Peppermint: The Quintessential Holiday Flavor
I love trying to find recipes for Christmas because they all pretty much do the same thing. They take a mundane dessert and then add peppermint to it. I have seen countless recipes for everything from fudge to cookies telling me to crush up some peppermint candy canes or add peppermint extract for the perfect Christmas treat.Do you ever wonder why peppermint is associated with Christmas? The truth is that adding peppermint really does add a great flavor to any dessert, but it’s not the flavor that’s associated with Christmas. It’s the candy cane.
Candy canes have been around for a long time and were originally only white. They were given away to children as a treat and were fastened in the shape of a hook to resemble a shepherd’s staff. This was before the popularity of Christmas trees, but as the years went on, the trees became more popular and people needed inexpensive decorations.
The Christmas hook candy was perfect for setting on the branches and was an added Christmas treat after opening presents. It became known as the candy cane and uniquely associated with the holiday season. From there, its use as a way to Christmas-ize a dish was solidified.
So the next time you feel the need to dress up your Gingerbread men with some candy cane buttons or pop in a few drops of peppermint extract into some fudge of marshmallow fluff, remember that the flavor was coincidence and it’s the candy cane that exemplified the Christmas spirit, and now the Christmas flavor.
The only other alternative would be to add pine to everything, but that would just be silly. Who wants fudge that tastes and smells like it was dropped on a forest floor. I am pretty sure my weird Uncle Norm would eat it, but he eats anything and always smells like pine. And we don’t know why.
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