Hot Chocolate Stirrers

Happy first full day of winter! It's definitely feeling like winter in New York; it's been snowing on and off for the past few days and it's absolutely frigid outside. One of my favorite things to drink is hot chocolate - I prefer it much more over coffee and I could have it multiple times a day when it's cold out! It's so delicious, fun and easy to make and such a winter staple. A few weeks ago I was in Home Goods and I walked through the baking section and found "hot chocolate sticks". But that's just what they were - wooden sticks, with chocolate that likely wasn't all that great and mini marshmallows that I would assume were as hard as a rock. But they were adorable - and then I looked at the price and they were $14.99 for a pack of 4!!! Yeah, you read that right. No way was I paying $14 for 4, mini wooden sticks. That's how I came up with this idea - except my hot chocolate stirrers are *fully* edible and not fake chocolate. ;)

All you need to make these hot chocolate stirrers are pretzel rods, chocolate chips to melt and mini marshmallows. If you can find the super mini marshmallows (that aren't the hard ones that come with packs of hot chocolate - tried those and hated them!) then four for you, Glen Coco. Because I couldn't find them anywhere! But the regular mini marshmallows worked just as well. I used a super sharp knife and cut each mini marshmallow into fours and then into eights and got these super-mini marshmallows. If you let them sit out for a few minutes after cutting them, they're easier to move around without getting your hands all sticky.
Melt your chocolate of choice (I would imagine dark or white chocolate would be just as delicious!) and dip each pretzel rod in the chocolate. I covered each pretzel a little less than half way with chocolate. Then add the marshmallows on around the pretzel rod. I found that using a toothpick to pick each mini marshmallow up helped *so* much here!

Place them on a piece of parchment paper and put them in the fridge for 20-30 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened. It doesn't take long, but the longer you leave them the better - because they won't melt as fast when you add them to the hot chocolate. Aren't they so cute?!

These are so ridiculously easy to make - and you can stir your hot chocolate with it and eat it. And I didn't spend $15 for a set of 4, so I'm happy. ;) You could put together an entire hot chocolate bar with these and it'd be perfect for a holiday party or even to have on the dessert table!

I always add whipped cream to my hot chocolate (just pack it on, it's the holidays it's fine ;) and these dipper sticks are so delicious with the whipped cream too! Making these took all of 15 minutes; 10 of which were spent cutting mini marshmallows, ha! They look so pretty and next time I make these I'm going to try putting pieces of crushed peppermint on the chocolate!

They also make for a great party favor - you can wrap a bunch up in cellophane and give them to party guests! If you wanna get really fancy, get cute mugs and put these wrapped up in each mug!

Are these not the cutest things?! I love them! I'm so excited to go make myself a cup of hot chocolate and have one of these today! Let me know what you think if you try making them!!
XOXO