Candy Cane Fudge

Candy cane fudge is the perfect recipe to serve at a holiday party or to use leftover candy canes from your Christmas tree. This easy candy cane fudge recipe uses crushed candy canes as a topper, but you can also used crushed peppermint candies.

The end result is a colorful and festive fudge using one of the best fudge recipes as a base: the right proportion of chocolate and sweetened condensed milk, the topped with crushed peppermint bits.

Looking for more delicious fudge recipes using candy canes? Try White Caramel Peppermint Fudge!

How to Prep for Candy Cane Fudge

Making candy cane fudge is so easy, but there are a few things you do need to get just right. While it only has a few ingredients, you’ll want to make sure the fudge reaches the right temperature and then stir it so that it stays creamy without seizing.

You can actually just make 3 ingredient candy cane fudge using only condensed milk, dark chocolate, and of course, candy canes. This is a perfectly fine way to make delicious peppermint fudge with sweetened condensed milk.

But this recipe takes it up a notch to include peppermint extract for a little bit of flavor boost in the chocolate, a little added salt in the chocolate mixture, and 2 tablespoons of butter for extra creaminess.

Overall, making fudge should take less than 10 minutes. You can make the process go a little faster by gathering your ingredients beforehand and measuring out the chocolate, salt and extract.

Before you start melting the ingredients together, take a few key prep steps. Line a 8 x 8 baking pan or casserole dish with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Having this ready before you start melting the chocolate is ideal, but you can also prepare it while the chocolate is melting, just as long as you keep an eye on your heating fudge.

Next, crush 2 – 3 candy canes. You can do this in a food processor. But one easy way is to break them up into large chunks, place them in a baggie, and then GENTLY tap them with a hammer. Once out of the wrapper, candy canes are very brittle, so you don’t need to pound them.

TIP: Using a hammer gives you a little bit better control over what size your crushed candy canes will be than a food processor.

Looking for more delicious fudge recipes? Try Salted Caramel Fudge or Chocolate Cherry Fudge?

How to Make an Easy Candy Cane Fudge Recipe

Once you’ve take the simple prep steps, it’s time to turn to melting your fudge ingredients together for this candy cane fudge recipe.

In a saucepan, add 3 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips, one can of condensed milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Heat the ingredients together on medium heat, and bring the mixture up to 112 to 114 degrees, or after about 3 minutes on medium heat. Then add the peppermint extract and stir regularly to combine them well for another minute or so.

Then pour the melted chocolate mixture into a baking pan, lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the saucepan and then spread the chocolate evenly into the baking pan.

Finally top the chocolate fudge with a layer of crushed candy canes. And viola! Easy candy cane fudge!

Serving Peppermint Fudge

Allow the fudge to cool at least an hour. You can keep it in the refrigerator or cool it at room temperature. Ideally, you would make the fudge a day ahead of time and let it cool in the fridge overnight.

To cut even pieces of peppermint candy cane fudge, trim the edges to make a square shape. Then, cut the block in half vertically and then horizontally so that you have four pieces. Then you can cut each of the four pieces into evenly sized cubes, such as in thirds both vertically and horizontally. (See photo below.)

With this way of cutting, you’ll get 36 pieces of fudge, plus a little leftover trimmings.

You can serve the fudge cooled or at room temperature. You can also freeze your leftover peppermint candy cane fudge for about a month.

Looking for another fun sweet bite to serve? Try Spicy Candied Bacon or Bacon Jam!