Homemade Christmas Candies
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All you need is almond bark and your imagination to make a batch of these homemade Christmas candies. So quick and easy to make, they’re the perfect holiday candy to gift this festive season.
This is the busiest time of year for most of us but we really want to bake and prepare Christmas candies for those we love and appreciate! Christmas candies are so quick, easy, and economical that you can afford to give treats to all of the kind people you encounter regularly throughout the year.
I prefer, whenever possible, to give a homemade candy gift rather than store-bought, but sometimes I just don’t have the time in the kitchen that I’d like. Ironically, the time of year I’d like to cook the most is also the time of year I have the least amount of time to do it in, thanks to all those Christmas parties!
That’s where Southern Plate’s Christmas candies (otherwise known as Holly Jollies) come to the rescue! My kids love making these with me every holiday season and you can easily turn out a customized holiday candy gift in very little time and using very little money. Chances are, you may even have some of the ingredients on hand already.
All you need is mini muffin papers, almond bark, and your imagination. I like to get mini muffin papers in different colors or patterns for each variety and then give an assortment to folks that they can easily tell apart. I love using almond bark for this Christmas candy because it fits my budget and each package, with add-ins, will make about 36 mini muffin-sized treats.
I’ve included recommendations below, but you can add whatever you like to this popular Christmas candy recipe, including Rice Krispies for the kids and dried fruit or nuts for the adults.
Recipe Ingredients
Ingredients for these Christmas candies are mostly up to you but they start with:
- Mini muffin papers
- Almond bark
- Your favorite addition. Some options include salted peanuts, Rice Krispies cereal, dried cranberries, raisins, crushed peppermint candy cane pieces, other salted nuts, or your favorite dried fruit (all chopped to the size of raisins).
How to Make Christmas Candies Step by Step
Now, some folks will tell you to melt this big old hunk of chocolate in a double broiler. But last I checked, not many of us had a hankering to make something difficult when it could be easy. So what we’re gonna do instead is plop this thing in a large mixing bowl and stick that puppy in the microwave.
Microwave it at 60-second intervals, stirring after each, until melted and smooth.
While that is melting, put your mini muffin papers in your mini muffin pan.
Stir in your choice of add-ins.
Then, divide your candy batter among the paper cups in your mini muffin pan.
This is where I call in the experts. Everyone knows that Christmas candy tastes better if you let kids do it.
They’re just naturally sweeter than us!
Getting my kids in the kitchen is extremely important to me, especially during the holiday season. If I’m making something for them to give, I want them to enjoy the happiness (and learn the importance) of giving something you personally had a hand in making. In my mind, this is one of those activities that helps them to grow up with their heads in the right place.
Allow those to harden. It won’t take long.
Once you get your chocolate melted, you can have these babies done from start to finish in about 5 minutes and it only dirties up one bowl.
This is the most fuss-free holiday candy recipe I have!
In about half an hour, I was able to turn out enough Christmas chocolate candies for 12 teacher gifts.
How to Package Your Holiday Candy
I packaged the old-fashioned candy in the little clear cellophane party favor bags you get in the party section at Walmart or the grocery store (my Dollar General has them, too). You get about 20 for a little over a dollar. I LOVE THOSE THINGS, especially this time of year. I use them for so many things. They are perfect for candy, cookies, and even miniature loaves of bread. They are also pretty enough to just tie with some curling ribbon and deliver as is. I found these little tin buckets at Target for $1.00 each and picked up a few. I normally don’t spend that much on packaging, though.
Storage
Fortunately, these Christmas candies will last for about 2 weeks when stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Recipe Notes
- Take special care not to allow even the tiniest drop of water to get into the bark as it will clot up if you do.
- Instead of almond bark, use any kind of melting chocolate, like white chocolate, dark chocolate, or chocolate chips.
Recipe Variations
Here are many different options for this homemade candy recipe:
- Peanut Holly Jollies, with salted peanuts.
- Rice Krispie Holly Jollies, with Rice Krispies (kid’s favorite).
- Raisin Holly Jollies, with raisins (one of my favorites).
