CROCK POT CANDY RECIPE (MR. BUD CANDY)

At a time of year when holiday baking is in full swing, take things easy on yourself and make this incredibly easy Christmas crockpot candy! Nothing fancy, just 4 ingredients (plus sprinkles) and a slow cooker. They’re great for the holidays or to give away as a gift!

I would be willing to bet that you’ve heard of these candies before. Maybe your Mom made them, you saw them at a holiday party, or someone gave them as a gift. They’ve been around FOREVER, and I almost didn’t post them… since not only are they pretty popular already, but they’re also incredible simple!

Homemade candy has never been easier! Just 4 ingredients and a few holiday sprinkles… that’s all you need.

There are a bunch of variations of these, but I’ve got a few tips and tricks to share with you that make these even easier!

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THIS CROCKPOT CANDY RECIPE:

• Use great quality chocolate.  Since you’re only using 4 ingredients, you want them to really be good quality.
• Even though these look like milk chocolate, you need to use plenty of white almond bark.  It seems counter-intuitive… to use the entire 2 lbs of almond bark, when you want a rich, chocolate treat, but trust me, you need it.  The almond bark not only adds great flavor, but it plays a big part in helping the candies set up and harden.
• Place a clean, dry kitchen towel over the top of the slow cooker and place the lid on top of that.  When you cook anything in the slow cooker, water condensation develops on the inside of the lid, and when you take it off, it drips down into the slow cooker right?  Well water and melted chocolate DON’T mix well.  It can potentially seize the chocolate!  The towel catches that condensation, leaving your smooth melted chocolate in perfect condition.
• Add your peanuts in at the end.  Some recipes call for everything to be added all at once, but the peanuts don’t need that time in the slow cooker… they’re already roasted.
• Line a few baking sheets with wax paper (parchment paper works too), and use a spoon or small cookie scoop to drop the candy into clusters.
• If you’re sprinkling the clusters with holiday sprinkles, don’t scoop more than 8 or so before going back and adding the sprinkles.  You want to add them when the clusters are still melted, and they’ll harden after a little while (which means the sprinkles won’t stick).
• If possible, refrigerate the candies (on the baking sheets) for an hour or so, until hard.  If my refrigerator is low on space, sometimes I put the baking sheets out in my garage on shelves (when the weather is cold of course).  Technically, the candies will set up even at room temperature, but I like to help that process along by refrigerating them.