Holiday Candy Bark

I don't like sweet and salty together.  I realize most people do though, so when I'm making a treat for a group that is supposed to be sweet/salty, I'll follow the instructions (begrudgingly).  This recipe can be altered for different holidays.  Since we're so close to Halloween, I took that route.  I would have preferred to use Halloween Oreos, but since I picked up the ingredients ON HALLOWEEN, I seemed to have missed that boat.  Most all of these ingredients come in holiday versions (Oreos, sprinkles, and M&Ms) so this is a quick easy treat that you can match with the season!

Oreos
M&Ms
Sprinkles
Candy corn
Pretzel sticks
Vanilla candy coating (or white chocolate)

Lay parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet.  Spread out your Oreos, pretzel sticks, m&ms, sprinkles, and candy corn down.  How much you use is up to you.  I put three Oreos in a food processor and broke about four more up into chunks by hand.  I'll probably only crush up one or two next time.

Melt vanilla candy coating.  If you use one bag of this, it's not enough, if you use two, it ends up a little thick.  Next time I'll probably do one and a half.  Once candy coating is melted, pour over the other candy on the cookie sheet.  Place in the refrigerator for half an hour or so. To break into pieces, I used a meat tenderizer, placed the pieces into bags, and tied them with ribbon! Viola!

Chai Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Butter Cream Icing

I love chai. Even if my boyfriend describes as tasting like a "Christmas ornament."  Iced vanilla chai is the most delicious thing on the planet. Seriously.  I'm currently in a cupcake mood and I figured why not combine 2 of my favorite things. Chai and butter cream!  Here's how it goes...

Cupcakes
1 cup milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
6 chai tea bags
1/3 oil (I used canola, because I had 1/3 cup left and I wanted it out of my cabinet.)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (expensive! sorry.)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Heat milk in pan. DO NOT BOIL. If you scald the milk, it will taste terrible and ruin everything for the rest of your life. Once heated, add chai tea bags, remove from heat and let sit. Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices together. Put sugar, vanilla, oil in a large bowl. After milk has set for 10 minutes, remove tea bags, and add cold milk to warm milk until you have 1 cup.  Add vinegar to milk, whisk, then let set for a few minutes.  Add milk to wet ingredients and whisk. Add dry ingredients and stir until you only have small lumps left.  Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake 15-20 minutes. Set on cooling rack.

Vanilla Bean Butter Cream Icing

2 cups Crisco
2 lb bag powdered sugar (no, really, 2 lbs)
2 egg whites
1 Tbsp Meringue Powder (JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby)
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp Butryvan flavoring (order online? If you have trouble finding this, butter and vanilla extract will work)
3 pinches of salt
1 vanilla bean

Start with Crisco and 1 cup powdered sugar in your beautiful orange Kitchenaid mixer.  Or whatever you have. Mix. Add egg whites and Meringue Powder.  Mix for a few minutes. Add milk.  Mix. Add more powdered sugar, flavoring, and salt, and vanilla bean powder.  Keep adding powdered sugar. Add milk if it gets too thick, but it will take the whole bag of powdered sugar to get it sweet enough.

This might be my new favorite! Enjoy!

Jim Beam Peaches

I don't have a better name for this because I just made it up, but I think Jim Beam Peaches sums it up.  I think it's still a bit early for peaches (actually, I have no clue, I just overheard someone say that at the Farmer's Market today, so I've repeated  it a few times so I sound knowledgeable about this kind of thing), but nonetheless, a nice gentleman had a table full of them at the Farmer's Market this mornings.  I love peaches, so I bought a basket and added them to my Thirty-One Fresh Market Thermal with my blueberries. (Shameless plug? No, not at all. But if you want a Thirty-One Fresh Market Thermal, feel free to visit www.mythirtyone.com/JessicaDeckard)

For Jim Beam Peaches you will need: Unsalted butter, Jim Beam, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean if you've got one!) and peaches.  You will probably want some sort of dairy (I poured a little bit of unsweeted almond milk on mine, mainly because I try not to keep ice cream in the house, but ice cream would work great!)  I also drizzled some honey on top.  To start, slice up a few peaches, depending on how many you are serving. Put butter, Beam, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar in a sauce pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Now, the problem here is I have no measurements for you.  I just made it up.  I'd say about 2 Tbs butter, a little less then 1/4 cup Beam, 2 Tbs brown sugar, 1/8 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg should do it. .

