Here's everything worth knowing about peppermint stick candy and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 22 recipes to cook tonight.

What is peppermint stick candy?

Peppermint stick candy is the hard, red-and-white striped mint you know from the holidays. Candy canes, the straight sticks sold in jars, and the round starlight mints in cellophane are all the same thing in different shapes: a boiled sugar candy flavored with peppermint oil and streaked with red.

In baking it lives a double life. Whole, it works as a stirrer or a garnish. Crushed, it becomes a crunchy, cooling topping that scatters over frosting and bark.

The flavor is sharp and clean. A little goes a long way.

How to Use It

The first thing most recipes ask you to do is crush it, and the method matters. Seal the candy in a heavy zip-top bag and press out the air.

Break it with a rolling pin or the flat of a meat mallet, working in short taps rather than one hard swing.

You want a mix of fine dust and small shards, not powder. Big pieces look pretty on top but turn sticky and tooth-cracking once they sit in moisture.

Folded into dough, crushed peppermint gives you the speckled crunch in Peppermint Candy Cookies and Peppermint Rounds. It stirs into no-bake mixtures too, like Peppermint Candy Fudge, where the candy both flavors the batch and flecks the set.

For frozen desserts the crushed candy is folded into the base rather than baked, which keeps its crunch. That is the move behind Frozen Peppermint Cheesecake and Peppermint Cloud. Whole sticks are the classic stirrer for hot chocolate, slowly dissolving and minting the drink as you sip.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Peppermint and chocolate are the defining pair, which is why crushed candy ends up on so much dark-chocolate bark and in recipes like Peppermint Fudge Pie and Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake. It also plays well with vanilla, cream cheese, and coffee.

A pinch over a mocha or a frosted brownie wakes the whole thing up.

The biggest mistake is adding crushed candy too early. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it pulls water from anything around it, so peppermint stirred into a wet batter or a frosting hours ahead will weep and bleed pink streaks.

Crush it close to serving and use it as a finishing touch whenever you can.

The second mistake is uneven crushing. One giant chunk in a cookie is a dentist visit waiting to happen. Sift your crushed candy and save the coarse bits for the very top, where they stay crisp and visible.

Substitutes

If you have starlight mints or candy canes instead of straight sticks, use them one for one by weight. They are the same candy.

For the peppermint flavor without the crunch, a few drops of peppermint extract gets you most of the way there. Start with 1⁄4 teaspoon per batch and taste, since extract is far more concentrated than the candy.

To rebuild the festive look, fold in red and white sprinkles or a little crushed white chocolate.

Andes-style mints or after-dinner mint thins bring peppermint plus chocolate, but they melt rather than crunch, so they suit fillings and frostings better than toppings.

Buying and Storage

Peppermint candy is seasonal, flooding stores from late November through December, so buy extra when you see it. The good news is that it keeps almost indefinitely. Hard candy is mostly sugar with very little water, which is why it does not spoil so much as soften.

Humidity is the enemy. Store the candy whole and unopened in a cool, dry cupboard, well away from the stove and any steam. Once a package is opened, move the pieces to an airtight jar with a fresh packet of silica gel.

Crush only what you need. Crushed candy has far more exposed surface, so it clumps within a day or two in open air. If you must crush ahead, keep the pieces airtight with the lid sealed and out of the fridge, where condensation will turn them to syrup.

Quick facts

In Chinese

薄荷糖果棒

British (UK) term

Peppermint stick candy

en français

la menthe poivrée bâton candy

en español

caramelos palo de menta

Recipes using peppermint stick candy

There are 22 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 22 recipes