tis the season...

To make cookies!

I have been baking up a storm since Monday in preparation for the open house Christmas party I am hosting tonight. I always go over the top when hosting parties, because I just love playing hostess. Apparently this time I've gone so over the top I broke the bank, and by broke the bank I mean, I'm broke and thus, am considering finding a job.

But those matters are not to be thought about until the new year. My mind is still in cookie mode. I did not want to do anything too fancy and meticulous, but I did want some cookies with taste & visual appeal to my guests. So I whipped up a few batches of my Mint Brownie Bites, Classic Sugar Cookies, and Gingerbread Men. And yes, they're all wee.

The mint brownie bites are compliments of Good Housekeeping, and the recipe can be found here, http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/mint-brownie-bites-recipe. Warning, highly delicious little morsels. I made them for the cookie exchange and they were a smash hit. I got a lot of feedback the next Sunday, or moms telling me how their children begged for more.

I also bought some pretzel batons, and dipped them in chocolate and then decorated them with sprinkles for another tasty party treat. But I had by mistake, melted too much chocolate for the amount of pretzels...what was I to do? Why dip the cookies, of course! And, because I simply could not resist, I made mini vanilla cupcakes. Don't they look so yummy with their frosting and sprinkles?!

Here's my perfect cupcake. I ate this one ahead of time, because I couldn't resist its cuteness.

And amongst all of this wonderful baking for my party, I took time to make a batch of peanut butter doggie treats, for Daisy, but also for the dogs of my friends & clients. They're cute wee gingerbread men, a festive treat for any pooch.

Look at how 'wee the baby gingerbread cutter is? Perfect size for doggie treats. And don't worry, the peanut butter treats will not be mixed up with the real gingerbread men. What holiday baking have You been up to? Let me know with a comment, I promise to read them all.

truffles

So truffles are one of those awesome sweets that I only get the opportunity to indulge in once a year. So this year I decided to make my own, and document it to share with you. You may experience excessive mouth watering by the end, just a warning.



First gather your ingredients. For this recipe it was : 1/3 c. whipping cream, tsp vanilla, 3 tbsp butter (softened), 3 tbsp sugar and 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate.

Bring butter, sugar and whipping cream to a boil. Stir often.

Once it begins to boil, quickly remove from heat, stir in vanilla and chocolate. Keep stirring, the chocolate will melt in and the mixture will become shiny & smooth.

Now time to refrigerate it for at least 4 hours. The thing about truffles is that as you touch them, they soften up, so you have to work fast, keeping what you don't need in the fridge, and returning what you do use, back to the fridge.

Now portion out and roll into balls. It should only take a roll or two to get a ball. It'll start to stick to your hands and melt, so work fast and don't touch it too much

Choose your coating. I like sprinkles, especially festive ones.

Roll the truffle balls in the sprinkles. The recipe also suggested you could use crushed wafer, crushed nuts, or coconut as other options. It also said dip them in melted chocolate. I tried that and failed...as the chocolate (even once cooled) still melted the truffle. Fail. I will need to figure that one out.

Voila!! Tasty chocolate truffles to share with all your friends and family who pop by for the holidays. Or to just binge on yourself....whichever. I promise they're good.

busy days

I forgot how hectic the days become as the holidays draw near. Mum was hosting a small party tonight, so first thing on my agenda was to clean the house top to bottom. That was work enough. But after that, the day kept throwing more tasks at me to complete, and I tackled each one with as much cheer as I could muster.

After the cleaning was done though, I was pleasantly surprised by the postman delivering a package from my grandparents!! It made me so happy.

I've a function to attend tomorrow night, and I thought I would make some treats. Just some easy truffles and peppermint bark hearts. They weren't so easy, but once they were done I was really happy. And I most definitely did some sampling...Truffles are heavenly. Nuff said.




I also decided to work on some Christmas presents. I made a necklace for a friend, and a necklace & earrings set for my mother. As I know she has no clue how to find my blog, I'm posting her gift on here for you all to see. She liked purple alot, so I made her some jewelery to go with all her purpley tops and dresses. Its packaged with a pretty bow and nestled under the tree for her now. This is the sort of jewelery that will be available when I open my Etsy shop in January!

Lastly, I found Daisy's festive neckerchief which had been tucked away from last year. She has a special holiday message to share :

"Fleas Navidad!"

holiday kisses

No mistletoe involved, I decided to try and make these amazing peanut butter cookies my sister makes every year at Christmas time. I was so lucky as to find a hershey add in the holiday issue of Good Housekeeping, and it was for hershey kisses peanut butter blossom cookies. I was like "omg - those are the cookies i love". Here is my attempt to make them.





First I had to remove all the prettyful wrappers. Easily done with only one casualty along the way. So much chocolate really is tempting.

Then you need to mix the ingredients in a big bowl. (See the recipe below). Peanut Butter smells so dang good, but I resisted tasting the dough, knowing how good these cookies are when finished.

