Christmas Candy Cane Chocolate Brownies

I've hardly done any baking for months and very little this Christmas, other than my first ever I've
hardly done any baking for months and very little this Christmas, other than my first ever Christmas cake (which turned out really well) and a batch of gingerbread-flavour cupcakes for work. Before Christmas I was crazy-busy with work and just exhausted at the end of the day and then over Christmas we were backwards and forwards visiting family. On Friday 30 I had a rare day at home - between visiting my sister in Southampton the couple of days previous, followed by going to friends in Cheltenham for new year's eve. In between tidying the house which was strewn with Christmas presents and sale shopping, and studying for a professional qualification I decided I would do some baking after all.

I didn't have time to go out and buy ingredients and didn't have the time or energy for anything fancy (which is a shame as there are lots of festive recipes I'd like to try!) so decided to stick with something I know - chocolate brownies. I had bought a packet of candy canes just in case I did any baking - though I don't even like candy canes as they taste of peppermint, which I hate! But in this case I decided to make some of my brownies a bit more festive with some candy cane frosting and leave some of them plain.

To make about 20, you need:
1 cup butter, softened
150g plain chocolate
4 eggs
2 cups caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

for the frosting:
200g cream cheese
400g icing sugar
1 box candy canes, crushed

The brownie recipe is based on this one for brownie buttons on Canadian Living.

Melt the chocolate and the butter in a pan over a low heat then set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 180C.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar until frothy then beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in the vanilla, flour, cocoa powder and salt.

I used a brownie pan like this Master Class Non-Stick 12-Hole Brownie Tin with Dividers, 34 x 26 cm (13.5 x 10 inch) but you can use a simple square pan then cut the brownie into pieces. I like this one because the brownies are a good size - a few bites - but the sides make it easier to eat them when they have frosting on.

Spray the brownie pan with cake release and fill the pan - if you are using the brownie pan you will need to do this in two batches. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes and allow to cool.

Meanwhile place the candy canes (cellophane removed) in a plastic food bag and bash with the end of a rolling pin until they are smashed into pieces.

To make the frosting, sift the icing sugar and beat with the cream cheese and spread on top of the cooled brownies. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes.

  

I'm sharing these with We Should Cocoa, a chocolate blogging challenge hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme.

 

 

Candy Cane Chocolate Hearts

I saw these on the internet when I was looking for edible gift ideas and thought they were just brilliant. I already had candy canes from making my peppermint bark and had quite a few left over. All you need in addition is chocolate and a few sprinkles; these are so easy to make and really pretty.

Place a piece of greaseproof paper on a flat baking sheet or chopping board and arrange the candy canes so they make a heart shape. Make sure both ends are touching and you have no gaps - though my candy cane moved slightly as the chocolate set, leaving a gap, and it was still fine!

Melt some chocolate in a bain marie or microwave - you need about 50-60g of chocolate per heart I would say but I wasn't measuring (and I expect candy canes come in different sizes).

Pour the melted chocolate into the space inside the candy canes and add any sprinkles that you like - I had some snowflake sprinkles which I thought worked really well.

Place in the fridge for about an hour to set.

I packaged them up in festive bags to make edible gifts. You could also thread some ribbon through the top and hang these on your Christmas tree, providing your tree isn't near a radiator or the chocolate will melt!

 

I'm hosting Alphabakes this month (it's Ros from the More Than Occasional Baker's turn again next month) and the letter is X. We are allowing Christmas recipes so I'm including this.

 

 

I'm also sharing these candy cane hearts with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi, as they also have a Christmas theme this month.

 

 

Finally I'm sending these to Tea Time Treats; hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at the Hedgecombers, it has a lovely theme this month of glitter, sprinkles and shiny stuff. The snowflake sprinkles should mean this counts.

 

Candy Cane Peppermint Bark

I bought this peppermint bark mould from Lakeland in the January sale and have had to wait until now to use it! I had a group of four schoolfriends, plus two husbands and two children, over for a pre-Christmas get-together and I thought it would be nice to give them edible gifts as going home presents, as it meant I got to try out some festive recipes!

This mould is really easy to use and it has instructions on the back. What I would point out though is that it says to melt 100g of chocolate - I think this must be for one piece of bark and the mould you can see allows you to make two at once, as I needed just under 200g of chocolate to fill both.

First melt some milk or plain chocolate, pour into the silicon moulds and leave to set in the fridge.

Meanwhile bash up some candy canes - I used two per piece of bark. When the dark chocolate has set, melt some white chocolate and spread over the top, and sprinkle over the crushed candy cane pieces. Return to the fridge to set.

It's easy to remove the chocolate from the moulds Here you can see both sides - the 'merry Christmas' wording is very clear on the chocolate side, and the candy cane side looks very pretty.

 

I packaged them up in some festive gift bags I got from Amazon and tied them with ribbon. I think they look quite cute!

 

I'm hosting Alphabakes this month (it's Ros from the More Than Occasional Baker's turn again next month) and the letter is X. We are allowing Christmas recipes so I'm including this peppermint bark.

 

 

 

I'm also sharing this peppermint bark with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi, as they also have a Christmas theme this month.

 

 

Finally I'm sending these to Tea Time Treats; hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at the Hedgecombers, it has a lovely theme this month of glitter, sprinkles and shiny stuff. The crushed candy canes sprinkled on top look quite glittery!