Easy 3-ingredient Christmas candies — perfect for giving to neighbors, bringing into work, taking to a party, or enjoying with your family! Homemade white chocolate peppermint hearts, pretzel hug/kiss bites, thin mint oreo cups, and easy turtles.
White Chocolate Peppermint Hearts
A few quick tips:
- I recommend a high quality white chocolate for flavor purposes, and for the best possible melt. My favorite white chocolate to use is Guittard or Ghirardelli. (You can use chocolate chips or the baking bars for peppermint hearts.)
- Line the pan with parchment paper for easy removal of these peppermint hearts
- Add some string into the chocolate before it sets and make these into ornaments! 🙂
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White Chocolate Peppermint Hearts
White chocolates and sprinkles fill the center of two candy canes to look like a heart!
Ingredients
- 20 miniature candy canes unwrapped
- 6 ounces white chocolate high quality chips work/taste best!
- Holiday sprinkles
- Optional: 1/2 - 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
- Prepare a tray with parchment paper and set aside.
- Set the candy canes on the tray -- two together to form hearts all over the tray.
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in bursts of 15 seconds stirring in between each burst for 10-15 seconds. Patiently melting the chocolate will make sure it doesn't burn!
- If needed add the oil to slightly thin the chocolate. Add very slowly and just if the chocolate is too thick.
- Pour the chocolate into a plastic bag and snip off the tip with scissors.
- Pipe the melted chocolate into the centers of the candy cane treats.
- Gently wiggle the candy canes to get the chocolate smooth.
- Sprinkle immediately with sprinkles.
- Let set.
Video
Recipe Notes
Cook time refers to setting time.
Rudolph Noses
A few quick tips:
- I like the square pretzels best for these Christmas candies, but regular twist pretzels work as well.
- I recommend getting plain flavored pretzels, as opposed to butter flavored.
- Use these cute Rudolph Noses as a fun edible table centerpiece. Alternate using kisses and hugs for more color and visual interest.
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Rudolph Noses
Ingredients
- 25 pretzels -- square or twists
- 25 hugs or kisses * whichever you prefer
- 25 holiday M&M candies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Do not preheat using convection settings.**
- Line a tray with parchment paper and place the pretzels on the tray.
- Unwrap the hugs/kisses/rolos and place on top of the pretzels.
- Bake for 3-4 minutes or until the hugs/kisses/rolos are soft but not melted.
- Press an M&M candy into the center of the hugs/kisses/rolos right out of the oven.
- Allow the chocolate to harden.
Recipe Notes
*I tried out caramel kisses for these and they didn't work -- caramel oozed out everywhere. Stick to solid chocolate kisses. **I've had a few people report issues with the kisses crumbling; this means the oven was too hot or the chocolate was baked too long. I would recommend trying 1 rudolph nose at first to test. If it crumbles, reduce the baking time for the rest. Do not use convection oven settings.
Thin Mint Cups
A few quick tips:
- You can find the Andes Mint baking chips next to all the other chocolate chips in the baking aisle of the store. (They are in a green bag!)
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Thin Mint Cups
Ingredients
- 16 regular Oreo or chocolate sandwich cookies
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1-2 bags Andes Mint baking chips*
- Optional: sprinkles
Instructions
- Prepare a miniature muffin tin by lining with mini muffin papers.
- Pulse the sandwich cookies in a blender or food processor until they resemble fine crumbs. You do not need to separate the cookie from the creme.
- Beat the crumbs with 4 ounces of room temperature cream cheese until a thick mixture forms.
- Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Starting with 1 bag, melt all of the baking chips in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave in bursts of 15 seconds stirring in between each burst for 10-15 seconds.
- Spoon melted chocolate into the bottom of the prepared muffin tins -- not a lot here.
- Allow to set completely. (If you don't work fast, the Andes mints harden quickly -- that's okay, just pop them in the microwave for another 15 seconds or so)
- Remove the dough from the fridge and form into small balls. Flatten those balls to thin and completely FLAT disks and place on top of the set chocolate.
- Spoon more melted chocolate to cover the disk of chocolate.
- Add sprinkles to the top if desired.
- Allow to set at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
*If you want a lot of chocolate you'll go through 1 and 1/2 to 2 bags. It's hard to give an exact measurement because it all depends on the size of your oreo filling and how large your final cups are.
Turtles
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Turtles
Ingredients
- 25 twist or square pretzels
- 25 rolos
- 25 pecans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.**
- Line a tray with parchment paper and place the pretzels on the tray.
