Christmas Lessons in Chocolate

Happy New Year, anyone who might potentially still be around to read this! I hope everyone had a safe and eventful (or uneventful, if you prefer) holidays. I know mine certainly were, and mostly, it was my own fault.

A few days before Christmas, I took a look at the board I have on Pinterest specifically for candies. Truffles, barks, caramels, fudges, chocolates, gummies, anything that's small in size and large in batch, it's on there. Last year, I made three 3-ingredient candies for the family and neighbors: oreo truffles (oreos, cream cheese, chocolate), peppermint bark (white chocolate, regular chocolate, peppermints), and these things I don't have a name for, but it's a melted hershey kiss on top of a pretzel with an M&M squished on top and it's delicious. This year, I got a brilliant idea.

"I'm gonna make FIVE things for Christmas!"

What the HECK is wrong with me?

This year's menu included oreo truffles and peppermint bark. I've made the peppermint bark for the last...four, five years? The oreo truffles have been made annuaully for at least two years. The other three were all brand new and from Pinterest.


Andes Mint Fudge by Sally's Baking Addiction (pin)


Peanut Butter Buckeye Pretzel Bites by Sweet Pea's Kitchen (pin)

And, for the puppies in my family:

Peanut Butter Bacon Dog Treats by The Comfort of Cooking (pin)

So, anyone wanna take a guess which one I messed up?

If you guessed the peppermint bark I've been making for the last half a decade, you'd be right! I wish I had taken pictures.

So here's what happened. The dog treats got slightly burnt in the first batch, and I had to roll out dough and use cookie cutters for the first time, but the dogs did not complain. After the dog treats, I mixed up the fudge in a double boiler. First layer went fine, although a little thick. The white chocolate layer didn't melt down quite as well, but after a few seconds in the microwave, it was fine. Chocolate layer was no problem. Into the fridge it went. The buckeyes and oreo truffles got made at the same time so I could use the same chocolate for dipping. When all was said and done, I was left with the perfect amount of white and milk chocolate chips for the peppermint bark. Melted the milk chocolate in the microwave (because it's just melt and pour, doesn't need to stay melted, so why use a double boiler?), poured it out, popped it in the fridge to set and got started on the white chocolate.

Let me tell you something about white chocolate. I usually use Hersheys white chocolate chips melted down, but when Hubby went to the grocery store, they were all sold out. He came home with Ghirardelli white chocolate chips. Awesome, it's good quality stuff, this is gonna be great! Into the bowl, into the microwave, and go. The chips start to melt. Take out, stir, 15 seconds, just like I've always done. Rinse, repeat until smooth. But this stuff, it never got smooth. How odd, there was still some in the center that was not melting. Okay, let's just nuke this mother. 30 seconds. And sti-

No stir. The white chocolate was nuclear and looked like butter. Or maybe ice cream. Whatever it was, it was NOT stirring, and it was not, to my knowledge, salvagable. What I thought was the stuff not melting was actually it getting thicker the hotter it got. The HECK did I do? Apparently, and I did not know this, but white chocolate has different melting directions depending on manufacturer. Hersheys melts great at 15 second intervals anywhere between 70% heat and full. Ghirardelli, according to the directions on the bag that I did not know were ever there, melts at 50% heat with time in between for the bowl to cool down. So I was left with a bowl of white chocolate that was firm enough to use as playdoh if it had been touchable. I think it was still molten after an hour, the kind of hot that you touch and it feels cold for a millisecond before your brain can realize "oh wait, that's not right". Luckily, I have an awesome hubby who made a "8PM on Dec 23rd" grocery store run for more white chocolate, and in the end, I had my usual awesome peppermint bark... and two bags worth of a lesson learned. Whoops. Merry Christmas.

For the record, aside from the fudge absolutely refusing to come out of its dish (and yes, I used PAM on it. The stuff was so thick it formed to the baking dish! It came out after having some time to warm up.), everything turned out amazing.

Buckeyes

This last weekend, I had plans to go with a good friend to see the Hunger Games. We were super excited for it, and we had an idea that we shouldn't go to the Hunger Games, well, hungry. Soooo we were bad. She had plans to make puppy chow, but they fell through (completely within reason). I was going to make my usual oreo truffles, but a little voice in my head said "HOLD IT! ...What about those Buckeye things you've seen on Pinterest?"

What ABOUT those Buckeye things? I had all the ingredients already. Why not slap some together? How bad can it be?

Luckily, aside from a mess with some powdered sugar (me + powdered food = sugary mushroom cloud), the answer is Not Bad At All. Well, more like "oh my god I have discovered the secret to Reeses." Because Oh. My god. I have discovered the secret to Reeses, and the secret is in buckeye candy. I cut the recipe I used in half, because it said it would make 72 candies, and the LAST thing I needed was 72 chocolate covered peanut butter balls!! But the half recipe only made 20, so maybe I didn't need to worry so much...

