Day 12 – Countdown to Christmas 2013 Candy Cane Kissyface Dust and Crumbles

If you’re like me you tend to buy at least at least 3-4 boxes of candy canes every year to decorate the tree with or just for decoration. Sure I’ll eat maybe one or two but they tend to get ignored.  That’s pretty sad as I seriously love peppermint candy canes. As I was going through my cupboards the other day I literally found 5 dozen of candy canes… from last year. And yes, they were still good. I tested ’em and honestly, I don’t think they ever go bad. *shrugs*

And if you’re like me you’ve probably bought those pre-made bottles of crushed peppermint pieces for $5-$8 for a teeny bottle. Yeah, pretty stupid huh?  Well since I prefer to be frugal, I figured I would  make my own.  I got out my food processor (word of advice, I would recommend wearing ear plugs and using a stronger food processor).  I tried this in my mini food chopper and it just wasn’t powerful enough.  So I got out my big boy and these things were pulverized in seconds.  However, ear plugs.  Yeah, it’s loud.  Like really, REALLY loud.  Imagine putting a whole bunch of quarters in a tin glass jar and shaking it right next to your ear as hard as you can for like ever.  Be safe, just use some ear plugs.

I made 2 different batches – the Candy Candy Kissyface Dust and the Kissyface Crumbles.

Seriously these are the greatest things EVER!

It literally took longer to print up the labels than actually make these!  The dust is great to incorporate in frostings for a hint of color and great flavor.  The crumbles are killer in cookies where you want texture and taste!

Now making this you will have candy cane ‘smoke’ emit from your food processor but it’s all good.  It’s an awesome smell!  However if you’re asthmatic I wouldn’t recommend having your face over top of it.

This dust is pure awesomeness!  I made these amazing hot chocolate cookies and added a candy cane buttercream on top.  Just a few tablespoons of the dust added a great color swirl to the frosting.  Then to pretty it up, I sprinkled the top of the cookies with a little more dust.  Seriously I couldn’t stop licking the dust off of my fingers.

Next batch I wanted to go with bigger chunks.  I wanted some crumbles to add texture as well as taste.  I made a batch of mocha peppermint brownies and added these to the batter.  WOW talk about INCREDIBLE!  You could see the chunks as well as taste them as you bit down into the brownie awesomeness!

Honestly, I don’t know which one I liked more.  Now see I could see my adding this to my hot cocoa mix then topping it with whipped cream followed by a sprinkle of kissyface dust!

As you can see, I had a blast taking the pictures. To me they are just so Christmasy and festive.  Plus they taste AMAZING!

If you’re looking for a great gift for someone, I suggest heading out and buying some pretty jars, a few dozen of candy canes and make jars of this to give away. I personally would LOVE LOVE LOVE a gift like this!  Think about it.  You could make 2 jars of this, a coffee cup, a jar of hot cocoa, a jar of coffee or tea and maybe some chocolates.  All that for what, $10-$15?  And if you have any bakers in the family I can tell you they will go NUTS over this!

So why the name Kissyface?  To me, peppermint flavor is pure, fresh and clean.  Makes you wanna snuggle up with your special someone and be all Kissy Face with them.  Okay.. maybe that’s just me with Mr. Fantabulous but being close to someone with fresh pepperminty breath makes you just wanna get all lovey dovey with them. *wink*

Plus I like the name.  It’s cutesy and whimsical.

I suggest you make both as honestly you won’t be able to decide which one is better.  Plus you’ll use both up… well that is, if you don’t like candy canes.  In that case um…. you could still buy them and give them to me *grin*

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Check out the rest of the Countdown to Christmas 2013 recipes, tips and tricks!