Channel your inner chi to make the cutest Kung Fu Panda candies

Kung Fu Panda 3 is due out Jan. 29, and it’s sure to be another hit with the kids. Make your favorite movie characters in candy form to sneak into the theater (we won’t tell), and enjoy while watching them up on the big screen. Or just make them for your little Kung Fu Panda enthusiasts.

We love the Kung Fu Panda movies, so when I heard the next installment is due out this month, I knew I had to make some of our favorite characters. The main character is Po, a giant panda voiced by Jack Black. You can’t go wrong with anything Jack Black. In this new movie, he heads out to a secret sanctuary of pandas — and meets up with a bunch of them, including some little pandas.

All the characters start with miniature Peppermint Patties or Peppermint Pattie Minis candies. They are pretty simple to decorate with a few ingredients you may have at home and some assorted sprinkles.

In case you aren’t familiar with the movies, these are the characters:

1. Master Shifu: a red panda who is the master kung fu trainer of many of the characters.
2. Po: a giant panda who is a kung fu expert and main character of the movies.
3. Tigress: a tiger mastered in kung fu and part of the “Furious Five.”

Kung Fu Panda candy characters

Miniature heart-shaped Peppermint Pattie candies should be available for Valentine’s Day, or you can substitute with any similar heart-shaped chocolates.

Yields 9 (3 of each character) plus 8 smaller pandas

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 9 miniature Peppermint Patties (6 heart-shaped and 3 round) 
• 9 Peppermint Pattie Minis
• 3 cups vanilla candy wafers (or white chocolate chips) plus 1 teaspoon shortening
• 1 cup orange candy wafers plus 1/2 teaspoon shortening
• 2 chocolate graham crackers
• 1 regular graham cracker
• Black, brown, yellow candy-coated sunflower seeds
• Orange jelly beans
• Edible food markers in black and brown
• Blue, green, black round sprinkles
• Green nonpareil sprinkles
• Black heart sprinkles (large and small sizes) — or use white hearts and color black with food marker

Directions:

For Po

1. Use a serrated knife to cut circles and oval shapes from chocolate graham crackers for panda ears and eyes (6 of each).
2. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the vanilla candy wafers and shortening in 30-second intervals until evenly melted. Mix in between intervals.
3. Dip and coat 3 round Patties. Tap off the excess, and place the dipped Patties on parchment paper.
4. Working quickly while the candy is still wet, attach the black eye parts and ears and black heart sprinkles for the noses. Let the candy harden for 15 minutes.
5. Using some of the melted white wafers, add a small dollop to each black eye area, and add a green sprinkle while the candy is still wet.
6. Draw on the mouths with black food marker.
7. Color in the chocolate graham cracker ears and eyes with black food writer (optional).

For Tiger

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the orange candy wafers and shortening in 30-second intervals until evenly melted. Mix in between intervals.
2. Dip and coat 3 heart Peppermint Patties. Place the dipped Patties on parchment paper, and let harden at least 15 minutes.
3. Using some of the melted white wafers, add a medium dollop from the center of the candy to the bottom and 2 white stripes (use the picture as a guide). While the candy is still wet, add a jelly bean for the nose and yellow sunflower seeds for the eyes.
4. Dip the bottom of a brown sunflower seed into the melted orange candy, and insert it into a corner of the heart. Attach for the ears. Repeat on the other side. Using some of the melted orange candy and a toothpick, coat the edges of the sunflower seeds.
5. When the candy has hardened, use the brown food marker to add stripes, eyeballs and mouths.

For Master Shifu

1. Use a serrated knife to cut shapes for ears and eyes from the plain graham crackers for (6 of each).
2. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the vanilla candy wafers and shortening in 30-second intervals until evenly melted. Mix in between intervals.
3. Dip and coat 3 heart Peppermint Patties. Place the dipped Patties on parchment paper (pointy sides up).
4. Working quickly while the candy is still wet, attach the eye parts and ears and black heart sprinkles for the noses. Let the candy harden for 15 minutes.
5. Using some of the melted white wafers, add a small dollop to each graham cracker eye area, and add a blue round sprinkle while the candy is still wet.
6. Draw on the mouths, noses and other details with the brown food marker.
7. Use some of the vanilla candy to add lines of whiskers and beards.

For small pandas

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the vanilla candy wafers and shortening in 30-second intervals until evenly melted.
2. Cover 1 side of the small Peppermint Pattie Minis with vanilla candy.
3. While the candy is still wet, add black sunflower seeds (for the eye parts), a small black heart sprinkle (for the noses) and 2 small black circle sprinkles (for the ears).
4. Add a small circle of melted vanilla candy on the black candy-coated sunflower seed, and add a tiny green nonpareil sprinkle as the eye color.
5. Let the candy harden for 10 – 15 minutes.
6. Draw the mouths with the black food marker.

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