Then, roll into one inch balls. Then roll those in sugar. Yum. I do love rolling cookiedough balls in sugar.

Then bake. After 8 - 10 minutes ( don't be fooled and think they're not cooked. Overcooked peanut butter cookies get hard) remove from oven. Now kiss each cookie...with a chocolate kiss, and let cool. Then indulge all you freakin' want!

Delightfuly Delicious Hrsheys Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe

48 hershey's kisses (I used milk chocolate)

1/2 c shortening

3/4 c peanut butter

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

granulated sugar (for rolling)

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add granulated sugar and brown sugars; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into mixture.

3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen.

See more at www.kissescookies.com

fdwdaisy tester

Over the weekend I found these little bottles from Wilton for candy making. I thought they were a brilliant idea and they would help me fill molds alot easier, with less mess. So I decided to buy them (they were only $2.79 for the pair) and give them a try. I documented the test to share with you.

You need a squeeze bottle, some candy melts, or chocolate melts like I used, and a candy mold. Mmm....chocolate...

The instructions were to fill the bottle half way with the melts. I filled it 3/4 because let's face it; the more chocolate the merrier.

Then you need to place the bottle in a bowl of warm water. Warm seemed to me like it would cool too quickly, so I boiled water and set it in that instead. While its melting, knead the bottle to help the candies melt and smooth out.

I thought the boiling water was a perfect opportunity for some hot chocolate. Unfortunetly, we were out of marshmallows....I did spruce it up with a dash of peppermint extract though.

When the candies are all melted and you've kneaded it really well, it should be smooth and ready to fill the molds. Well...Everything worked great until this step. Look at the tiny stream that comes out...and you would not believe the amount of squeezing it took to get that! I filled one mold about half way and gave up, using a spoon (the old method) to dig out the chocolate and spoon it into the molds. The bottle also did not keep the melts very warm, so they started solidifying early, leaving my daisies with lumpy backs.

But the daisies are still cute right? And yes, I chose to make daisy chocolates because I'm celebrating my Daisy all month long. Though, as much as she may want to, she can't have these treats. My final verdict on the squeeze bottle method for doing candy melts is three daisies out of ten. Good idea, but it just did not work as well as it should have. I am going to cut the tips off more, and see if I can't increase the flow that way. But I still need to solve the hardening chocolate issue, which might require lots of fresh hot water. I'll let you know how test number two goes.

Let me know if you found this helpful. Have you tried the squeeze bottle method? Did it work or make more work?

Pumpkin Lollipops!

So tomorrow there is a Halloween party for the young girls in my church. And as I am one of their leaders, I decided to make them a little treat. Here's the tutorial for what I did to make these cute wee pumpkin lollies!

Firstly, you're going to need a few suplies. I had everything I needed, except the orange candy melts, which are relatively cheap at the Bulk Barn.

So you'll need candy melts, a small glass measuring cup, one large chocolate candy melt, sucker sticks, a candy mold, wax paper, toothpicks and flavouring if you like. I chose to add a drop of orange to add yumminess.

First step is to place the glass measuring cup with your candy melts, into a shallow pot of water. Slowly bring this pot of water to med/high. You'll need to pay close attention to be certain things don't burn. You don't want a rapid boil either, just simmering. This melts your candy. Melt about half, then turn the heat to low, and stir the rest until its smooth and shiny.

So now that its all gooey and smooth, carefully poor, (or spoon like I did) the melted candy into the molding tray. If you spill over the edge of a mold, just carefully wipe it away with the edge of your finger or a damp cloth. Once the tray is full, now we add the sticks!! Slowly push the sticks into the little wells provided. Twist it from side to side to coat the stick with the candy. After you've done each individual lolli, into the freezer the tray goes!

Okay, those should take about eight minutes to set and harden. While you're waiting for those, take your chocolate melt, and in a small glass bowl, melt it in the microwave. The trick to doing this, is do it in 10-15 second increments, stirring each time. When it is mostly melted, you can stir the rest in very easily, this prevents you from burning the chocolate. (Mum had to teach me that after burning chocolate several times in the microwave when i first started using melts).

When the lolli's are solid, remove from the freezer and place on wax paper. They should come right out of the mold no problem.

Hello Monsieurs Pumpkins! Now, using your toothpick, carefully dip it into the chocolate, and then carefully dab it into the hollows where the features are. There has to be a better way to do this (I just haven't discovered it yet). My hand is a little wobbly, so my pumpkin faces turned out goofy, but they still look cute....Right?




I left three without chocolate so you could see the originals. Now, just gussy them up with cellophane bags, ribbon and little tags. The bags I had were too long, so because I'm too poor to go and buy the right size, I merely snipped these ones to the length I wanted. I used a stamp I had picked up at Michael's for $1.50 last year after halloween. And Tada, finished product!


Candy lollipops are a fun, easy and inexpensive way to add the 'treat' factor in Trick or Treat!