White Chocolate Christmas Pretzels
White Chocolate Christmas Pretzels I have said before that I love World Market and that love continues. They really have the neatest things there and incredible specialty food items. I was browsing there the other day to see if I could find any Christmas presents. One thing I did find were these fantastic Christmas Pretzels. Happy Holidays!
Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Pie
Nutter Butter- Peanut Butter Pie If you hadn’t heard already, our food blogging friend Jennie lost her husband Mikey last week. It was a sudden and unexpected loss. The kind of loss that is unfair in every way. In the midst of grieving for her lost love, she asked the world to make a peanut butter pie (Mikey’s favorite) and share it with someone they love. In response, the world made pies. So here’s my Peanut Butter Pie, my tribute to Mikey and love to Jennie and her family, that I was able to share with my own family. I went with a Nutter Butter crust. If you’re not familiar with Nutter Butters- they’re pretty much just like an Oreo… with peanut butter cookie and peanut butter cream filling. As much as we love Nutter Butters, they had to be smashed into bits for the crust. This is a no-bake, perfect-for-summer kind of pie. A nice layer of hot fudge is then spooned on top. Then it’s topped with the peanut butter cream filling… …and smoothed on top.
Candy Cane Blossoms
Too darn cute. I am the first to admit that I am a sucker for cute packaging and anything "Holiday themed" as evidenced in earlier posts. I saw these candy can kisses hit my local CVS right after Halloween. Normally I would have made some gripe about it being too early to put out Christmas Candy, but since they were so cute, I bought a bag and put it in my pantry to be saved until today. How cute are these cookies? Could they be more festive? I made my own colored sugar which is much more affordable than buying it. UPDATE: I posted this recipe again with a few additional tips and sprinkle ideas. Candy Cane Blossoms 1 bag Hershey;s Kisses brand Candy Cane Kisses 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 egg 2 cups all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 2 tablespoons milk Red and Green colored sugar Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg in large bowl until well blended.
Santa Hat Brownie Bites
The dental school had a holiday party last night and in one of the emails concerning the party they said “Feel free to bring a dessert if you like to bake”. Even though I got this message the night before, I put my game face on and got creative with the ingredients I already had in the apartment. Since our winter break starts at 12PM today (wahooooooo!), I had a lot of strawberries to eat before I left and knew I could put the little ones to good use: So cute, and so so easy. I highly recommend you to bring these to any holiday party in the coming days. Those cookies in the back right were mine too, and they were definitely delicious, but not as visually enticing as these adorable santa hats. Did I mention how easy these were yet? 2 weeks off from school = lots and lots of baking, keep checking back for yummy recipes!
Veggie Christmas Tree
STEP 1 - Hot glue your styrofoam cone to your plastictray (optional). This makes a stable base andmakes transportation very easy. STEP 2 - Cut your Broccoli, Cauliflower and Broccoliflower into dipping sized pieces. STEP 3 - Attach your Broccoli and Broccoliflower to the cone with ROUND toothpicks, grouped in clusters, with larger pieces at the bottom and graduating up to the top. When you get to the top, and toothpicks are not long enough cut skewers with a wire cutter or strong scissor to pick your veggies into place until you achieve a perfect tree shape. STEP 4 - Cut 1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper into dipping size strips. STEP 5 - Poke carrot sticks intermittenly in holes between the broccili and broccoliflower florets. STEP 6 - Use FLAT toothpicks to secure cherry tomatoes and cocktail onions to the tree. STEP 7 - Cut out stars with small linzer tart cookie cutter from 1 Yellow pepper. Secure stars with toothpicks poked and secured right in broccili pieces.
Reindeer Noses
I've finally got round to photographing some of the items I've made for my Christmas Craft Stall. Here is the first, my Reindeer Noses. I first saw this idea on Splitcoast Stampers. I love the idea of the 8 brown and then the 1 red (Rudolph's!) The red noses are bubblegum, which I found in a set from Poundland! I've used my nestabilities labels one die to make the bag topper. I will be back shortly to show some of the other bits I've made. Thanks for looking.
Monkey Bread
This Cinnamon Sugar Monkey Bread is not your mamma’s canned biscuit, heart-attack served on a plate kind of recipe. Sweet pieces of yeast bread can be pulled one bite at a time and dipped in a sugary glaze or eaten as is. It’s a favorite morning meal, but you can enjoy it any time of day! Believe it or not, Monkey Bread is mostly an American fetish. The inspiration for Monkey Bread actually began when we decided to make homemade pizza for dinner. The thing is, I didn’t think of that until after the dough started rising. I could freeze the extra dough for a future pizza. Sounds so…perfect! More than likely that ball of frozen pizza dough would end up in the back of the freezer to be discovered at some future point in time when ice crystals permeate each and every frozen particle of the dough’s surface. No, I had to think of something to do immediately with that dough. I’ve been wanting to try this for some time now. I don’t eat butter any more. I am vegan. Ingredients Directions Enjoy!
Glorious Treats » Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes
This week my husband asked if I could make some Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes for him to bring into work. My husband’s co-workers are often the recipients of my baking trials and triumphs, and always seem more than happy to eat my “experiments”. My husband doesn’t often put in special requests, so I was glad to cater to him and sent him to work today with a dozen Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes. My husband’s work shift starts at 6am and he called me later in the morning to let me know the cupcake were gone by about 6:10am! I guess that means they liked them =) The recipe is just a tiny variation of the Chocolate Cupcake and Cream Cheese Frosting recipes I’ve posted before, but I’ll add them here to save you a couple clicks. Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes) ~ Directions ~ *Line muffin tin with paper liners. Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting ~ Directions ~ *Place butter in a large mixing bowl and blend slightly. Happy Baking!
Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Reindeer
I had a lot of ideas in my head of projects I wanted to try out this holiday season, and this is the one that has won out as my favorite so far. My Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Pumpkins were so incredibly popular, that I knew I needed to come up with some new ideas for Christmas...and probably for every season afterward! (Can you say, Chocolate Covered Peeps??? YUM!!!) I am giddy with excitement at how cute these turned out!!! Want to make your own? Here's what you need: Large Marshmallows (I prefer Jet-Puffed over the store brand) Lollipop sticks, popsicle sticks, or pretzel sticks Ribbon Melting Chocolate (I prefer the ones you buy at the craft store for their smooth texture) Cinnamon dots, Hot Tamales or Mike & Ike's Reds Small Pretzels Pearl Sprinkles (or other candies for the eyes) Foam block First, set up your assembly line. Break the pretzels in half. Snip just the ends of the Hot Tamales or Mike & Ike's, or count out your cinnamon dots. I participate in these parties.