- Unwrap the rolos and place on top of the pretzels.
- Bake for 3-4 minutes or until the rolos are soft but not melted.
- Press a pecan into the center of the hugs and kisses right out of the oven.
- Allow the chocolate to harden.
Recipe Notes
**I've had a few people report issues with the chocolate "crumbling"; this means the oven was too hot or the chocolate was baked too long. I would recommend trying 1 turtle at first to test. If it crumbles, reduce the baking time for the rest. Do NOT use convection oven settings.
More Fun Christmas Treats
- Christmas Snack Mix
- Peppermint Bark Pretzels (3 Ingredients)
- Turtle Bark
- Christmas Mason Jar Gift Ideas Free Printables
- Hot Chocolate Snack Mix
For the candy cane hearts, does the chocolate have to be piped? or can you use a spoon to do the filling?
A spoon will work great! 🙂
Do I have to use cream cheese for the mints? Can I use butter instead (obviously not as much)? Kind of like making a graham cracker crust.
Hmm, I don’t think that would work out as well or taste right unfortunately. Cream cheese is a lot stickier than butter!
How long do the noses and turtles take to get hard? Can I refrigerate them over night?
I am really excited to try these recipes. I was wondering how far ahead can you make like the turtles and things. I am having a party and would like to make these and wonder if I can make them a few days ahead?
I hope you love them! Honestly all of these treats are best eaten within 1-2 days of making them with the exception of the white chocolate peppermint hearts. I like the turtles best on the first day! Good luck with your party 🙂
Made these yesterday and today. Made them for the teachers gift and to bring to friends who invited us over for Christmas Eve breakfast. They were so simple and easy. I just had the kisses and rolos in the oven for 3 minutes and they came out perfect. I have to say I was feeling lazy and just placed an Oreo in between layers of melted Andes mints and they’re excellent. Thanks for sharing I think this will become a Christmas gift giving tradition.
I’m so thrilled these were a hit! And even happier to hear they will become a Christmas tradition!! Thanks so much for the comment Mal 🙂
I love these holiday recipes! Question: did anyone while making the reindeer Moses have trouble melting the kisses? My first batch was great. My second and third batch- the kisses didn’t melt :/ I’m assuming there’s something wrong with the chocolate? Please let me know!
Try Rolos for those reindeer noses. They work very well and so tasty!
wish i would’ve seen this before i wasted an entire bag of kisses!
MomK: baked 4 min. tried to push the m&d on and it didn’t work so i baked an additional min. same process for 11min.
If you bake the bag of rolos 5 minutes and then an additional 11 minutes(!!), the rolos will be wasted, too. The recipe says 2-3 minutes in a conventional oven, not a convection oven.
Thanks KBB!
Do the Oreo mint cups need to be stored in the fridge?
If you aren’t eating them in the same day I would recommend storing them in an airtight container in the fridge 🙂
I tried to make the Rudolph noses, but the Kisses didn’t get soft. They just got dark and crumbly. This is why I don’t cook. ?
Hi Kathy! Did you use old kisses? Anything you changed about the instructions? I’d love to help you troubleshoot as I’ve made these dozens of times and they are so delicious!
Brand new Kisses. Everything else as directed. That’s why it’s so frustrating.
I wonder if you are baking them too long; they aren’t supposed to “bake” but rather just get soft. You might have an oven that runs hot; I would try them (if you do again) for 2 minutes; maybe even 1 minute). They are only supposed to be soft enough for the M&M to push into them. If they are crumbling maybe they are being cooked is my only thought?
same here. BRAND NEW bag of $4 kisses. baked 4 min. tried to push the m&d on and it didn’t work so i baked an additional min. same process for 11min. they look like garbage!
Are you baking them too long? Are you heating your oven convect on regular? I can’t see why they would be crumbling. Did you use regular kisses? The oven isn’t supposed to bake them, it’s just supposed to make them soft enough to press an M&M in it. I would try pulling them out at 2 minutes. Or you can try heating them in the microwave until they are just barely soft enough to press an M&M in.
followed you directions, so unless your instructions are wrong i’m not sure how. i followed the instructions, not that difficult.
I just tried the Rudolph nose treats. My first ones came out crumbling too. So I changed my oven to regular, not convection, and left them in for 1 minute. Then they came out perfect!
Thank you so much for sharing Chris! That helps to answer why some people might have had the crumbling; I added a not to use a conventional oven setting. Thank you!
Other look so good I could these not much time consuming and I love something new
Enjoy! 🙂
Looks good
Thank you Carol! 🙂