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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

holidays.....

I've felt very festive today.  Had the Christmas station on in the car, little missy and I meandered about the decorations at the store and I had to really try to not bust out the tree this afternoon.  Think that might come tomorrow.  Even enjoyed some hot coco and Rudolph on TV tonight.

Our little family had a nice visit in Kansas over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I just love to bake this time of year.  We made caramels, puppy chow, marbled chocolate treats, cinnamon roasted almonds and sugar cookies.  Each of these are really quite easy to make.  I have to say when it does come to baking, when it's easy, it's more fun.  The only one out of the above listed goodies that is well, not really hard to make, but more of just a pain to make is the carmels.  So I thought I'd share these recipes which I've made quite a number of times and they always are a hit....  Enjoy!

Caramels
Better Homes and Gardens Step-by-Step Cookbook 1978 (a great cookbook)

1 cup butter
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
dash salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Butter a 9x9x2-inch pan; set aside. 2. Melt the 1 cup butter in a heavy 3-quart saucepan.  Add sugar and salt; stir thoroughly.  Stir in corn syrup.  3.  Gradually add the sweetened condensed milk, stirring constantly.  4. Clip candy thermometer to side of pan.  Cook and stir over medium heat to 245(firm ball stage).  This will take 12-15 min (Or what feels like FOREVER...) 5.  Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.  Pour into butter pan.  6.  When cooled, cut into squares (and be prepared for total aggravation when it sticks to your knife like crazy!  If anyone out there knows a better way to cut carmels, please let me know!)  7. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap (about as equally aggravating as cutting the carmels...)  Makes about 2 1/2 Pounds.

Now...
The part of this recipe that is a pain is the stirring forever, being sure not to over cook them and ending up with carmels you can't even chew.  I do tend to do the water test as they cook.  This is to take a cold cup of water and dribble a bit of the carmel into the water.  Pick it up out of the water after it has cooled and see if it balls up.  If it's still runny and really mushy keep cooking, if it is nice and chewy - stop! 

The other part is the cutting and wrapping.  One thing is for sure though - the heavenly taste of homemade carmels is to SOOOOO GOOD!  And that makes it all worth it.  Oh and I'd say this is one to do with out the help of kiddos - a large pot of bubbling scary hot goo is not great around the kids.

There is also a recipe for Eggnog Fudge in this cookbook on page 320 that is also to die for.


Puppy Chow

9 cup Chex
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar


Put cereal in large bowl. Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour over Chex cereal, put into a large plastic bag with powdered sugar and shake well to coat.

This one is easy peasy - Little Missy had fun helping with this one.  And it's super quick too - ready to eat right away!


 
Marbled Chocolate Treats

I got this recipe from a friend at a holiday recipe exchange.  I've made it almost each year.  I did change it a little bit.  The original calls for baker's chocolate, I like to use milk chocolate chips.
You will need:
13x9 inch pan
foil
enough Graham crackers to cover the pan
bag of chocolate chips
peanut butter
white chocolate chips
Line your pan with foil.  Break the graham crackers in to odd shaped chunks (this is so there is a crack between each of them for the chocolate to hold them together) and line the pan with the grahams.  In a microwave safe bowl, melt 3/4 the bag of chocolate chips with 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter (you could use chunky if you wanted) at 30 second increments till melted.  Pour over graham crackers.  Melt 1/3 the bag of white chocolate chips same as before.  Use a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate over the milk chocolate.  You can leave it as is or run a knife through the chocolate to marble them for a nifty look.  Place the pan in the freezer till they are hard and can be broken into pieces.  Remove from pan and break random pieces and store in an air tight container. 
These are really easy like the puppy chow is.  You just have to wait a bit longer to enjoy them!


Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

I got this recipe from  my Mom, where she got it... well we'd have to ask her. 

1 tsp vanilla
1 egg white
1 tsp cold water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 cup whole almonds
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pre heat oven to 250.  Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Beat egg white in a large bowl, add water and vanilla.  Beat till frothy, not stiff.  Add nuts and coat well.  Mix sugars, salt and cinnamon in another bowl.  Sprinkle over almond and coat well.  Spread in a thin layer onto the pan.  Bake for 1 hour, stir every 15 minuets or so.

This is a great recipe to make before you have company over.  The smell it creates is so festive and wonderful.  It fills the house.  I also really like to make these to give at Christmas time.

Now the sugar cookies we sort of cheated in my book.  They are from a box mix we got at Costco.  They had a sample there and they were SOOO yummy.... I can say I'm prepared to bake 18 dozen cookies now though.....  We did little swirl cookies where you make a snake with the dough and dip one side into sprinkles, then coil it up on the pan.  The other's were just dropped on the pan.

So get to baking!  I hope you enjoy some of my favorite goodie recipes.  These are my go to stand-by recipes for bringing to any gathering.  (and for my 2 readers... I know - you have all these recipes all ready... share them with some one else hehe....)

And there will be more to come....  I'm trying very hard to make dinner these days and would like to share some of the recipes from that.  Hoping I find time between all the the projects to finish up and getting things into my Road 10: Vintage shop (by the way I made the Etsy font page this weekend!! hurray!).  I also hope to add some patterns and tutorials, maybe after the 1st of the year when things slow down a bit. 





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