Buckeyes
Recipe modified from VeryBestBaking.com



1 cup creamy peanut butter
~2 cups powdered sugar (the original recipe called for 3 3/4 cup, so half of that is 1 and 7/8 cup)
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Using a mixer, beat the peanut butter and butter together until smooth and combined.
2. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, mix until completely combined. The mix may be crumbly.
3. Take a tablespoon of the mixture and roll into a ball. It may need some kneading to form into a solid ball, but a little work will make it come together. Place the ball on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Freeze for one hour.
5. In a microwave safe bowl, melt down the chocolate chips. Heat them 30 seconds at a time until the start to get melty, then every 10 seconds once they begin to melt, stirring after each time.
6. Once melted, take the frozen peanut butter balls and, using a toothpick or fork, dip them in the chocolate, leaving the top uncoated. Replace on the parchment once dipped.
7. Pop them in the fridge to firm up, and try your best not to dive headfirst into the baking sheet.
8. Try not to eat them all at once! But now is the time to enjoy!

We snuck our treats into the completely full theater, and after being in a ziplock baggie in my purse for an hour or so, they were a bit, um, not quite round. A few of them had molded into one giant buckeye. But they were still delicious, if a little messy. The random people sitting next to us I offered to share with agreed.

Tis the Season for Sweets!

Merry Christmas, everyone! It's a cozy 65 degrees in NC today, not exactly feeling a lot like Christmas based on the temperature. Based on the pile of sweet things accumulating on my desk and in my house, though, it definitely feels like the Sugar Holiday. Cookies, fudge, breads, I feel like I'm gaining weight just LOOKING at this stuff! And I'm not helping myself, either. This year, I made my two usual Christmas confections and added a new one to my collection. They're all recipes so simple, even I can't mess them up. All three only use three ingredients, and they end up completely delicious!


Peppermint Bark
This was the first Christmas candy I ever made. Very simple holiday treat.



2 bags prefered brown chocolate chips - dark, milk, semi-sweet
2 bags white chocolate chips
peppermint candies

1. Lay out wax paper over a standard cookie sheet.
2. Unwrap the peppermint candies (I use 10 to 15 round mints, although candy canes should work too) and pulverize them. I like to put them in several ziplock bags and smash them with a hammer, although I imagine a blender or food processor could do the job just as well.
3. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the brown chocolate, heating it 30 seconds at a time for the first minutes and 15 seconds after the first minute, stirring after every heating interval. Once the chocolate is all melted and smooth, pour it onto the wax-paper lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle this layer with peppermint dust, no large chunks. Put into the fridge to set.
4. Once the first layer is solid enough, repeat the melting process in step 3 with the white chocolate. Pour over the brown chocolate layer. Evently sprinkle the remaining peppermint dust and bits over the chocolate. Put into the fridge to solidify.
5. Once the entire tray of chocolate is cool and solid, break the chocolate into chunks. This is easier to do if you've let the chocolate come to room temperature, otherwise it'll shatter. You can use your hands to break it or cut it with a knife. After several years of hand-breaking it, I found this year that deeply scoring it with a knife lets you break it easier and into nice straight lines.
6. Enjoy!


Last year, I began making Oreo Truffles along with the peppermint bark, and they were a huge hit!

Oreo Truffles
(makes 30)

1 bag of regular oreos
8oz cream cheese
1 bag chocolate chips, whichever kind of chocolate you prefer

1. Open the oreos and set aside four to six. Finely crush the rest (food processor or blender will do this fine. If you don't have one of these, you can fill a few ziplock bags with oreos and use a rolling pin to crush them. The first time I made these, I didn't have ANY of those. Not even a rolling pin. I ended up using a bottle of rum like a rolling pin...it worked!)
2. In a large bowl, mix together the crushed oreos and cream cheese thoroughly. Roll the resulting mixture into tablespoon-sized balls and place them on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Pop them into the fridge to solidify.
3. Using a double-boiler (or following step 3's melting method for the peppermint bark), melt the chocolate. Dip the chilled oreo balls into the chocolate, coating them entirely. Use a fork to scoop the chocolate-covered truffle out of the chocolate and sift off any extra chocolate. Return to the cookie sheet and make sure there's no holes in the chocolate. Use a little extra to cover any up.
4. Once all the truffles are covered in chocolate, crush the remaining oreos you set aside earlier and sprinkle them on top of the truffles. Let the truffles chill in the fridge until the chocolate has hardened.
5. Enjoy, and prepare to have the recipe ready for everyone who will undoubtedly ask for it!

This year, wanting to add a new recipe to my repertoir, I scanned my Pinterest "Edible Gifts" page and settled on these. I got these for Christmas at a secret santa exchange last year and LOVED them. When I stopped by a store, most of the ingredients were on sale, so it made the choice even easier. I did change the recipe up a bit by using peanut butter M&Ms instead of regulars and Window Pretzels (I don't know what the preper term for these are, they're the square ones that look like 9-pane windows), and I definitely like the change! You can make as many or as few as you want, but I've shared the sizes per bag that I found while making these, so buy as many bags of each ingredient as you need to make as many as you want. Warning: these are so poppable and delicious, you will be tempted eat them all instead of giving them to anyone.

Pretzel Kisses
Recipe inspired by Megster Meter.

Hershey Kisses (~50 per bag)
Peanut Butter M&Ms (~100 per bag)
Window Pretzels (A LOT PER BAG!!)

1. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.
2. Lay out a bunch of pretzels on a baking sheet. Unwrap the Kisses and place each one on a pretzel. Put them in the oven for three minutes.
3. Push a single M&M down on the top of each Kiss. Let cool and enjoy.