Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee Bars

A terrible thing has happened.

My husband finally realized that Revenge is {basically} a soap opera and doesn't want to watch it with me anymore.

For some reason he thinks Emily is cray-cray?

I know.  I don't get it either.  Assuming someone else's name, monitoring all your neighbors via hidden cameras in their houses, and plotting ways to destroy their lives is totally normal.


I knew this day was inevitable.  I mean, I nearly swallowed my tongue when he agreed to watch the first season with me.  

But I'm still going to go eat my feelings. 

Probably with these peanut butter toffee bars.

Wanna join me?

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Chocolate Caramel Truffles

I can't say the word "truffle" without silently adding "shuffle" onto the end. 

Chocolate caramel... truffle {shuffles}.

(A truffle shuffle, of course, being when one holds on to, and proceeds to shake, their stomach.)

If you have no idea what I'm talking about you should probably watch Goonies immediately.

This compulsive habit sometimes gets awkward when it becomes necessary to say "truffle" in public.  One more reason I try to avoid social situations. 

PS- These truffle {shuffles} are great for Valentine's Day.

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Snowball Pecan Cookies {Mexican Wedding Cookies}

I think this is it!  The last Christmas recipe.  Well, there may be a few more, but they are recipes that are appropriate year-round so they don't really count, right? 

I love Mexican wedding cookies.  Or Russian teacakes.  Or whatever their Italian name is.  The point is that they're crumbly, and sweet, and nutty, and I always figured they were hard to make. 

Turns out they're super simple and are so much better homemade.  These are easily the best Snowballs/Mexican wedding cookies/Russian teacakes/Italian wedding cookies I've ever had.

(If these cookies had a personality it's pretty obvious they would be Schitzophrenic.)

My only complain is fingerprints get left in their pretty white powder pretty easily.  I solve this problem by eating all the ones with unsightly prints.

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Peppermint Herringbone Brownies

Winter is the time of year I get incredibly frustrated with blogging and usually disappear for awhile.  It's ten degrees outside.  There's no light.  All of my pictures come out dark and grainy.  And it's really annoying to work hard on something and have the pictures not do them justice.

Apparently I need to start my Christmas baking in August or something and take all my pictures then. Although personally I'd prefer to take the easy way out and move somewhere habitable.

Forgive me for the terrible picture, but just know that these herringbone brownies are gorgeous in real life.  Gor. Geous.

Also delicious.  

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Pink Peppermint Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches

These little peppermint Oreo ice cream sandwiches were my favorite new creation of the Christmas season.  They are SO good. 

Chocolatey.  Pepperminty.  Cool, creamy, and delicious.  

Plus they're bite-sized little babies, so obviously they're low-cal...

Right?

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Peppermint Pretzel Candy Bark

Last year I found some really cute Reindeer candy corn bark over at Your Homebased Mom.  I decided to do a peppermint version since I already had white chocolate peppermint M&M's, peppermint marshmallows, and Peppermint Jojo's from Trader Joes.

Literally as I'm making my version I noticed a picture on her sidebar...

SERIOUSLY??


Right down to the Jojo's.

It's hilarious how people share brainwaves sometimes.

This bark was so yummy.  The pretzels really make it unique and keep it from being too crazy sweet.  Also, its super easy so it's a great thing to whip up last minute when you remember people you haven't given Christmas treats to yet...

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Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

It feels odd to post all these Christmas treats in January, but I decided it made no sense to save them until next year.  (By which time I probably would have lost the pictures or accidentally deleted the posts.)  This last December was CRAZY for us.  I think I was sick 21 of the 31 days of the month, and amidst Christmas preparations, going on vacation, and baking up treats for our friends, I literally had no time to get these recipes posted.  I hope you don't mind me going back into Christmas mode for awhile, but I promise Valentine's treats are coming soon!  

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  Thanks for sharing some of your time with me this year!

These dark chocolate cupcakes are filled with peppermint whipped cream and topped with peppermint marshmallow buttercream, and peppermint candy pieces.

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Terry's Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Early last month I developed a cookie recipe based on my favorite Christmas treat, Terry's chocolate oranges.  Right before Christmas I decided a cupcake version needed to happen as well.

These were scrumptious & had the perfect combination of chocolate and orange.

Nom. Nom.

