Let the holiday baking begin! This is the best time to bake isn’t it? I just love all the festive things going on in the kitchen! I found this adorable cake stand at Marshalls this week. Love it!
This fun little recipe is beyond easy. Literally minimal work at all and look how cute they are!! Grab yourself a bag of Candy Cane Hershey Kisses, a brownie mix and some candy canes. If you haven’t invested in a mini cheesecake pan, ask for one for Christmas. I use mine all year round and it is so much easier to get your baked goods out of the pan, you’ll love it! You can use a mini muffin pan if needed, just make sure you spray that baby like crazy with cooking spray 🙂
Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season, I’m thrilled to be just about done with my Christmas cards and my shopping. It feels great!! Take a peek below and Enjoy!!
Festive Candy Cane Kiss Centered Brownie Bites
Ingredients
- 1 brownie mix 9x13 inch size
- 18 Candy Cane Hershey Kisses
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 3 original candy canes crushed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and scoop into a mini cheesecake pan or mini muffin tin pan that has been generously sprayed with cooking spray, about 3/4 way full. Press kisses into center of brownie batter, do not push all the way to bottom, some of the tip should stick out the top. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until brownies are cooked through. Let cool completely.
- Melt chocolate chips in microwave 30 second intervals until smooth and melted. Stir in cream until silky smooth. You can place back in microwave for 10 seconds to smooth more if needed. Dip tops of brownies into melted chocolate, then sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Serve with a tall glass of milk. Enjoy!!
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Happy Baking Friends!! See you soon with more goodies 🙂
Welcome to my online kitchen! Picky Palate is where you’ll find family friendly recipes along with the best Disney eats, tips and copycat recipes! 
Where do the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream come into play?
Love this recipe! I followed Michele’s advice above as I was using a mini muffin tin. I baked them for 16 minutes at 325 and they came out perfect! I also covered the kisses with more brownie batter so they were really covered. Thanks for the recipe!
I think these will be super yummy for our book club Christmas party! Thanks for the great idea!
So I tried this & used mini muffin tins, even though I have the mini cheesecake tins, because I like the appearance more. I did get smart after the first batch, and used paper liners, because even with waiting for them to cool, there still was a sticking issue. The problem with my Kisses was that they didn’t melt but got all hard, even more than they were originally, when baked for only 15 minutes @ 325F. This was annoying because the flavor combination is great, but texture wise, a hard lump in the middle of your brownie is hard to eat. So the second batch, I baked the brownies without the kisses inside, and pushed them in when the brownies were nice and hot from the oven. This resulted in nicely melted kisses, and the right texture, with a Kiss indent that could easily be filled in with the ganache icing. Thanks for the fun recipe!
I just made these and they are soooo yummy. Rather than use the minimuffin pan [I have never had luck with brownies in it] I used the mini-muffin foil cupcake baking cups on a cookie sheet and dropped the temp to 325.
I’m making these tonight for our Christmas Eve dessert. I can’t wait! They look delicious. 🙂
Yours look beautiful but mine turned out awful. They cooked in about 10-15 minutes but my muffin pan has smaller sections.
? do these have to be refrigerated since there is cream in them and the cream is not cooked??? Thank you.
Also do you think these would work better in a cupcake pan for me since my mini muffin pan openings are so small? I was supposed to take them to a party tomorrow but have to start all over with another batch.
Barb
They looked so awesome that I wanted to make them even though I didn’t have a mini muffin tin. Surprisingly, it worked fantastically well. I just cooked them in tinfoil baking cups in the muffin pan for 23 minutes and they are delicious.
can i use chocolate powder instead of the chocolate chips for the icing?
Oh yum! making this on the weekend you know for taste testing purposes 🙂
Call me wind because I am absuolltey blown away.
OH MY!! This could be dangerous…you’ve combined two of my favorite things. This will be my new holiday favorite. Thanks for posting. 🙂
Hey Jenny,
What brownie or cake mix did you use for these? Yours look so much more moist than mine!
Thank you for the wonderful recipe! I wish I had read the comments before I ruined my first few batches! Using mini cupcake holders in the mini muffin pan worked well for me. 🙂 Awesome recipe, thanks so much!!!
I made these this afternoon, and they are so pretty, fun, and delicious!!! I made them in a mini muffin pan and didn’t have any trouble getting them out. I sprayed liberally with Pam and let them cool almost completely. Then, I ran a knife around them and they popped right out. I think the key is to let them cool a lot.
Delicious, and so cute! Thanks for sharing!
Delicious, and so cute! Thanks for sharing!
Baked these this weekend. Couldn’t find the candy cane kisses, so I used the cherry cordial kisses instead. They were WONDERFUL! Used the cake-like instead of fudgy recipe on the back of the box. make sure you don’t push the kiss down too far and turn them out of the pan right after they come out of the oven. Let them cool upside down so the chocolate from the kiss doesn’t melt through to the bottom. That is what makes them stick!
