Marshmallow Snowmen

I'll admit right from the start that this was not an internet find (although I'm willing to bet that if you searched "Marshmallow Snowmen" on Pinterest you'd get about a million hits). I heard someone on a TV show describe these and I thought - yeah, that sounds cute AND easy enough to actually make!

These are pretty self explanatory - some small bamboo skewers, marshmallows, an icing pen (or 2) for the faces, and a rolo chocolate bar. The description I copied these from used a chocolate button with a round rolo melted on top for the hat, but I could only find a block of rolo so I decided to skip the chocolate button part and it worked out quite well and a whole step easier!

Well, that's it for my Christmas baking this year - except for another batch of peppermint bark to add to a few presents (and some for me because it's delicious!)

Peppermint Bark

Chocolate bark is another one of those baking items that shouts Christmas to me, so when I saw this one topped with candy canes I knew I'd be making it this year. It's like Christmas topped with more Christmas!

The recipe that I originally pinned (and linked to above) was actually taken from here. Both recipes are the same and both are in imperial measurements - hrumpf! 

To save you the hassle of converting imperial to metric, a 6 oz packet of chocolate chips/buttons measures approx 1 cup (or 170g for those who actually have kitchen scales). I like this kind of recipe because exact measurements aren't required for any sort of chemical reaction, and I'm more into cooking with approximates as opposed to measuring things properly! So if you want to give it a go you'll need 2 cups of white chocolate melts, 1 cup of milk chocolate melts, a bit of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil cause that's what's in my cupboard), and some crushed up candy canes. :)

Both recipes stated that you need 1/3 crushed candy cane pieces, which confused me a little as to how much that actually meant - but I figured it would take about 1/3 of a cup to cover the top, so that's what I went with (3 to 4 regular sized canes = about 1/3 cup).

Making bark is generally as easy as melting chocolate, and this one was no different - the hardest part was crushing the candy canes into little pieces without them all turning into powder. So easy, so pretty, and so yummy!

*Note: I actually I ended up doubling the recipe at the last minute because I was worried that it wouldn't make quite enough for the party as well as extra left-overs for me!!!

I also thought that if there was a lot extra it would make a nice addition to the kid's teachers end of year/Christmas presents. So if you want to make as much as is in my photos, you'll need double what's written above.

A double batch of this recipe made this much...
The pieces not in the container became un-layered while I was cutting them -
I'm sure they won't go to waste though!

Peanut Brittle - So simple & made in the microwave!

Peanut brittle is one of my most favourite Christmas baking treats! However, I've never been particularly successful at making it myself.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and it looked easy enough that I thought even I could manage it. It's made in a microwave after all! ;)

In theory it worked well... Corn syrup isn't a regular grocery item in NZ like it is in America, so I figured I'd just substitute it with golden syrup and it would be fine - good theory, yes? Well, in fact, yes! However, what I didn't find out until after is that golden syrup burns much quicker than corn syrup. It still turned out fine, but with a slight hint of burnt flavour. It's still edible and it still makes me happy, but next time instead of microwaving it on high for 5 minutes like the recipe states, I'll try it after 3 minutes or so.

I've still got a few more recipes to go, so until the next one...
Happy Christmas baking everyone!

ps - I've had a bit of a thought... for posts such as this, would you like me to add the actual recipe to the end, or would you prefer to link through to the original source instead?

Meringue Christmas Trees

Next weekend I'm having a few families over for a little Christmas get together. I've been scouring the internet looking for some good Christmas treats to make that are: a) easy to make, b) not filled with expensive gourmet ingredients, and c) that make me think of Christmas. I'm a bit of a planner and want to tick off as many items on my to do list as early as possible, and yesterday I started my baking.

First on the baking list were these Christmas meringues... I used my own basic meringue recipe that has never failed me and added some food colouring and peppermint essence to the last 1/4 cup of sugar (that was being added to the egg whites a spoonful at a time). I was careful not to add too much colouring because I didn't want them too green as I thought that might put the adults people off eating them. You may also notice that mine don't have pretty little stars on top - yet! I couldn't find any at the store where I do my regular grocery shopping and am going out to get some later today. I wasn't sure how well these sorts of decorations would 'bake' anyway, so my plan all along was to add them afterward with a little dot of icing.

I was quite excited to use my new Tupperware icing piping thingy, but sadly that part was very disappointing... Long story short, it's messy to fill, wastes a LOT of whatever you put in there, and doesn't hold much. And it took me a few trees to get used to it, so there are a few wonky ones! Next time I'll go back to using my cheap piping bag that came from the grocery store.

 

But I'm sure they'll go down a treat at the party - they always do. I love these because they're really light and with a hint of peppermint essence in them they're a bit Christmassy too!