Now i really want a chocolate orange.

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Chocolate-dipped Toffee Pretzels

These are one of my favorite treats to make at Christmas time.  You can drizzle them with red, white, and green candy melts, or top them with anything from toffee bits to crushed Oreo.  

Delish!

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White Chocolate Peppermint Oreos

The knife block set we got for our wedding conveniently came with a whacker.  You know, one of those long rods that you use to whack things like candy canes or Oreos to crush them?

Okay, so it turns out the "whacker" is actually a knife sharpener.  Yes, I just figured that out today.

Who knew?

Everyone needs a good whacker in their knife set.  Otherwise you couldn't make these babies.

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Chewy Hot Fudge Sauce {& Peppermint Hot Fudge}

I've read that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

In actuality, I think the definition of insanity is realizing you're brushing your teeth in the stainless steel kitchen sink and you have no idea how you got there or why you're even brushing your teeth.

Apparently, the holidays are quite literally making me crazy. 

This obviously has nothing to do with fudge sauce, except maybe chocolate is a good cure for the crazies?


This sauce turns chewy on cold ice cream so it is "hot fudge" in the traditional sense of the word.  None of this chocolate syrup nonsense. I literally tried 5 recipes last month looking for the homemade hot fudge to share with you.  This is it!  Just in time to gift to neighbors for the holidays.

For an extra special treat, try the peppermint version.

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Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies

Who is Terry and how did she invent the magical deliciousness that is a chocolate orange?

I know some families always get an orange in the toe of their stocking, but I always get a Terry's chocolate orange.  Santa's definitely got my number.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without that chocolate orange.  So I figured why not chop up a chocolate orange and throw it in a dark chocolate cookie for a Christmas treat this year?

Turns out, it's a delicious idea.


These chocolate cookies are really good but are more of a crisp cookie.   If you like chewy chocolate cookies, you can use a different recipe and just chop up a chocolate orange and substitute it for the chocolate chips in the recipe.

These are magical, magical Christmas cookies.

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Candy Caribou {Winter Reindeer}

I promise this is the last random-themed treat for awhile.   Promise!

We made these edible caribou (reindeer) for our Arctic unit.  I figured they can totally double as a Christmas treat.  The rough idea for these came from Spoonful, but I changed up some of the candies because circus peanuts are gross because we wanted to personalize ours with faces.  I used the frosted Little Debbie "Nutty Bars" and they were a bit messy, so use non-frosted plain chocolate wafers if you can find them.  These can be adult-intensive but would be a fun Christmas Eve day activity for older children.  (Younger kids can always just glue random cookies and candies together.  That's always a hit.)

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Christmas Eve Chocolate Cherry Mice

Is it weird that mice remind me of Christmas?  I think it has something to do with going to the Nutcracker every December with my dad.  In case you didn't know, I was basically destined to be a professional ballerina.  Unfortunately my sense of rhythm didn't get the memo or something. 

At any rate, our kids loved these and I think we will be making them every Christmas eve from now on. They are best fresh so I recommend making them day-of.

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Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

I'm trying sooo hard to get caught up on Christmas recipes before Valentine's day rolls around.  It's a little bit hard when your kid is STILL out of school.  Whose idea was THAT?  I mean he only goes to preschool for 4 hours a week but it's sure killing me to have two toddlers home alldayeveryday.  Is this how it feels when your kids are off for summer vacation?  Seriously.  Somebody needs to invent a daycare "holiday camp" where you can send kids when they're off-school and they're supposed to be on "vacation".  And since it would be called "holiday camp" no one would be like: "Wow, you're a lazy butt mom because you don't want your kids home 24/7 to spend quality time with you".  Instead they'd be like: "Awww.  You're so nice to let them do that, I bet your kids love it!"   And secretly you'd be nodding inside thinking about how you're going to be able to vacuum in peace without anybody using the cord as a lasso or chasing after you with the sucker piece while you scream that dead spiders live in there.

It could be a moneymaker!

For best results, this dough should rest in your fridge overnight, so keep that in mind before you make it. The dough can be made up to 4 days in advance. Also- you can omit the peppermint extract if you'd like to make the plain chocolate version of these.

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Chocolate-Dipped Candycanes (Stirring sticks!)