Hi! I just made these for a work thing and they were such a hit. I am a total perfectionist though and thought they were a little crunchy–then I was writing down the recipe and realized i completely forgot to add the heavy cream!! is it supposed to go into the brownie batter? maybe that would have made them less crunchy, i didn’t see them in the recipe. either way–people LOVED them!
Wow these are yummy. I made them with my 7yr old son for teacher gifts. YUUMMY He loved crushing the candy canes. They are stinkers to get out of the mini cupcake pan. Someday I’ll have a oven that isn’t from 1950 and I won’t have to guess how much to shorten a recipe to make it not be crunchy on the bottm.
THanks!
These were absolutely to die for! I made them last night and before I was done icing them all, I had already eaten at least six of them. Thanks for all the great recipes. I hope to try more of your creations soon!
If I’m making this with a muffin pan do I use mini-muffin pans or the regular size?
I got one of the mini cheesecake pans and used that. I had some batter left over and put it in a regular muffin pan. The ones in the regular muffin pans stuck, the others did not. BUT…my icing looks nothing like the picture. What did I do wrong??? It seemed to be fine until I added in the cream and then it sorta ‘seized’. What type of chocolate chips was I suppose to use?
These look so good. I was thinking about trying them as mini muffins for a pre-K holiday party (cutting the kiss in half also). I hope they turn out.
Thanks for the inspiration. I’m going to make a choc mint cupcake with vanilla buttercream and put the Kisses in the cake. That is, if I don’t eat the whole bag first. These things are addictive!!
They sell Candy Cane Crumbles for the top at Target in the holiday baking section.
I made these tonight. They’re perfectly delicious! thanks again!
Jenny- I made these last night for a cookie swap and everyone was very excited to try them! I must say, they were the most festive dessert there! Thanks for the great recipe!
jenny!! looks delicious! i’m dying; where did you find that cake stand? i’ve been searching for one that i can thread ribbon through and can’t find one!
nicole
OMG…These look delicious!
I made a double batch of these yesterday. I soaked the muffin pans with Pam, but I still could not get a single brownie out without ruining each and every one. 🙁 The kiss totally stuck. I just wanted to let others know. I am definitely investing in one of those mini cheesecake pans!!
Mine did too — you have to really let them cool all the way in the pan and then just ease them out. I did lose a couple – but got about 9 out of 12 out…
I tried making these last night and had the same problem. I used a ton of cooking spray in the muffin tins and could not get them out without ruining every one! They smelled and tasted great, but I just couldn’t get the top and the bottoms to stay together! I would suggest not to even try this recipe without the mini cheesecake pans because the muffin tins do not work.
I made these today and the candy cane kisses did not stay in the same shape. They melted down and made the bottoms of the brownies hard. What am I doing wrong? I changed the cook time and the brownie part came out better but the same thing happened to the kisses.
I had the same problem, I let my second batch cool entirely in the pans and then did not have any problem removing them.
The problem is in the pan and the cook time. Most people don’t own a mini cheesecake pan, which is made of heavyweight steel and a lot thicker than regular muffin tins or mini muffin tins. If you are going to cook in mini muffin tins, they are smaller and, therefore, require less baking time. Reduce time bake time to about 15-16 minutes, making sure to still grease very well. I would grease the top too, so if they spill over a little bit, they won’t stick and make it harder to come out. Also, try not to push the kiss in too far so there’s pleanty of brownie beneath it. Let the brownies cool in the pan and hopefully they will slide right out! Hope this helps.
Forgot to add, reduce the oven temp to 325 when using a mini muffin tin.
I used a mini muffin tin too, and discovered it worked best if I used the Pam for baking (has some flour in it) and dropped the kiss on top without pushing it down at all. Bake for just 12 minutes instead of 20, and wait 5-10 minutes before gently prying them out of the tin with a butter knife. Not quite as tall and pretty as the mini cheesecakes, but cute and yummy all the same! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Wish I would have checked the comments before I made these this evening. I used the mini muffin pan, at 350 for 20 minutes. The brownies stuck and the chocolates went into the bottom and burned. I’ll try this again when I have the mini cheesecake pan.
Do you think I would be able to freeze these? They look GREAT and I always want to get ahead of my holiday baking since I work full time.
Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
Courtney
This are SO festive and adorable. Also, I could probably eat my weight in those candy cane kisses, thanks for this great recipe!!
Wow. These are an amazing sight! VERY WELL DONE!
F.Y.I.
I bought a box of the Pillsbury Brownie Minis Mix and to my surprise it came with 2 mini muffin pans (enough to make 12)
These look fab! I have three co-workers with December birthdays and these will be a perfect dessert for them! Thanks!
So cute Jenny! And very festive, perfect for now 😉