracker dip in melted chocolate and then sprinkle with crushed candy canes. I might try to grind them and sprinkle the sugar over top next time. :)
These are great ideas! My daughter also likes to keep them (especially the small ones) in her purse to share with friends at school. I also find that candy canes just keep nicely until the next year. Happy New Year, everyone!
Great ideas. I like to use them to stir coffee, tea, and cocoa also.
I am “baked out” after Christmas, so use thse to make Valentines.Leaving on wrappers, take 2 canes to form a heart shape. Using hot glue gun, attach at top & bottom. Use ribbon/yarn/cording/rick rack or lace hem binding/solid single color beaded garland in pearl or red or silver (not Christmas colors of red/gre/wh) to make a hanger at the top. Cover where cord/hanger is attached by gluing on buttons/wrapped candies/toy pieces such as polly pocket or even toy soldiers/game board pieces or matching/contrasting bows. I like the red & white the best, but used the multi-colored last year for Mardi Gras. These have been big hit over the years with teachers, coworkers and at church.
Throw them in purses, backpacks, and glove compartments and use them for cough drops when need be.
just a tip to let you know how well they keep.
3 years ago I bought them to send a few to my grandchildren. Well being me I forgot about them. They have been in a cookie jar on top of my dishes cupboard in the dining room all that time. They were as tasty as the day I bought them.
Even through 2 winters of furnace going full time and the heat of the summer.
So they last forever.
Keep some in the car (except during summer when they will melt.) They are great for upset stomachs & motion sickness.
I used them to make suckers for my daughters birthday. I am going to make some for Valentines Day. You can google the directions. I filled them with chocolate. Everyone loved them.
I saw these and they were really cute. I don’t have a picture but they are pretty easy to make. Lay two small candy candy canes in a heart shape on a piece of wax paper. Lay a sucker stick between to candy canes at the bottom. Pour melted white chocolate into the center of the candy canes. Make sure the stick is up far enough to get some chocolate on it. You can then sprinkle the white chocolate with red sugar, sprinkles or what ever.
Thanks we all want to save money.
Jill-those just sound so cute! I think it would be pretty to add some red food coloring to the white chocolate-make them anywhere from a soft pink to a bright red! ;0)
I have enjoyed all the ideas about the candy canes. I just use mine to hang on the Christmas tree as decoration. They make the smell so good. But not I will try some of these ideas. I keep them in my purse to make sure my sugar doesnt fall too low. They work in a hurry.
My grandson loves the “Hershey Kisses” with the peppermint in them but they are usually difficult to find and are only made for Christmas.
So glad that I looked at this site today. I will make some for him right away.
Unwrap candy canes, break into smallish pieces (1″ or so), and place into an old Altoids tin or similar container. Carry in your purse and use as any other breath mints.
Save wrapped canes for summer, when a peppermint cake is a refreshing treat. Add crushed candy canes to white cake batter, bake, cool, frost with whipped topping, sprinkle with more crushed candy canes.
This would be a great dessert after a Valentine’s Day dinner. Thanks!
I use hot glue to attach two together into a heart shape and hang them from my kitchen window with ribbon. They make a cute Valentines decoration. I also use them to stir my tea and coffee, giving it jut enough sweetness and minty flavor. Who needs to pay $5.00 for a peppermint latte!
Candy canes are great to keep in a diaperbag. They work great to stir into a bottle of warm water to calm a baby with an upset tummy. It doesn’t take much and it is allot cheaper than the over the counter meds for calming tummies.
this is so cute with the candy canes
So many great ideas. Thank you ladies! As far as the candy canes for a upset tummy, it’s so true. I have used peppermint candies for years. Works like a charm!
1 box lg strawberry jello
16 oz cool whip
1- 6 ct box candy cane’s.
Crush candy cane’s. Make jello as directed on box. Let jello cool slightly fold in cool whip & crushed candy cane’s. Makes a great after dinner dessert
Melt Hershey bars, pour onto wax paper, crumble peppermint canes over the top. Makes an easy peppermint bark. Enjoy!