Swedish Peppermint Candy Canes are here order now! Recipes and More

Hand-bent to look like a shepherd's staff, the candy cane has a history reaching back hundreds of years. 

Popular belief is that white sugar sticks were transformed for children who would get restless during the long-winded holiday sermons. And before we had too many gifts under the tree, candy canes hung as gifts for children.

They are truly a treat.

Our sturdy hand pulled Swedish candy canes are nothing like the wimpy striped sticks commercial ones you see at the Five and Dime.

These Peppermint Candy Canes are plump, beautifully hand bent peppermint sticks, well-worth eating after you've enjoyed them hanging on the tree.

These candy canes are approximately 5.5 inches tall, from the top of the curve to the bottom of the stem. The days of giving away candy-colored cars for Christmas are over and these amazing Peppermint Candy Canes are a memory that everyone will remember for years.

Why not give the next best thing, a peppermint candy cane! Don't buy just one - buy a dozen!

FYI - they sell quickly so order sooner than later!

Peppermint Candy Cane Ice Cream Recipe - a mashup

What do you do with a memory of an ice cream from your childhood in New England? Wish for it.

And what do you do when the ice cream that says it is Peppermint ice cream and it is definitely not?

You make your own. And that is what I have been testing and doing for the last 3 years. And I now think it is ready for sharing.

There is nothing special about this. Crush some candy canes into little chips and chunks and stir into the vanilla ice cream. Except the ice cream really matters. Get the one you like the best, though make sure it doesn’t have more than the basics ingredients. Dairy, Cane Sugar, Egg Yolks, Vanilla.

And the Peppermint Candy Cane matters as well. Because if the candy cane is just chunks of corn syrup then, well, it is not the memory I have.

So, that’s where the Peppermint Candy Canes are perfect. In fact fabulous! And though it is simple and a mixing of two perfect things, it satiates my memory!

"Lumache" is an Italian word that translates to "snails" in English. The lumache pasta shape is characterized by its spiral or shell-like form, with a wide opening at one end and a tapered, twisted body.

Lumache pasta is popular in various Italian dishes and is well-suited for holding and capturing thick sauces.

These large black Italian olives are from Cerignola, Italy and are incredibly delicious. Unlike the much smaller olives you normally eat, these are gloriously giant with so much flesh it is a joy to pop one in your mouth!

If you have a small mouth you might have to bite a little off at a time.

The pit itself is as big as some olives are. The saltiness of the brine and firm flesh is delicious and satisfying, so much that one olive, plus sucking on the pit, lasts longer and is more satisfying than a bag of potato chips!

The big, mouth-filling olive is firm, with a great crunch, lots of meat to eat, and just the right brine; they are soooo gooood! Get some giant black olives here!

This is one of those ingredients that when we first "discovered" it, it was a revelation! (Of course everyone knew about it)

Remember that it is a miracle ingredient, a spice, a herb, a flower. Add it to dishes when you need to turn plain everyday to something alive and special.

Think of how wonderful grilled chicken is with just salt and pepper. And then when you add fennel pollen and it is a completely new dish! Simplicity in a sprinkle!

Wild Fennel Pollen is made from fennel flowers picked at full bloom. The plants are then dried and the pollen is sifted out, creating a seasoning that has the flavor and aroma of fennel, but with far greater intensity. Nothing is added to this beautiful golden-green dust - its incredible flavor stands on its own!

Fennel pesto is a lot like the more typical basil pesto. Although the addition of fennel pollen gives it a extra boost of flavor and aroma. Delicious.

We're especially fond of these short, twisty trofie. Ideally shaped for holding sauce, the trofie are a classic pasta shape from the Ligurian region, along Italy's northwest coastline. There, in the city of Genoa and throughout the region, they're most often served with pungent Genovese basil pesto.

Made from just two ingredients -- hard durum wheat flour and water -- the dough is hand rolled into 2 1/2-inch long pieces that are thick in the middle and thin on the ends. They plump when cooked to almost three times their size, so this packet will easily feed 3 to 4 hungry people.

For an authentic meal, toss trofie and your favorite pesto with small cubes of peeled, boiled potato and tender, young green beans. The pasta should be cooked al dente for optimal texture. Fresh and filled with the fragrance of basil, this dish is best made with a lighter flavored olive oil, ideally one from Liguria!

What's Happening in the Store Next

Saturday, October 24 – Encore Chocolate Tasting

Missed Meet the Makers—or ready for another round? Stop by ChefShop on October 24 to taste returning craft chocolate favorites alongside new bars and flavors. Free and drop-in! 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

See the Event list HERE for 2026
Monday - Saturday 10am-5pm
ChefShop Retail Shop, 1425 Elliott Ave West, Seattle

Freshly ground pepper is the best! It makes all the difference in the world!

Black pepper is bold, complex, and aromatic. The outer skin contains piperine plus earthy, piney, floral compounds (like the terpene sabinene). It has a sharp, lingering heat with a slightly fruity, woody character. What you smell when you crack fresh black pepper is largely those volatile oils in the skin.

The term "Tellicherry" originated when these large, black peppercorns were exported from the Indian port city of the same name.

