I signed up to help with treats for the teachers today, as well as for Meagan’s dance class this afternoon. I’ve wanted to try this holiday version of my Andes mint brownie pops I made and this was the perfect reason. I actually prefer them to cake pops, though my rainbow cake pops were super fun.
I’ll give you the rundown of how I made these–they’re easy, but do take a little while.
You’ll need:
- Baked brownies (I line my pan with foil and very lightly grease before I pour the batter in) Regular recipe (not cake-like) and don’t over bake! If in doubt, slightly under bake. They have to be sticky.
- White almond bark or candy melts (almond bark does NOT contain nuts 🙂
- Crushed candy canes (I used 5 to make about 30 pops)
- Lollipop sticks (make sure you have enough left over from last time or you’ll be running to Michael’s at 8:30 at night to buy more…just sayin’)
- Plastic bags (find them near the lollipop sticks)
- Twine, ribbon, or just use the twist ties that come with the baggies
- Optional, but really useful…a piece of foam to stand pops up in while they finish setting. Pre-poke some holes with a toothpick, at least 2 inches apart so the pops won’t touch. (check your garage for foam packaging in boxes…unless you’re garage is cleaned out more often than mine you’ll probably find something)
Smoosh small amounts of brownie into a ball (they won’t get perfectly round, at least when I do them!) I made mine smaller than golf balls. Don’t use the edges. Eat them instead.
Set them out on a cookie sheet and melt some white candy. Dip the end of each stick and insert them into the brownies. Push them almost all the way through.
When the candy hardens, melt more of the almond bark (I used my 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave at half power at 30 second intervals til it was smooth) Cover each pop completely. I’ve found it works best to use a spoon to drop the coating over the pop, then rotate it so the excess drips off.
When it’s not dripping anymore, dip the top into a bowl of crushed candy cane and set it in the foam.
Continue til you’re done. After several minutes, the almond bark will be solid again and you can remove them from the foam piece and lay them on a plate, making room for the next round to stand up in the foam. Don’t worry if they look a little bumpy…when they’re all packaged up, they’re so cute you can’t even tell. See?
Now, this next part is really important. Even though it’s 11 o’clock at night, and you’re tired, put them all away–hidden in a cupboard or pantry, or when you get up at 6 the next morning you’ll discover that your 3 year old wandered out of bed at 5:30 and ate 3 of them. Again, just sayin’.
This is how I packed them up for the school: Covered a shoe box with scrapbook paper, put foam in the bottom, stuck some tissue paper out the sides, put in the pops. If I’d really been thinking, I would have just laid the pops down in the box until I got to the school, for easier transport, then put them in the stand. But they survived in the car like this too.