Candy Apples

For some reason I've become slightly obsessed with candy apples. Maybe it's the fact that I've been watching season one of Once Upon A Time (the evil witch apples thing) or maybe a Pinterest image got stuck in my subconscious. Most likely it's a combination of the two. A quick search on Pinterest turned into a long look at pretty candy apple images and then there was no way I was getting over this obsession without making some of my own...

I've always been partial to caramel apples over the red candy ones, so I decided to go with caramel and chocolate. And the Little Miss hates anything caramel flavour, so I did some with chocolate only. I used the recipe from this blog and prepared my apples and toppings as per their suggestions.

It turns out that my caramel coating skills are pretty atrocious. The caramel started to harden so quick that it was tricky to get the toppings to stick, but then it didn't harden enough, so it all slid down the apple and turned into a sticky apple sitting in a pool of caramel. Adding a coating of chocolate helped with this though.
 
I found that my melted chocolate was a bit too thick for dipping the apples in, so I painted the chocolate on with the back of my spoon. This actually worked really well and it gave me more control, which I like. And as far as rolling the apples in the toppings... I put the toppings in wide shallow bowls, as my research suggested, but found that the caramel/chocolate was coming off onto the toppings and the toppings weren't sticking to the apples very well. I ended up pouring on the little toppings (like sprinkles & little candy hearts) and placing/pushing on the others on with my fingers which worked much better.

The Little Miss is going to a princess birthday party tomorrow, and I know that the birthday girl is a fan of Snow White, so I thought this red ribbon apple would go nicely on the top of her present.

Over all I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, although I think I'll just stick with chocolate ones next time. I'm thinking these would be a hit next time I need to provide baking for a fundraising event.

Jello Gummy Snacks

I am so excited about this one... Both of my kids LOVE packaged gummy 'fruit' (I use this term very lightly) snacks, so when I found this Homemade Jello Fruit Snacks Recipe on Pinterest I just had to try it! But to be honest, I'm probably most excited to be using my new Lego minifig mold that arrived in the post today...

The Lego mold is pretty little, so I got to up my awesome by cracking out my Star Wars molds as well!

The recipe is super simple, and once again the most difficult part was converting those cursed imperial measurements!!!!! To save you from the frustration, here is the recipe with no ounces in sight!

Ingredients:

• 1 regular sized box of any flavoured jelly (for those of you with access to actual Jell-O, it's the smaller of the 2 sizes you can buy)
• 4 1/2 tsp of un-flavoured gelatin (if you have gelatin that comes in individual envelopes, you will need to use 2 envelopes)
• 1/3 cup of water *or you can use 1/3 cup of juice instead of water if you prefer

Directions:

• Pour the water in a small saucepan and place over medium heat
• Sprinkle both the flavoured & unflavoured gelatin over the water and stir while over medium heat until all of the gelatin is dissolved
• Remove from heat & pour into molds

The little gummies turned out really well. They came out of the molds fairly well, but I would recommend using silicone ones that you can bend to help them out. The gummies end up a little on the sticky side, so I dusted the back of them with a little cornstarch so that they wouldn't stick to the container (or the other gummies) that I placed them on top of.

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!

Ice Cube Snack Trays

It's not rocket science to serve a variety of little snacks in an ice cube tray, but I did think this was a clever idea to make snack time a little more fun and interesting. My kids, especially the little guy, are pretty picky eaters so the first time I used this way of presenting their food I sneaked in something new - and it worked! The little miss ate everything and then asked for a refill of a few things and the little guy ate everything except his apples (but this is probably because there was no tomato sauce to dip them in - weird, I know).

I've seen this idea done multiple times throughout the internet, but this is the one I originally pinned. In fact I have pinned quite a few ideas from this blog (and the photos are beautiful!)

I don't make the kids snack like this everyday, but they always light up when I do (especially if I sneak a marshmallow or two in there). They're nice & portable, so today we took them outside to eat in the beautiful warm sunshine!

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

I have to start off this post with a confession. I didn't actually make this one myself... I showed my husband the link and he did the making, but I was the one who found the recipe. OK, so I didn't actually find this myself either, I re-pinned it from a friend but it was way too good not to share!

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Note: this photo was a bit of an afterthought... it was taken after we had already shared the bars with visitors we had earlier in the day. The recipe makes a lot more than what is shown here!

I'm from Canada and the first time I took my husband back 'home' with me he discovered the world of Reeses peanut butter & chocolate products. You can get peanut butter & chocolate combinations over here in NZ (in fact you can actually get the original Reeses peanut butter cups if you know where to go) but the husband still insists the mini Reeses peanut butter cups from Canada are the best.

There are all sorts of recipes and products out there that combine chocolate and peanut butter, but until I took my first bite of one of these bars I never thought anything could compare to those Reeses peanut butter cups... I've never been able to put my finger on what all of the other recipes were getting wrong, but this one gets it all right! These bars are pretty intense, so you probably want to cut them into small pieces – and the recipe makes a huge amount, so in theory they should last for ages. But beware, they're so delicious & more-ish that you'll find yourself picking one up every time you go past them, and since they're so rich so you end up feeling it later!

We've only made this the one time so far, but we have had to instill a new rule because of their allure... These are only allowed to be made at our house if they are being taken somewhere else to share, otherwise I fear mine & my husband's waistlines will expand at an alarming rate!