White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn with a Dark Chocolate Drizzle

The book club I belong to had their Christmas social after Christmas so I tried a couple new recipes with my leftover Christmas ingredients.  This was particularly tasty, I thought.

Source: SkipToMyLou AND OurBestBites

Ingredients:

2 c white chocolate
1 c crushed candy canes (about 12 candy canes)
20 c popped popcorn (about 1/2 c popcorn kernels -add a touch of salt after popped if air popping)
3/4 c semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Pop your popcorn and add a touch of salt after popped (if it's not already salted).

Crush your candy canes (food processor, mallet, whatever).

Melt your white chocolate then mix with 1/2 of the crushed candy canes.  Toss with popcorn and lay out the popcorn flat on parchment paper.  Sprinkle rest of candy canes over top. 

Allow coating to harden then drizzle the popcorn with the melted dark chocolate.  Let that harden.  Then break up, put in a bowl and enjoy!

Nutella Truffles

Awesome, easy, impressive recipe.  I will be making these every Christmas.  Roll them in whatever you want; I used toasted, chopped hazelnuts, toasted coconut and cocoa.

Source: http://www.roxanashomebaking.com/nutella-truffles-recipe/

Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, in chunks
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)
1/3 cup chopped, toasted hazelnuts
1/3 cup nutella
things to roll them in

Directions:

Heat the heavy cream over medium heat in a pot until almost boiling.  Pour over chocolate chips and butter in a bowl (I actually had to add the chocolate chips and butter to the pot of cream to get it to melt because my kitchen was too cold, the cream didn't stay hot enough to melt the chocolate in the cold bowl.  Turn the heat and just keep the pot on the element if you do it this way- whisk continuously till smooth).  Once chocolate is melted and incorporated, add nutella and nuts.  Mix well.  Cover bowl and put in fridge for at least 2 hours.  Once hardened, take tsp pieces of ganache (chocolate mixture) and roll into balls and toss in toppings (I used coconut, nuts and cocoa).  Place in air tight container.  If you find they get too soft, put in fridge for a while.  Serve at room temperature.

Puff Pastry Appetizers

Everyone loves a puff pastry bite- they are the hit of every party.  Now it's really easy to go buy premade puff pastry appetizers but it's also really easy to make them yourself and then you get to customize them.  The two recipes I'm providing are for spinach feta puffs and jalapeno popper bites but you stuff just about anything into these guys.  You find puff pastry in the freezer section of the grocery store.  You let it thaw out- but keep it cold.  Then with some flour you roll it out and cut squares, fill them and fold them over.  They often bake at 400 degrees for 12-20 minutes (depending on size)- until golden brown.

Spinach Feta Puffs

1 box of frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
2 eggs
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
juice of 1/2 a lemon
sprinkle of salt


Jalapeno Popper Bites

1 package (8oz) light cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup finely shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese blend
1 bulb roasted garlic
1 c bacon, cooked and diced/crumbled
6 medium jalapeno peppers, diced and sauted (this is for mild/medium heat, adjust for your desired spiciness)
sprinkle of salt

For both kinds, use an egg wash to help you stick the edges together to close up the puffs in whatever shapes you want, and brush the tops as well.  Parchment lined baking sheet.  400 degrees. 12-20 minutes- start watching after 12 minutes and take them out with they are nice and puffy and golden brown.

Homemade Turtles (done in half an hour)

Source: http://www.piarecipes.com/2012/12/pecan-salted-caramel-candies.html

This is a great fake out recipe.  It's technically homemade but it uses all the short cuts so there's minimal effort but your friends and family have no idea.

Note: You can use chopped pecans like I did or you can line up whole pecan bunches instead. I would use 3 pecans per bunch.

Note: Recipe can easily be scaled up or down.  Just do as many as you want. It's a formula more than a recipe.

Ingredients (for 25 pecans):

75 pecans chopped or whole
25 wrapped caramels (or a block of caramel that you've cut into 25 pieces)
25-50 dark chocolate wafers (those little disks great for melting- mine were so thin so I used 2 per turtle)
coarse sea salt (optional) for garnish

Directions:

Unwrap caramels.  Chop pecans and bunch them into piles (or make piles of 3 whole pecans side by side).   I used my silicone baking mats on a baking sheet for these.  They popped off really easily.  If you don't have silicone, use parchment paper or gently grease your sheet.

Squish the caramels into flatter disks (I just pushed down with my hand on the caramel on a cutting board.) Put a squished caramel on each pile of pecans.  Pop in 325 oven for a few minutes.  Pull out and place 1-2 chocolate disks on each caramel.  Sprinkle with salt if desired.  Wait till cooled, then remove and enjoy. 

Gingerbread Muffins

My house smelled of Christmas yesterday as these baked in the oven.  Husband and I may have even been at the sink licking the batter off the spoon.  These were delicious- my two year old loved them, too.  The glaze is nice for a little treat but if you want to keep the extra sugar out, by all mean, they are super yummy on their own as well.

Source: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2012/12/11/gingerbread-muffins-with-sweet-lemon-glaze/

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup plain or vanilla or honey yogurt
1/4 cup milk (I used almond)

Glaze:

1/2 cup icing sugar
1-2 lemons juiced (depending on the juiciness of your lemons and how lemony you like it)
splash of milk/cream if you need to thin it out
(the picture on the source site shows a dark almost icing glaze, mine was see through- less sugar I guess)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450.

Mix together dry ingredients.

Whisk together brown sugar, egg, yogurt and milk in a separate bowl.

In another bowl, microwave molasses and butter together for 1-2 minutes.  Whisk together well. Then add brown sugar/yogurt mixture to molasses mixture and mix well.

Add wet to dry and mix till just combined.  Pour in greased muffin tins and bake at 450 for 5 mins then turn oven down (keep muffins in) to 375 and bake for 15 mins.

Allow to cool before glazing (if you choose to glaze).

Bits and Bites

Homemade bits and bites mix my mom always makes at Christmas time.  It will give you bad breath though.

3 cups shreddies
2 cups cheerios
1 1/2 cups pretzel sticks
1 1/2 cups cheese nibs/bits or fishies or something similar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp onion salt
3/4 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp hot sauce
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne (if you don't like spicy then omit or reduce)

Combine cereal, pretzels and cheese nibs.  Melt butter, add rest of spices and seasonings and mix well.  Pour over dry ingredients and mix to coat.  Lay out on a cookie sheet and bake at 275 degrees for 25 minutes, stirring once half way through.  Let cool completely and enjoy.