Leftover Candy Canes

Well Christmas is over, many of the decorations have been taken down, and life is returning back to normal. Except for the candy canes. There is still an overabundance of candy canes around the house. Somehow, we always end up with extra candy canes after Christmas time. Sure, during the holiday season, they look nice as decorations on the tree, or additions to the gingerbread house, or a choice in the candy dish, but by the end of Christmas, I am sick of them. It's not like I go through trouble to find them, or buy them, or request them, or even accept free ones, they just find me. They show up anyway somehow, no matter how much you try to avoid them. They are an inevitable part of the season. See, nobody really likes candy canes. Sure, the bring a bit of festive spirit, and you may eat one or two over the holidays, but nobody really devours them, or enjoys eating them in large quantities (no one I know anyway. If you know someone, I will gladly send them all of my candy canes next January). Candy companies have tried making them more appealing by coming out with outrageous flavors and colors; florescent pink, neon orange, gingerbread, chocolate cappuccino, buttered popcorn??? This is even worse because these candy canes certainly are not Christmasy and cannot be used in recipes either! So what to do with all of the leftovers? As annoying as they can be, it is sure a shame to let all of these candy canes go to waste, even if they are only sticks of sugar with a bit of mint flavoring.

There just aren't many recipes out there that use candy canes. I have looked. And most of them use candy canes simply as a garnish. Last year, I managed to track down a recipe for candy cane biscotti cookies, that I finally got around to making in February (see February 6th). They weren't bad, and did use up 2/3 cup of candy canes (though still not all of them). However, they were a little on the sticky side, and again, tasted like candy canes. People ate my cookies because they were cookies, not because they had candy canes. Last year, these cookies were something new and interesting, but I doubt I could pull off the same recipe this year and still get willing tasters. I need to come up with something new.
I have found a few more recipes using candy canes, all of them also using chocolate  and if you smother something with enough chocolate  it's got to be good, right? I will feature my first candy cane recipe tomorrow. I have two more up my sleeve, but I'm hoping only to have to resort to one to get rid of the rest of the candy canes. At least I got to it a bit earlier than last year. The worst part of it all is unwrapping the candy canes. They are wrapped so tight and hard to open, and break and crush so easily, and are soo sticky, and the plastic sticks to your hands and clothes and table and couch in a staticy mess. Last year, I almost cried. This year, my mother was kind enough to unwrap the majority of them for me. I think she may have been close to tears too. I don't know who i will be able to enlist next year, as I am sure there will be candy cane leftovers yet again. Oh well, I'll worry about that when the time comes. 

PHOTO CREDIT:"Candy-Canes" http://candycane.ws/history/. Candycane.ws, n.d. Wednesday, January 9, 2013.