Candy
This is my favorite candy to make around the holidays! It also makes a great gift. So if you’re looking for something to bag up for your favorite teacher(s) or office staff this is a great way to go.. everyone on your list will love this!
INGREDIENTS
1 bag of white Ghirardelli melting chips
Pistachios, shelled
Craisins (I like to use the pomegranate flavor)
Sea Salt
DIRECTIONS
Spray a baking sheet lightly with non-stick baking spray (using a baking pan that will fit into your refrigerator). Place the melting chips in a glass bowl and microwave for about 2 minutes or until the chocolate is smooth. Remove chocolate from the microwave and pour on to your baking sheet and spread across the sheet, but not too thin! Add your pistachios and your Craisins as much as you like and lightly sprinkle with sea salt. Place the baking sheet in your refrigerator for 20 minutes. Remove from fridge and break into pieces. These can be placed in decorative bags and given as gifts or put out on a serving tray. I store this in my fridge until I am ready to place out or give out!
Enjoy,
Fall is an amazing time of year in New England. It is filled with the best flavors! Apple cider being one of my most favorite! I received a bottle of King Arthur’s boiled cider that I had initially intended on making apple cider baked donuts with, but when I saw this recipe on the King Arthur website for Apple Cider Caramels, I knew this would be a fall treat to make that everyone would enjoy and boy was I right! I have a number of taste tester’s at my day job (our local high school). I handed out MANY of these little caramels and heard MANY compliments. I heard OUTSTANDING more than once , along with WOW and ” those are so good” ! So I think that sums it all up! These were so easy and I know I will be making these again! These will make great gifts to give at the holidays as well! These are very sweet, so I cut them in small pieces which is nice as it makes a lot and the best part is they will stay shelf stable for a long time. I did store mine in the refrigerator. The hardest part and the longest part of this was cutting them and individually wrapping in wax paper. For that job I recruited my two favorite boys, Jim and Robby. It took them both about one hour to cut and wrap each piece! They did an AWESOME job!
INGREDIENTS
2 cups (1 pint) heavy cream
1 cup light corn syrup
2 cups sugar
6 Tablespoons butter (I used unsalted but you could use salted)
1/2 cup boiled King Arthur Cider
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
DIRECTIONS
Lightly grease an 8 x 8 baking dish and line with parchment paper leaving an over hang on opposite sides. Combine the cream, corn syrup, sugar, butter and boiled cider in a heavy bottom DEEP saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce heat to medium high heat and cook until the mixture reaches 242 degrees – 245 degrees using a candy thermometer. ( I used the directions for a soft caramel). This takes about 20 minutes depending on your stove. Remove pan from heat stir in salt and spice. Pour the mixture into prepared pan . Let it sit for 12-18 hours at room temperature before cutting into small squares. To wrap the caramels use six inch squares of wax paper. Place one caramel in the center of each square wrapping the caramel and twisting the edges.
Enjoy,
It’s Halloween time! It is one of our favorite Holidays. We have been known to decorate more for Halloween than any other holiday! BUT…we don’t necessarily like all of the candy hanging around, so I will sometimes make this bark and send it to anyone willing to eat more candy or bring it to work and let all my high school kiddo’s have some! If you have some candy and want to change it up, you can make this bark or make this ahead of your party and leave it out for guests to enjoy. You can use any candy you want, just chop up into smaller pieces but don’t forget to add the pretzels as that is where you get the salty for that sweet and salty flavor!
INGREDIENTS
1 bag of Ghirardelli white melting chips
Small pretzel sticks, broken
Reese’s Pieces (I used the mini size)
Chocolate chips
Candy corn
DIRECTIONS
Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray and set aside. Melt your baking chips in a glass bowl in the microwave for about two minutes stirring every thirty seconds until melted and smooth. Take out of microwave and spread the chocolate on your prepared pan but not spreading too thin. Add your pretzels and candy as much or as little as you like. Place in the refrigerator until cool and the chocolate is hardened. Remove from fridge and break into pieces. Ready to serve. I keep any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Enjoy,
Halloween is fast approaching and so is all that CANDY! I made these muffins with Snickers but you can make them with your favorite chocolate candy! These were good and when you look at them you expect a very sweet and chocolate treat, but in reality they are not as sweet as you expect. The batter is very dense and although this is sweet, it is not over the top sugar coma sweet!
INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons of melted butter
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs lightly beaten
3 full size snickers bars chopped into pieces
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. spray mini muffin pans with non stick spray. Set aside. Combine, flour , sugar , cocoa , baking powder and salt in large bowl and mix well with a whisk. Combine milk, butter eggs and vanilla in another bowl. Pour the wet ingredients in to the dry ingredients combining well. The mixture will be very thick. Add the chopped candy and combine well. Spoon into your prepared pan filling about 1/2 way up.( I filled mine a little higher and it did make a bit of a mess with the caramel). Bake about 15 minutes or until cooked through watching not to burn!
Makes 24 muffins
Enjoy,
These pretzels are so good! One bite and they became an instant family favorite! They are easy to make and great to give as a gift or bring to the office! You can add pecans or leave them out. You can also decorate with sprinkle’s or other decorations depending on the holiday. Because it’s August now I used cute little flower and bee decorations I found in the cake decorating aisle at my local store.
INGREDIENTS
18-20 large pretzel sticks (I like the UTZ brand)
1 package caramel bits
2 Tablespoons of water
1 package Ghirardelli melting chocolate
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Prepare a sheet pan with a layer of parchment paper and lightly spray with non stick baking spray. (use a pan that will fit in your refrigerator). Melt the caramel bits with the 2 tablespoons of water in the microwave until fully melted (my microwave took about a minute and a half). Using one pretzel rod at a time, dip the pretzels about 3/4 of the way up the pretzel, do this for each pretzel rod.
If you are adding the chopped pecans place the pecans on a plate and as soon as you dip the pretzels in the caramel roll them in or sprinkle the pecans over each pretzel. Place pretzels on your prepared baking sheet until each pretzel is done. Place your baking sheet in the refrigerator to set up. This takes 30-40 minutes. When the caramel is set up, melt the melting chips according to package directions and dip each pretzel rod into the chocolate 3/4 of the way up the pretzel rod. Place back onto the baking sheet. Do this for each pretzel rod and if you are decorating with sprinkles or other decorations do this now while the chocolate is still “wet”. After you have finished all your pretzels place them back into the fridge for 30 minutes. I then like to store mine in the fridge in a Ziploc bag.
Enjoy!
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