Easy Christmas Treats
Easy 2-4 ingredient Christmas Treats, these little trees are fudge-y, tasty, deliciously sweet and salty, crunchy, easy to make and fun. You need these in your life. Plus they are so easy to make! And the kids can get in on the fun for a perfect holiday activity. (But chances are you will want to make these year round).
Aren’t Christmas treats like Brownie Cookie Sandwiches with Peppermint Icing just so much fun? I love making Christmas treats and Christmas Cookies with my kids, like these 4 Ingredient Cake Mix Cookies, or these Peppermint Glazed Butter Cookies. But sometimes we need an easy, fun, delicious treat that is even simpler to make. Welcome to the world of these little chocolate dipped Bugles.
Have you ever been to Texas? In Texas there is a big gas station called Buc-ees. And at Buc-ees, they have these little bags called Beaver Tails, and they are essentially white chocolate covered Bugles. And they are sweet, salty, crunchy, and everything you want in a snack. And I can eat a whole bag in 30 seconds. So it was time to make them for myself.
Well, the good news is, they are easy to make, only 2-4 ingredients, and the kids can get in on the fun. Plus they are super tasty.
What You Need to Make Christmas Treat Trees
Making these Christmas treat trees is eazy peazy and the ingredients are easy to find, as you just need a package of Bugles Original and some white chocolate.
- Bugles Originals
- White Chocolate or Candy Melts: I used Ghiradelli melting wafers, in the white chocolate flavor, and it was perfection.
- Optional Ingredients: Canola oil to thin the chocolate, sprinkles for decorating.
Recommended Equipment
- Microwave Safe Bowl for Melting Chocolate: Have you seen this one? It is awesome.
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
How to Make Christmas Treat Trees
Making these little Christmas trees covered in white chocolate is really quite simple, but let’s get into the basics, and I will share some tips for getting great results every time.
Step One: Prep Your Stuff
This is a quick process, so to make sure everything goes smoothly, the first step is to prep your stuff. This means line that baking tray or sheet with Parchment Paper. Open the Bugles Originals, and set out your candy and sprinkles for decorating. Get your microwave safe bowl ready, and your chocolate wafers, and a fork for dipping. Once you have everything set out and ready to go, move to the next step.
Step Two: Melt Your Chocolate
The trickiest part of this whole process is melting the chocolate. If you melt it with too high or heat, or too quickly, you can burn the sugars in the chocolate and cause the chocolate to “seize” and get lumpy, and not dippable. But with a few easy steps, you can get perfectly melted, runny, dippable chocolate. Here’s how:
- Put your white chocolate of candy melts in a Microwave Safe Bowl or dish.
- Microwave at 50% power for 45 seconds. White chocolate has more sugar than milk chocolate, so the wafers will melt faster, so you want to make the time shorter, and pay closer attention so as not to burn the sugar.
- Remove the bowl from the microwave. Stir chocolate or melts thoroughly. Even if it doesn’t look like they are melting yet, give them a good stir.
- Return dish to the microwave. Microwave at 50% power for only 30 second intervals, stirring thoroughly after each, until mostly melted. The wafers or chocolate will continue to melt if the dish is warm, even after it is removed from the microwave, so when it is mostly melted, remove, and stir. Let sit, and stir again.
- At this point I will sometimes stir in a little oil (1-2 tsps) to help keep the chocolate a runnier consistency longer, but this is totally optional.
- Use the melted chocolate as soon as possible so you can coat your Bugles before it sets.
Pro Tip: If you happen to overheat your chocolate, do not add water! That will make the chocolate seize even more. Instead, add a teaspoon or two of vegetable oil or shortening. And stir until consistency is reached. Do not add butter.
Step Three: Dip The Bugles
Now you are going to dip those Bugles. You can just drop them into the bowl, and use a fork to cover them, then lift them out.
Gently tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to allow excess chocolate to drip off, and back into the bowl.
Then slide the bugle off the fork onto the parchment paper lined baking tray.
Step Four: Decorate
Now comes the fun part, which is decorating the bugles to be fun little Christmas treats. You can use sprinkles, candy, or more dipping chocolate to decorate them the way you wish. I had fun putting little gold stars on top, the sprinkles all over to make them look like Christmas Trees, but get creative.
This is a particularly fun way to get the kids involved.
However, keep in mind that once the chocolate sets, it is hard to add the fun. So, work quickly, and add the sprinkles and fun before the chocolate sets up. I recommend dipping a row of Bugles, then decorate. Then dip the next row and decorate.
Step Five: Enjoy
Once they have set up, and the chocolate is no longer wet (which only takes a few minutes), simply remove them from the baking tray, and place in a bowl for everyone to enjoy.
They will disappear quickly.
We also loved making them for neighbor gifts because they are cute and fun, but also everything you want in a treat. A little sweet, a little salty, crunchy, bite sized, and delicious.
Tips and Tricks
Making this recipe is Eazy Peazy, but here are a few tricks to make it go smoothly:
- Melt Well: Melt Chocolate Properly. Microwave at half power. Pay attention. Stir between heating intervals to keep the chocolate temperature even. Do not add water.
- Prep Ahead to Work Quickly: Work quickly. While you aren’t in a race, it is good to work quickly so you can dip all the bugles and decorate them before the chocolate sets up.
- Family Affair: Get the kids involved. It can be a really fun family activity to make these.
Make Ahead and Storage
How to make this recipe ahead of time:
This is the kind of recipe you make ahead anyway because you need the chocolate to set, so feel free to make up to 5 days ahead.
These Christmas Treats store really well for 5-7 days in an airtight container on the counter top. The Bugles will start to get a little soggy or stale after that, but the chances of them lasting that long are slim anyway because they taste so good.
Other Great Christmas Treat Recipes:
- Toffee Pecan Christmas Cookies
- Peppermint Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Peppermint Bark “Oh Fudge!”
- 4 Ingredient OREO Fudge Planes
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Christmas Treat Trees
Ingredients
- 7.5 ounce bag Bugles Originals
- 10 ounces White Melting Chocolate wafers or candy melts
- 1 tsp vegetable or canola oil
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper, and set out your sprinkles and other decorating items.
Melt chocolate:
- Put your white chocolate of candy melts in a Microwave Safe Bowl or dish.
- Microwave at 50% power for 45 seconds. White chocolate has more sugar than milk chocolate, so the wafers will melt faster, so you want to make the time shorter, and pay closer attention so as not to burn the sugar.
- Remove the bowl from the microwave. Stir chocolate or melts thoroughly. Even if it doesn’t look like they are melting yet, give them a good stir.
- Return dish to the microwave. Microwave at 50% power for only 30 second intervals, stirring thoroughly after each, until mostly melted. The wafers or chocolate will continue to melt if the dish is warm, even after it is removed from the microwave, so when it is mostly melted, remove, and stir. Let sit, and stir again.
- At this point I will sometimes stir in a little oil (1-2 tsps) to help keep the chocolate a runnier consistency longer, but this is totally optional.
- Use the melted chocolate as soon as possible so you can coat your Bugles before it sets.
Dip Bugles:
- Place bugles into the melted chocolate and use a fork to cover them, then lift the covered bugle out of the chocolate, and let excess chocolate drip off. Gently tap fork against the side of the bowl to help excess chocolate drip off.
- Place Bugles on the parchment lined baking tray, and decorate with sprinkles.
- Continue to dip and decorate until you have used up all the chocolate.
- Let chocolate set up on the decorate Bugles, then remove from parchment and enjoy your Christmas treats.
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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