Hot Chocolate Stirrers

{Whip up these little stirrers to give as gifts or just have on hand for your own hot chocolate.}

 Just a few supplies and about half an hour and you’ll have a whole stack of these cute peppermint and caramel candies on a stick.

Supplies:
Hot drink straws (found these by the coffee filters at my grocery store)
Peppermint swirl candies
Wrapped caramels
Parchment paper
Cooking spray

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Heat oven to 300.

Unwrap candies.

Stagger 8-10 peppermints on the sheet (more than that and they’ll get too crowded, and start to cool before you can get a stick in each one)

Bake for 7 minutes.  While they’re baking, you can assemble the caramel ones.  They don’t need to go into the oven because they’re soft enough.  Just press the caramel onto the end of a straw!

Remove candies from the oven and use a twisting motion to get the end of the straw stuck into the candy.

Let cool on the sheet, then peel off.

Wrap them individually–or in pairs–with plastic wrap and tie with string.  

Now you have flavored stirrers to serve with your hot chocolate or to give away with cocoa packets.  Enjoy!

And just so ya know, aside from one post wrapping up the highlights on the blog in 2013, I’m taking I blog vacation for the rest of the year. I’ll be having fun with my parents, all my siblings, and hanging out with my husband and kids over the break.  Merry Christmas!