- Cranberry Holly Jollies with dried cranberries stirred into white almond bark (my top favorite).
- Peppermint Holly Jollies, with peppermint bark and crushed candy cane pieces.
- Marshmallow Holly Jollies, with mini marshmallows.
- Your own take on a peanut butter cup, with salted peanuts and a tablespoon of peanut butter.
- Caramel Holly Jollies, with caramel bits.
The sky is truly the limit with this nostalgic candy recipe.
You may also enjoy these other Christmas candy recipes:
Recipe for Spritz Cookies (my favorite )
Oreo Cookie Balls/Truffles (3 Ingredients Only)
3 Easy Candy Recipes to make this weekend!
Candy Cane Cookie Recipe (Elf Favorite!)
Candy Apples Easy And Fun To Make
Ingredients
- 1 package almond bark white or milk chocolate
- 36 mini muffin papers
- 2 cups of one or more of the following additions salted peanuts, Rice Krispies cereal, dried cranberries, raisins, crushed peppermint candy canes, other salted nuts, your favorite dried fruit (all chopped to the size of raisins).
Instructions
- Line a mini muffin tin with mini muffin papers. Place almond bark in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at one-minute intervals, stirring after each, until smooth and creamy.1 package almond bark, 36 mini muffin papers
- Remove from microwave and stir in two cups of your choice of addition. Spoon into the mini muffin papers and allow to sit until cool and hardened. You can put them in the refrigerator to speed up the process if you like.2 cups of one or more of the following additions
- Package and give with a smile on your face and a grateful heart.
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My brother made these with the dry roasted peanuts when I was going through chemotherapy .. it was one of the few things I could eat without getting nauseous .. I still love these and especially since we’re so tight on money this year, I think this will be awesome for gifts to my fellow bakery workers ..
I wasn’t sure what the almond bark was but now I see (from someone’s comment) and will definitely have to try these for the holidays.
I bet there are just so many different variations you could have a dozen different kinds without going crazy! These will so be on my cookie plate this year.
Christy, these are perfect! I was trying to figure out what my son could give his bus driver and now I know!! She is totally awesome and deserves something yummy….he picked out a necklace/earring set for his teacher, but I’ll be putting some of these in along with that gift for sure!
I make this all of the time using dry roasted peanuts, my recipe makes about 100 pieces, so much so that I store them in zip lock bags in my extra fridge in the garage for my hubby, but never thought to use other ingredients till now. What a super idea. I love the idea of mixing the peanuts with the raisins to create something similiar to the chunky candy bar. I just ordered a case of chunky candy bars for my husband from amazon.com. now I know I can make them much cheeper. Thanks for sharing your great ideas. We all need easy recipes, and what could be easier than this.
My mom would make these every year and used white bark with crushed peppermint- this was way back almost 40 years ago lol- I use half brown almond bark half chocolate chips and use peanuts or crushed pretzels…yum!!
Christy
Love your email. I must have very picky eyeballls that have a very hard time deciphering (big word:) the print when printed with a red background. Grrrr getting less young is a pain! Thanks for all You do!
Christy,
I ALWAYS love your posts! They take me back to when my mama & grandma were still alive. I was only 17 when my mom died, so a lot of her recipes I had not yet learned, but yours are so similar, I can always count on you to take me back to the good ol’ days! You even use the same Corelle plates that I ate supper off of every night growing up (the white with the green flower border). Anywho, my grandma always made these for me at Christmas. She made some with white chocolate & some with milk chocolate. However, she mixed a few dry ingredients together & dropped them by spoonfuls. She would mix cheerios, salted peanuts, sometimes pretzel sticks, and those little crispy chow mein noodles! I know the noodles sounds weird, but they were soooo good! Thanks for sharing so many great recipes with us all!
Erica
Are you kidding, girlfriend, those chow mein noodles rock, they are totally not weird!! 🙂 And the pretzel sticks are a fabulous idea…I’ll be getting those ingredients tomorrow at the store! Well, I already have the chow mein noodles in my pantry!