Christmas Candy

This week, I need to get going in the kitchen a bit. Here are a few of the recipes I'll be making.

Christmas Crack, found via Jessica at Mad in Crafts

You'll Need:
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
a sleeve of saltine crackers
12 oz. chocolate chips

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar in the butter and bring them to a boil.  Boil for three minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil.  Cover the foil with a layer of saltine crackers.

Pour the buttery/sugary mix over the crackers, making sure they are all saturated. Put pan in the oven for 10 minutes.

Take pan out and sprinkle chocolate chips over the crackers. Let sit until chips soften. Spread the chips with a spatula or the back of a spoon.  Freeze for two hours.

Remove the pan from the fridge and peel off the aluminum foil. Crack it up into pieces, whatever size you’d like. Store in an air tight container, or bag.

Peppermint Crack

You'll Need:
a sleeve of Ritz crackers
38 Andes Mint candies (regular packs come 28 to a box, Dollar Store packs come 10 or 12 to a box)
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Bring water to a boil in a pot, then add a smaller pot, or smaller metal bowl on top to create a double boiler. Melt the Andes chocolate in the bowl.

Dip the crackers into the chocolate to cover, then set on waxed paper, and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Let cool, and store in an air tight container, or bag.

Peppermint Bark

You'll Need:
1 bag White Chocolate Chips
1 bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 teaspoons Peppermint Flavor Oil
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Line a jelly roll pan or cake pan with wax paper, very lightly buttered.

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Add 1 teaspoon peppermint oil, and stir. Pour onto the greased wax paper and let harden.

While the chocolate is hardening, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave, again stirring every 30 seconds (to prevent scorched chocolate) until melted. Add 1 teaspoon of peppermint oil, and half the crushed candy, and stir well. Pour the white chocolate onto the semi-sweet chocolate, then sprinkle with the remaining crushed candy canes. You can also add red sprinkles for color. Let harden in a cool spot, then lift the wax paper out, and break the bark up. Store in an air tight container, or bag.

Festive Fudge

You'll Need:
1 bag baking chips, any flavor (Chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc)
1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk!)
1 spoonful peanut butter, optional (tastes great with chocolate chips!)
crushed peanuts, optional
crushed peppermint candy canes, optional

Line a Jelly Roll pan or cake pan with wax paper, very lightly buttered.

Melt the baking chips and milk together. If adding peanut butter, stir this in as the chips and milk melt together. Stir often, to prevent scorching.

Once the mix is melted, add any additional ingredients you wish to add, stirring them in well. Pour onto the greased wax paper, and let harden. Lift out of the pan using the wax paper. To cut, use a pizza cutter for super easy, fast cutting.

Enjoy your holiday!!

Easy Homemade Fudge

I love fudge at Christmas. Maybe that's the reason why I'm no longer a size 2? Hmm... probably. For years, my Grandma made fudge. She always added the marshmallow fluff, and used the recipe on the back of the fluff jar. It always tasted great.

My Grandma has since passed away. This will be our 4th Christmas without her, and I still miss her just as much now as I did then. I still have dreams of her, though, and I feel this is her way of still being with me.

This year, my mother and I got together and did candied items for Christmas. We spent around 6 hours baking and cooking, dipping, dropping, hardening, and breaking things apart. One of the items we made was fudge. My mom's recipe was a lot different (and easier) than the one my Grandma always made.

Festive Fudge (I added the festive part, to make it sound all holiday-ish)

You'll need:
A pot
A wooden spoon
A Jelly Roll pan or cake pan (a jelly roll is a cookie sheet with edges, in case you were wondering!)
Wax paper (to line the pan with, so the fudge won't stick to the bottom)
1 regular size package of baking chips- chocolate, peanut butter, etc.
1 14 ounce can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Dump the chips & milk into a pot, and start warming it. Stir every few minutes until it starts to become liquid. Once it starts to liquify, stir constantly, so as not to scorch the chocolate. When it's completely melted, pour into a wax paper covered pan, and let cool.

We usually stick the fudge in the garage, since it's cold here this time of year.

You can double the recipe. In fact, one of our favorites is to use 1 bag of chocolate chips, and 1 bag of peanut butter chips, to make a chocolate peanut butter fudge.

Good luck!

Easy Peppermint Bark

A few years ago, I learned how to make Peppermint Bark, and I've been making the treat every year since! It takes all of 2 minutes to make, and a little goes a long ways.

Peppermint Bark


You'll Need:
1 bag White Chocolate Chips
Peppermint Extract
3-4 Peppermint Candy Canes, Crushed (I unwrap them, and put them through the food processor)
Red Sugar Sprinkles- optional

1. Melt the chocolate in a glass dish in the microwave. Start out at 1 minute & 30 seconds on 75% power, or 70% if your microwave does increments of 10. When the time is up, stir the chocolate, then return to the microwave.
   
   Microwave for 30 seconds, and stir. The bag should be almost completely melted after the total time of 2 minutes. If not, return to the microwave for 30 seconds more. After the initial 1 minute & 30 seconds, do NOT microwave for more than 30 seconds at a time. Chocolate WILL scorch, and be ruined!
2. Add 1 capful of peppermint extract and stir. 
3. Add 3/4's of the crushed candy canes and stir.
4. Spread the chocolate out on a cookie sheet. I recommend laying down wax paper first, but it isn't needed. Use a rubber spatula to spread the mixture out over the cookie sheet in a thin layer. It does not have to be uniform, or cover the whole thing.
   
5. Sprinkle the remaining crushed candy canes on top of the chocolate, then add some red sugar sprinkles on top!
6. Let the mixture cool in the fridge. Once it's hardened, start breaking it apart. This is where the wax paper comes in handy, because you can lift it from the pan to break it apart. 

Make sure to store the bark in it's own container, as the peppermint will leave a residual flavor on other treats in the container with it!

This makes for an easy, quick add in to the traditional cookie plates set out. It is a rich recipe with all that chocolate, though, so a little goes a long ways! Break it up into quarter size bites!

It's Baking Day!

Last year, I got together with my mom, two sister-in-law's, aunt, and a friend of my mom's to bake on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Today, we're getting together again with a smaller group.

We spend the day making our holiday treats, so that we can stash most of them in the freezer, so that we can get our baking done before the holiday's get hectic. I have 6 different types of cookie dough going with me, as well as candy canes for peppermint bark.

My mom made up the peanut butter stuffing for peanut butter balls, and peanut clusters. We're also making fudge, brownie bites, and peanut brittle.

The day will be fun, and packed with goodies galore! I've got containers and freezer bags to bring the treats home in, so I can stash them away until closer to Christmas.