Repurpose: Left Over Candy Canes

I'm tackling two of my favorite topics in this post - repurposing and candy!  I had several small candy canes left over from Christmas and I just can't bring myself to throw away perfectly good candy. But, I did think of way that I could use them for our Valentine's Day family dinner.  

First I got all my little candy canes unwrapped and heated my oven to 250. 

Then, I put them together in little heart shapes and baked them for 2-3 minutes - just long enough to make them warm and malleable. Once they are soft, you can pinch the two candy canes together into the shape of a heart.

Then, try to get them off your cookie sheet without them breaking....good luck!  I forgot one very important thing.....

.....parchment paper to the rescue!  

Here's what you get in the end.  

I plan to use them for our valentine's day dessert. My hubby's favorite dessert (and one of the only sweet things he'll actually consume) is brownies and ice cream. Needless to say, we have it for every special occasion. Anyway, I think these will look too cute sticking out of the scoop of ice cream that is sitting on an ooey, gooey brownie.  I might just need to make a prototype to try (someones got to do the dirty work, you know). They would also be so cute on top of red or pink cupcakes or served with hot-chocolate to add a little minty flavor. 

If you try them, let me know how you used 'em. If you don't have any this year, remember to buy them at 75% off after Christmas next year!