These Tellicherry peppercorns are pungent, with the deepest, hottest flavor you'll ever find! Once traded, ounce for ounce, for pure gold, these Indian black peppercorns are still a superlative spice that can add a depth of flavor - first heat, then a tinge of sweetness - to your everyday meals.

Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding up the work of browning enzymes during drying.

The drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn.

In general, the later the pepper is picked, the better its flavor maximizing the taste of the Tellicherry peppercorns. However, waiting too long to pick is a gamble too; ripe pepper fruits will rot if left too long, and there is also an increased risk of loss to hungry birds or unfavorable weather.

Picking black Tellicherry pepper at just the right moment involves keen judgment and results in Indian black peppercorns with truly excellent flavor.

So crazy easy for fantastic results that makes the mundane disappear with ease. Oven roast your broccoli and do a few smashed potatoes or rice.

A compressed block of dried de-seeded Tamarind pulp.

Tamarind is the primary souring agent in Thai cuisine; they add a fruity tanginess to soups, salads, stir-fries and salads.

Although fresh tamarind is easy to find in the tropics, outside of Southeast Asia, a block dried tamarind is hard to find here.

How to use dried tamarind:

Break off a lump from the block and soak in warm water for a few minutes until softened.

Work the pulp with your fingers to loosen the pulp from the fibres and seeds, if there are any.

As a rough guide, use about 3 tablespoons of seedless tamarind pulp to about a cup of water. Double the quantity of pulp if it contains seeds as well.

You don't have to be too concerned about precision here as you can adjust the amount of tamarind used in a dish to taste. Squeeze the mass with your hands over a clean bowl to extract the pulp. Discard the fibres and seeds.

Tamarind is a tropical fruit from the tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica), a leguminous tree in the Fabaceae family. It produces pod-like fruits containing a sticky, dark brown pulp with a tangy, sweet-sour flavor.

Tamarind has a unique flavor that combines, sourness (from tartaric acid, especially in unripe pulp), Sweetness (in ripe pulp) and fruity & tangy notes with a hint of smokiness.

Candied fruits are fruits that have been preserved in sugar through a process that involves soaking the fruit in sugar syrup and then drying it. The sugar draws out moisture from the fruit, preventing spoilage and effectively preserving it. The final result is a sweet, sticky, and sometimes crunchy fruit that retains much of the original fruit's flavor and texture, though it can be more concentrated and sweet.

Baking decorations are items or ingredients used to enhance the appearance, texture, and sometimes the flavor of baked goods such as cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pastries, and breads. They can be edible or non-edible and are often used to make desserts more appealing, festive, or themed for special occasions.

We carry edible baking decorations such as natural colored sugars, candied violet petals, gelatin sheets and real chocolate sprinkles.

Whether you are decorating or topping cakes (sparking sugar, color sugars, candied violets and candied rose petals), making mashmellows (gelatin sheets), or just baking for your children (natural food colorings and real chocolate sprinkles), we may have what you are looking for.

Extracts and flavorings are concentrated substances used in baking to enhance or define the flavor and aroma of baked goods.

They allow bakers to infuse doughs, batters, fillings, and frostings with the essence of ingredients—like vanilla, almond, citrus, coffee, or spices—without needing large quantities of the actual raw materials.

Extracts are typically made by steeping ingredients in alcohol or another solvent to capture their natural oils and aromatic compounds, while flavorings may be natural, artificial, or blended for intensity and stability under heat.

Used in small, precise amounts, they can deepen or brighten existing flavors, introduce complexity, or recreate the taste of ingredients that may be seasonal or hard to find.

From the subtle warmth of pure vanilla to the sharp freshness of peppermint or the delicate floral notes of orange blossom, extracts and flavorings are essential tools that help bakers achieve consistency, balance, and creativity in every recipe.

Bakers use extracts and flavorings in countless ways to shape and refine the character of their creations.

A touch of espresso extract can deepen the flavor of chocolate; a hint of vanilla rounds out sweetness and adds warmth; almond or orange blossom introduces new aromatic dimensions without altering texture.

Professional and home bakers alike rely on these concentrated flavors to maintain consistency from batch to batch and to save preparation time by capturing the essence of ingredients like mint, rum, or coconut without requiring the fresh source. Because extracts and flavorings are highly concentrated, they are used sparingly—often just a few drops to a teaspoon or two—to achieve balance and success.

A new twist on a ChefShop.com classic, the bitters add an element to take the brownies from great to unbelievable.

Professional pastry chefs are using ChefShop Grande Brut because it does several things well at once: deep flavor, smooth texture, rich color, easy blending, low acidity, and real versatility across applications. It is a many-trick cocoa powder.

We stock it now because after working with it ourselves, we found it spectacular! It makes a giant difference!

ChefShop Grande Brut contains 22% to 24% cocoa butter. That is significantly higher than most cocoa powders on the market, and it is one of the main reasons we chose it. That extra cocoa butter is not a minor detail. It changes how the cocoa tastes, how it blends, and what your finished desserts actually feel like.

Most people focus on cocoa percentage (and with cocoa powder it is always 100% as it has no sugar) and overlook fat content entirely. It is the balance between cocoa mass and cocoa butter that matters. Cocoa butter is the natural fat in the cacao bean, and it shapes everything about how cocoa performs in a recipe.
Shop now for ChefShop Grande Brut Cocoa Powder here!