Saute peaches for about 5 minutes.  Pour peaches and sauce over ice cream.  Or pour almond milk over peaches.  Your choice.  Drizzle with honey and you're done!

UPDATE: I made this again. Forget what I said about using vanilla extract. Use a vanilla bean. It's more expensive but so, so worth it. I put it over ice cream this time.  Lastly, my boyfriend changed the name to "Drunk Peaches."  I think that covers all the changes.

Christmas Candy!

I get carried away with chocolate.  This comes with years and years of working at a restaurant that sold candy decorating supplies...candy thermometers, chocolate molds, chocolate every color of the rainbow, coconut flakes, paramount crystals, and probably 40 different flavors of flavored oil.  I usually plan on one or two chocolate projects, and end up with 10.  The three easiest are peppermint bark, oreo balls, and thin mints. I made all three for a recent potluck.

1.) The peppermint bark is the easiest.  In theory.  I say 'in theory' because making it consists of melting white chocolate and adding red and green peppermint crunch to it.  Finding the peppermint crunch, however, can be difficult.  I have mine mailed to me from Pea-fections each year because I can't find it anywhere else.  I'm certain there are similar substitutes, but I love this kind the best.  Amazon has it here. Once the ingredients are combined, pour it out onto a piece of wax paper and let it dry. Break into pieces and voila, peppermint bark!

2) Oreo balls.  Also very easy to make, and easier to find the ingredients.  Crunch up one bag of Oreos.  I used double stuffed, mainly because the filling is the best part, right?!  Now, by crunch, I mean reeeaally crunch.  I use my Magic Bullet for this.  A food process would work too.  I tried to use a rolling pin (in my house this is an empty wine bottle) and a gallon sized ziplock bag.  This was a disaster for a number of reasons including 1) the pieces didn't get small enough and 2) they stuck to the bag because of the cream filling. Disaster.  Anyway, once they are all crunched up into the consistency of dirt (appetizing, no?) then add a bar of cream cheese and smoosh it all together.  Roll into balls just bigger than a marble, set on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and freeze for half an hour.  Meanwhile, melt some milk chocolate.  A double broiler is best.  If you don't own one, you can use a microwave.  Just put it in for a minute, take it out, and stir.  Then 30 seconds. Stir. And repeat in 30 second increments.  You do not want to overheat the chocolate.  If it's too thick use some paramount crystals to thin it.  Do NOT use water or milk.  It will cause the chocolate to seize up, basically it becomes the consistency of a brownie and it's ruined. If you didn't plan ahead and buy paramount crystals you can use a few DROPS of oil. Preferably one without a lot of flavor (I use canola.)  Dip half frozen oreo balls into the chocolate with a toothpick. Set on wax paper to dry. If you want a white chocolate drizzle, melt chocolate the same way, and put it in a ziplock back.  Cut the teeny tiniest whole in the corner and drizzle.

3) Last are the thin mints.  Melt dark chocolate and when completely melted, add a few drops of peppermint oil.  Creme de menthe oil also works fabulously, but it's harder to find.  Once this is complete, dip Ritz crackers into the chocolate and set on wax paper to dry.

I like making this combination together because it uses white, milk, and dark chocolate. The thin mints are usually a favorite.  I don't usually do a drizzle on them like I did in the photo above, but I've already admitted I got carried away.  Good luck with your candy making and Merry Christmas!