When I was in high school my friend and I used to pay visits to places like the firestation.  Sometimes we would take cookies and sometimes we would take a paper and a pen on assignment for a non-existent "school project" where we had to ask questions like, "Do you have a dalmation?"  Mostly we were there for the eye candy and the potential of getting to use the firepole. 

Now that I am old and married and entirely uninterested in firemen or feigning school projects but still a little interested in firepoles, I am more aware and thankful for the sacrifice of public works figures like these. And I feel like at Christmastime all these people should get SOMETHING.

These candy canes are fantastic for that because they're cheap. (A box of 12 candy canes is like 98 cents and everyone knows that chocolate isn't actually bought, but magically appears in your pantry.) Also they are super cute.  So that is why I love to give these as gifts. 

And the potential of someday getting an offer to slide down the firepole.

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Christmas Kiss Cookies

It's great when your kids give you permission to do things.  Like, "Hey mom, sleep in today, while I do the dishes and wash my own underwear."

Just kidding.  That's never happened.

But my two year old does tell me all the time to "shop it".

I am always happy enough to oblige with that request.  And fortunately Amazon has my checking account # saved, so I don't even have to pile everyone in the car to keep him happy!


UN- fortunately, my husband is convinced he's saying "stop it".


Silly husband.   I'm fairly certain it makes much more sense for my two year old to want me to buy things.


At any rate, you can have my permission to eat all of these chewy chocolatey surprise filled cookies.

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Christmas Caramels (and some of them might be chocolate-dipped)

I have so many posts for you it's ridiculous.  Also I have lots of stories for you about how mean people can be at Christmastime, but in the spirit of a Grinch-less Christmas, I will refrain... for today.

I have been making these caramels for years  (read: like 4 years).  I took some to my good friend the other day and this is the message she sent me- "HANDS DOWN THE BEST HOMEMADE CARAMELS I have ever had!" 

Take her word for it.  Her name is Katie.  You can trust her.

If you have never made caramels before I will just tell you, it's going to take you 30-45 minutes of non-stop stirring to make these.  Don't do this when you have little kids underfoot, phone calls coming in, or cat sweaters to knit.  Oh, you don't knit your cat sweaters for Christmas? Mmm, yeah, me neither...

I like to do it at night when the kids are in bed and my husband is home in case my arm needs a break. Also, you are going to need a candy thermometer.  Be sure to calibrate it before beginning or it's pretty much pointless to use in the first place. (I usually do the ice point and boiling method, just for kicks, but either one is fine.)

The only time this recipe has failed for me, is when I decided not to use a thermometer.  Duhhhhh. My candy thermometer is WAYYY off, so I usually stick it in to give me a ballpark, but poke in my digital "insta-read" meat thermometer every 5 minutes or so near the end until I reach the exact required degree.  Don't be intimidated by the use of the thermometer, this recipe is really not difficult, and also you can count the non-stop stirring as a bicep workout for the day.  BONUS!

Be sure to read through the recipe completely before you start because you won't have any hands free once you begin (and you might needa do a little math... but I am Math Ditz of the world, so if I can do it, you can do it!)

Also people will think you are Supreme Caramel Maker of the World when you feed them these, so feel free to embrace the title.

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Chocolate-Dipped Clementines

You thought I was kidding when I said we were going to dip everything in chocolate this week, didn't you? Mmmmm, nope, pretty much not kidding at all.

The smell of clementines will always remind me of Christmas.  Growing up in Europe, we spent almost every Christmas in a different country.  I will have to dig up the picture of me riding a bobsled down the Olympic track in Norway so you guys can see my big dorky owl glasses and huge sweater.  I told you I was super cool.  The one thing that was pretty much always consistent was clementines. No matter where we were, we had clementines.

Also, when we moved back to the US, one Christmas my sister and I polished off an entire bag of oranges in one sitting.  (Not clementines my friends... Oranges... Probably like 10 pounds worth.  I'm pretty sure I must've had a vitamin deficiency at that point, because who does that?) 

So anyways, I think these dipped-clementines are not only super Christmasy, but also classy and delicious.  I highly recommend these for Christmas Eve festivities.


PS- If you love clementines, I wonder if you've made this soda yet?  Delish!

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Chocolate-Dipped Gingerbread Men

Because everything should be dipped in chocolate at least once.   

Happy Christmas!!

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