Day 10 of Christmas Crafting: Candy Cane Brownie Lollipops

Today we had an awesome time at our Christmas Cookie Exchange.  It was so much fun to see and visit with everyone, and they all made such delicious cookies!  Yum.  Patrick and I are now well stocked for the season.  As a kid, we would always wake up on Christmas morning to a tray of goodies my mom had baked.  We'd eat all the treats while drinking hot cocoa or egg nog and open our presents.  In fact, my parents still do this, we just don't usually get to partake since we typically travel Christmas day.  Since we're staying home this year, I'm excited to be able to do this with my own little family.  I'm not quite the baker my mom is, so I'm planning to freeze a bunch of the cookies from today so we'll have quite the array to choose from Christmas morning!

Yesterady,  I promised to share the recipe for the favor I gave the ladies today.  These are delicious and come to us courtesy of The Pampered Chef.  I made their Candy Cane Brownie Lollipops, and they are so good!  Here's how mine turned out:

Aren't they cute?  They are really easy to make and full of chocolately goodness, too.  I'll tell you a secret.  When I first started as a Pampered Chef Independent Consultant, it was for our baby fund.  But I stayed a Consultant for the recipes (I'm not much of a salesman).  Those people know what they are talking about when it comes to cooking and baking.  Here's the recipe:

• 2 pkg. fudge brownie mix (plus ingredients to make brownies)
• 24 candy canes
• 10 oz. chocolate flavored almond bark 

1. Line a half-sheet pan (or Medium Sheet Pan if you have TPC's) with parchment paper.  Follow the instructions on your brownie mix, and pour it into the pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached.  Set aside to cool until slightly warm.

2. Peel the plastic off of all the candy canes.  Cut the hooked ends off and put them in a plastic bag. Then crush with a meat tenderizer.  Set the stems aside to use later.

3.  Using a medium ice cream scoop, scoop up 24 rounded brownie scoops, packing it in with your fingers.  Then roll scoops into balls with your hands and set on a separate parchment paper-lined sheet pan.  Stick one candy cane stem in each ball and mound the brownie around the candy cane.

4. Line a second sheet pan with parchment paper.  Heat chocolate almond bark according to package directions.  Hold each brownie lollipop by the candy cane stem and spoon the bark over it, completely covering the brownie.  Allow excess bark to drip off, and then set the brownie lollipop on the sheet pan.  Sprinkle with crushed candy cane pieces.  Repeat with all remaining brownie lollipop.

5.  After all lollipops are complete, refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to set the chocolate.  Makes 24 lollipops.

Well, after my lollipops were complete, I needed to wrap them up so they would be ready to give as favors.  I shared the tags I made for them yesterday.  To wrap them, I cut squares of plastic wrap, and gathered them at the top of each brownie.  Then I tied the tag on with a cookie cutter attached.  Cute and easy!

Here are a few more favors.  I'm excited I got to go home with one, too.  I know that's silly, since I made them, but hey, that's half the fun!

Oh, and the cookies I made turned out absolutely delectable.  I'm going to say the batter did actual smell better, but that's because the scent of chocolate, butter, and sugar gets me everytime, lol.  They were more work than I am typically willing to expend for a bit of cookie, but they were so good, I think I'll make them every year at Christmas.  If your curious, here's how they turned out:

These are called Chocolate Mint Thumbprints, and I got the recipe from an awesome cookbook called Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  They are the geniuses behind the Baked bakery in Brooklyn, and if you ever get a chance to try out their two cookbooks, I highly recommend them.  They haven't failed me yet.  If I lived in Brooklyn, I'd want to go to their bakery everyday.  It's probably a good thing I don't live there...  BTW, the recipe for these cookies is pretty involved, so I'm not going to post it here, but you might check your local library.  That's where I first came across this lovely book-- before my sweet and wonderful husband gave me one of my own for my birthday. :)