English Toffee

I've been trying last night and this morning to get this post up but my computer is being difficult. I think it wants to crash. I'm posting it without all the pictures because it won't load anymore for me. But, since I promised you this recipe....here it is. I'll add the rest of the pictures later when my computer decides to cooperate! Here's hoping this will finally post. OH, and I'm going to try and get some cookie recipes up this weekend from my sister. They were going to be my guest posts for the week of Christmas but then I realized that you'd probably want them as far ahead of Christmas as possible....I'll be taking a blogging break during Christmas....so I'll get those guest post up this weekend.

INSTRUCTIONS

butter a cookie sheet and set aside

melt in a sauce pan
2 1/2 sticks of butter (unsalted)
3 tbsp ice water

add 1 cup of granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
dash (small pinch) of salt
3/4 c nuts (optional- I used sliced almonds for 1 batch and left the other batch plain.)

attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan

stir continually while cooking on high heat. Keep stirring while the candy goes through stages until it reaches 300-310 (hard crack stage).

At about 240 degrees the candy gets a marshmallow texture to it.

Then it goes from a yellowish color to a brown caramel color....


When it reaches 300 it starts to pull away from the pan (sometimes the butter starts to separate but keep stirring) and it starts to look like peanut butter.

Once the temp gets between 300-310 degrees pour the mixture onto the buttered cookie sheet. Let it cool for about 1-2 minutes and then sprinkle it with chocolate chips or broken up chocolate bars.

Let the chocolate melt and then use a spatula to spread the chocolate evenly over the candy. Let the candy now cool completely (I set mine in my cold garage for an hour and it was ready to break.)




Use a metal spatula to lift the candy and break it into chunks. Store in an airtight container or package up in cellophane bags as gifts.

Caramel Apples

I interrupt this series to bring you a very unhealthy recipe. Every once in awhile we take a break from our healthy eating and enjoy indulging in something not so good for us. But, I hear that if you eat healthy the majority of the time that your body can better handle and process (digest) the not so healthy things. Hey, that works for me! So hopefully our bodies were ready to handle flushing out this toxin.

So, I actually don't like caramel apples. What? Say it isn't so. Here's the deal, usually they are made with really big green sour apples. I don't like sour apples even to contrast the sweet stuff you coat them in and I don't like huge apples where I eat all the caramel off and then there is all this sour apple left to eat. So, here's what I came up with and can I just tell you, I'm craving more and it's been two weeks. These were so good!

I started with small organic gala apples. Gala apples are a dessert apple which means they are sweet to start with (how appropriate...dessert!). We washed them and stabbed them with the sticks. We melted candy caramels that we unwrapped one piece at a time....I'm a sucker for doing things the old fashioned way...no peel and stick caramel for me. Then we melted Ghirardeli milk chocolates (I heard that Ghirardeli has no hydrogenated oils and since I didn't have my organic chocolate with me at the time- we were at my mom's house we went with Ghirardeli), Ghirardeli vanilla chips (way better than white chocolate), and peanut butter chips (I have no clue what that stuff is made of but I closed my eyes and melted it).

We spread, we dipped, we drizzled, we dipped and drizzled some more. We put them on a cookie sheet with buttered wax paper. YOU HAVE TO BUTTER IT! TRUST ME! We set them in the fridge for about an hour and then, OH MY GOSH! YUM! They were amazing. What a way to go off the healthy eating kick!

Instructions:
~The caramel was really smooth so we dipped all the apples first in the caramel using a spoon to help spoon the caramel over the apples.
~Then we put them in the fridge for about 10-15 min. to cool and harden up the caramel.
~Next layer was the peanut butter because it was the thickest. I used a knife and spread a layer of the melted peanut butter chips on them.
~The chocolates weren't so easy to dip so we took a spoon and drizzled the chocolate over the apples next. Once the peanut butter and both chocolates were on the apples we put them in the fridge. The topping got heavy and started to slip off a little so next time I think I'd refrigerate for 10 min. in between every topping.
~Once all the layers are on refrigerate for about 30 min or until ready to eat.
~If they've been the fridge for a long time let them sit out for about 15 min. before eating.

To see more pictures of our caramel apple family night visit here.

Frost on the Pumpkin

It's looking like I won't get that caramel pumpkin pie made in time to post it on here before Thanksgiving. But if it turns out well I'll post it afterwards because it would be nice for any fall day. Meantime, here's something else.

