I heated the bowls of candy melts for 30 second intervals using 50% power and stirred after each 30 second session. It took about 3-4 minutes to melt completely. The last two times I used candy melts, I took the advice of several sites and added a spoonful of shortening to the melted candy. The shortening is supposed to thin out the melted candy and make it smoother to work with. This time, I wanted to melt the candy without using the shortening to compare the results. The candy melted just fine, but the texture was a little thicker to work with. I ended up with slightly thicker candy coats over the cookies, which is not necessarily a problem. But as a result, I could not coat as many cookies as I thought I would. I used a full bag of green melts, a 3/4 bag of red melts, and a 3/4 bag of white melts, and I was able to coat about 3.5 sleeves of Oreos.
I covered each cookie in candy, and used a fork to fish them out and knock off any excess candy. As I kept working, the candy would cool and harden in my bowl, so I just popped the bowl back into the microwave for 30 seconds or so on 50% power.
The candy coats harden quickly, so work fairly quickly to decorate the cookies. My daughter had a fun time helping. I would dip the cookies, and she would decorate them. I managed to decorate a few of them too. I put them on my silicone baking mats to harden, but parchment paper or wax paper works too.
Now for the clean up. So now you have melted semi hardened candy stuck to the bowl. Do not soak the bowl in soapy water. The candy will seize and turn rock solid, and then you will have to chip away the chunks and scratch the shit out of your bowl. Yeah, been there, done that.
Instead, microwave the bowl until the candy melts again. Scrape out as much as you can with a spoon. Then use a paper towel to wipe up whatever is left. See the scratches on my bowl? That’s from when I was a candy melt newb.
For those of you too lazy or busy to bake holiday cookies, this is a fun and fairly fast way to break out a plate of festive cookies at the holiday party. It’s a great project to do with the kids too.
Cookies ready to pass out at school.
