Peppermint Almond Bark

This is a simple twist that is extremely easy.  Despite the name, no almond bark is used, rather, white chocolate chips are the best for this recipe.  This is another recipe my family makes around the holidays.

All you need is a bag of white chocolate chips and a bag of peppermint hard candy.

First you need to crush the peppermints, it's best to wrap them in something for this part so the pieces don't go all over the place.  In the pictures they were put into aluminum foil because that's what was on hand.  A plastic zip-lock bag or wax paper could also be used.  Crush them how you will, my family uses to a roller to hit and roll over the candies.  You won't be able to crush every single piece, but that's okay because you don't need to.  Just sort out the larger pieces so they don't dominate the candy.

Next, melt the chocolate chips.  This can be done multiple ways, but it's easiest to use the microwave.  Microwave the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl in thirty second increments, stirring between each until the chocolate is smooth.

While the chips are in the microwave, lay out wax paper about the size of a baking sheet.  When the chocolate is smooth, add in the crushed candies.  Stir until they are completely mixed in, then pour the chips onto the wax.  Allow the peppermint candy to set until hard, this usually takes about two to three hours, but can vary.  After it has hardened, break it into pieces, and enjoy!

Hopefully you enjoy this recipe!!

Peanut Butter Balls

If you like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, then you'll like these Peanut Butter Balls.  It's a spherical shaped peanut butter cup that is richer in taste and easy to make at home.  My family makes these around the Holidays, we like to have a steady supply of sugar on hand.

Ingredients

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup chunky peanut butter

2 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Chocolate Almond Bark (usually 1/2 a package)

Instructions

1. Cream together the melted butter, peanut butter, and powdered sugar until smooth.

2. Form the mixture into small balls and set on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  They should be about an inch across.

3. Chill for about an hour.

4. Melt the almond bark.  We use a double boiler so the chocolate remains melted throughout the preparation.  You can also melt the almond bark in the microwave if you'd like to shorten the preparation time of this recipe.

5. Dip the chilled peanut butter balls into the chocolate, and set on wax paper to set.

In this picture, the duller peanut butter balls are ones that have been sitting out longer, and have therefore had time to cool.  That is what they should look like when done.

Also, my family will use Rice Krispies in the peanut butter mixture to give the recipe an added crunch.  If you'd like to do the same, it only takes about a cup of cereal to achieve the intended effect.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!!

Homemade Caramelly, Chocolaty, Coconutty Goodness. AKA Homemade Samoas.

Girl Scout cookies, whatever your preferences, are delicious.  They're a necessary supply in pantries throughout the US.  Unfortunately they're only available to order for a very short time.  My personal favorites are the caramelly, chocolaty, coconutty goodness that are Samoas.  Pinterest graced me with this recipe, and I'm sure you could find other homemade recipes for all your Girl Scout cravings.

I will put the ingredients for the cookie dough here, but I will add a link to the actual recipe and the how-to here, this part of the blog post-pair is going to have the recipe customized to Homemade Girl Scout Samoas.

Ingredients

Cookie Dough:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel Coconut Topping:

3 cups shredded sweetened coconut

15 ounces soft caramels

3 Tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces dark chocolate

Instructions:

Cookies:

Follow the linked recipe.  When you roll the dough out cut it using a two-inch cutter, then cut out the centers using a one-inch cutter.

Bake the cookies for ten minutes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, rotating them half of the way through.  Set the finished cookies on a wire rack to cool.

Coconut Topping:

Distribute the coconut evenly onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake the coconut until toasted and is a golden brown, ten minutes maximum.  Flip and stir the coconut frequently to avoid burning, typically every two minutes.

Melt the caramels in a double boiler, then add the milk and salt.  You can also microwave the caramels, its much faster and works just as well.  When you add the milk it's going to seem very runny, but add the salt and it gets a lot better.

The next part is where I forged my own way, kind of.  The original recipe said to add the caramel to the coconut then put it on top of the cookies, but I put caramel on top of the cookies first then added the leftover caramel to the coconut.

Put the caramel-covered coconut onto the cookies, this is an extremely messy part.  I couldn't find any other way to do it other than use my hands, it stuck to the spoon, a knife isn't exact enough, just endure the mess and use your fingers.  I was unable to cover all the cookies with coconut, although that was probably due to the amount of coconut I put on each cookie initially.

Allow the cookies to cool for at least a half hour, I left them overnight because it was 10:30 by the time I finished this part and I had other things to do.

Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler, or, again, the microwave.  Dip the bottoms of the cookies in the chocolate (use a knife to wipe excess chocolate off), and place the cookies onto wax paper to allow the chocolate to set.  To apply the chocolate stripes I put melted chocolate into a cake decorator and squeezed it out as I went.  This is the same technique I used on the Langues de Chat.

Allow the chocolate to harden fully then enjoy!  If you need to quicken this process then the cookies can go in the refrigerator.

Tips:

~ When melting the caramel, melt all of the caramels in one bowl at the same time, then add the milk and salt when the caramel is smooth.

~ For the chocolate, chocolate chips are perfectly fine.  I recommend dark chocolate.

~ Whenever I say wax or parchment paper, I used aluminum foil.  It turned out I didn't have any wax or parchment paper at my house, so if you don't it's not the end of the world.