I made this recipe a few years back for Thanksgiving as a treat for the kiddos and so I wanted to share it with you. I'm afraid it isn't healthy other than the pumpkin! But it's a yummy treat that's for sure. I got this recipe from a friend, Lynn. Thanks Lynn! I still love this little dip.

1 can vanilla frosting
8 oz. sour cream
1 can pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
8 oz. Cool Whip (thawed)
Ginger Snaps

Mix all ingredients together (except Ginger Snaps of course!) and chill until ready to serve. Serve with Ginger Snaps as a dip!

When I made this I served it up in a little pumpkin just like the one pictured. The one pictured isn't this exact recipe but you get the idea.

Snowflakes

My daughter insisted that I put this recipe on my blog for her. We checked out some fairy cookbooks from the library and decided to make this recipe on our vacation this summer. Even though it was summer, she wanted to make snowflakes! She loves snow and loves winter which is the opposite of me...I love summer and heat. Now that we are headed into winter soon, I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

Directions:

Fold flour tortillas in half and then half again. Trim with scissors like you would making paper snowflakes. Open back up and lay on a cookie sheet covered with foil. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixed together. Bake till just crispy. Let cool. Lightly dust with powdered sugar.

Petit Fours

I didn't actually have a chance to make these for our last tea so these are not my own pictures lest you be deceived! =0) But these can be made extremely easy if you want to do a quick version.


The easiest version is to buy premade pound cake and cut it into squares and then glaze them and stick a premade frosting flower or leaf on them. So simple and adorable. You can tint the glaze if you want to get fancy.


But if you'd like to make them a little more complicated you can check out some of these websites and recipes below. These links below will help you with fillings as well.


A quick note about them is that just about anything goes. The history of them has to do with having something small to eat with your tea. They originated from bakeries that would decorate small cakes with the scraps of cakes and leftovers at the end of the day. They became popular and there is no end to the types and designs of them. You can be really creative with your fillings, with the shape and size, and with the decor on the outside.

Website and another website, and yet another one, and of course an easy recipe

In case you want to get really into it and make these adorable cupcake shaped ones, check out this website that my friend sent to me.... Cupcake ones (I can't wait to make some of these for the next tea party my daughter and I have!)

Puffed Pastry Tea Treats

Puff pastry is so EASY! You can buy it already made at the grocery store (can't figure out why anyone would make it from scratch unless they are incredibly bored!) and you unfold it and bake it. You can use any shape you want to cut it out. In the pictures we used a little tea pot cookie cutter but you can just as well make circles. Bake according to the package directions and then cool completely. You can make them ahead of time and store carefully in a container or ziplock.


Once you are ready to fill them. Take a serrated knife and split them open in half. Put a filling on the bottom and put the top back on. (we then sprinkled ours with powdered sugar but it's not necessary)

You can use several different fillings. In the pictures we used whipped cream and lemon curd mixed together. You could use plain whipped cream or whipped cream mixed with any pudding flavor you liked. Chocolate pudding mixed with whipped cream would make a wonderful chocolate treat. You can also mix in fresh berries into the whipped cream.

Sorry my pictures are so bad lately! I've been in such a hurry lately. I'll work better at them.

Chocolate Dipped Pineapple

I know this might sound like a strange combination but trust me on this one...if you like pineapple and you like chocolate there is a very good chance you'll like this. =0) We first had this in Hawaii at the Dole Plantation. Fresh pineapple wedges dipped in milk chocolate. "Oh ya! That's what I'm talking about!"

It helps to cut the slices thick enough that they won't fall apart....you can cut very large wedges about triple the size of mine in the picture if you want to. Then pat them dry with a paper towel to absorb some of the juice. Then quickly dip them in melted chocolate (I use Wilton Candy Melts). Place them on a piece of foil or wax paper till chocolate is dried (if your pineapple was refrigerated it will be cold enough that the chocolate will harden quickly). These don't store for very long but I find that they get gobbled up quite quickly around here!

Snow Candy

I think I read this in a Little House on the prairie book or somewhere like that. I guess this is an old fun thing to do with snow. I've done it a few times with my kids over the years. The snow we had yesterday didn't work so well. There are different "types" or maybe I should say textures of snow and some work well for this and some don't. Yesterday's snow didn't work so well but I took a picture so that you could get the idea just the same.

You take a plate of snow and pack it and then draw with your finger a design to pour pure maple syrup in and then it makes it cold and hard, making into a hard candy.

Another friend of ours likes to make their own homemade snow slushies by scooping clean snow and putting koolaid on it like you would shave ice.