Sweet & Salty 10 Minute Snack

I’m pretty jazzed about these chocolate covered pretzels and just had to show you! Also, doesn’t everything look better as an instagram?!

pretzels

These were somewhat unplanned, but I love pretzel rods and used some ebelskiver fillings I had hanging around. The red are peppermint chips, the white & brown are crunchies meant for topping ice cream, and the tan is heath bits.

I didn’t know how to coordinate dipping these so I just spread the melted chocolate on with a spatula. I rolled the chocolate pretzels into the toppings on my counter and that worked really well. The chocolate didn’t seize up and the toppings stuck really well without much wasted. Hooray!

They’ll be devoured at this weekend’s housewarming party and chances are, it’ll take me a while to post the rest of our goodies since I have a bazillion other posts coming up so hopefully this will tide ya over!

Please Sir, May I have S’more

I know, I know, s’mores were so last summer. All summer I just kept thinking I should make one of the many s’mores cookies or s’mores bars out there but I never got to it. This was a good one to flex my baking muscle though! They were a shortbread cookie with a layer of chocolate and a layer of marshmallow. They were topped with a little cookie crumble.
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I made these for my bookclub ladies when I also served them calzones and I knew my colleague Ms. K deserved one after breaking some hearts at work for the youth program.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2  cups chocolate chips
3 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degree F. Spray an 8 inch square baking pan.
Beat butter and sugar until well blended in large bowl. Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
Slowly add flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt, beating until blended.
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Press half of dough in prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes.
smores_baked_590_390Sprinkle chocolate chips over baked layer then sprinkle with marshmallows.
Scatter bits of remaining dough over marshmallows, forming top layer.
Bake 10 to 15 minutes or just until lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. 16 bars.
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I liked that these weren’t overly sweet but the gooeyness of the marshmallows made these a fun treat. They’re also a great cookie bar I think everyone would like.

Grown Up Caramel Corn

A few folks got edible gifts from me this year. Everybody always says they have too much “stuff” so I was hoping they would enjoy a treat that would be gone and they wouldn’t be trying to find a spot for it in their house.

I spotted a caramel corn online and thought it sounded really good and I thought it sounded like a snack with some class. This one featured crazins, orange, and pecans. I improvised a bit. I was impressed with the outcome! I didn’t quite envision the popcorn to come out crunchy without being sticky and soggy but it did!

Cranberry Pecan Caramel Corn (adapted from The Novice Chef)

Ingredients:

2 cups popped popcorn
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
3 tbs jelly (I used apple)
1 teaspoon vanilla1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat.
In a large bowl mix the popped popcorn, cranberries, and pecans.

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Over medium heat stir the butter, brown sugar, and honey until butter melts. Stir in jelly. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Boil at a moderate, steady rate for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda (mixture will foam up).
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Pour the syrup mixture over the popcorn mixture in bowl; stir to coat well.
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Transfer to a large baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool. If you want clusters leave it; if you want bite sized pieces then spread it out to cool.
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Swappin’ Cookies

I think this is the last of my holiday items to catch you up on. Do you have today off? Great! Make some of these cookies! If you’re working today then just stay tuned this week for a guest blog recipe post and a calzone!

I love all the cookies that come along with the holidays. Growing up I don’t think I realized how lucky I was that Mum made so many cookies, from scratch. I thought everyone was so lucky.

Normally when cookie swaps are mentioned everyone groans and isn’t into consuming more calories this time of year so I think I haven’t been to one since 2008? Wow.
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Ms. L invited me to one at Flour that is also a fundraiser for Cradles to Crayons. I’m so glad I took on the challenge but brining cookies to Flour Bakery? Talk about pressure! Let’s also talk about the recipe I chose considering I don’t bake very often: Apple Oatmeal Toffee Drop Cookies. Go ahead, you can laugh.

I made a sugar cookie base thinking I’d make some more cookies soon afterwards…what was I thinking? During packing, buying the house, and preparing to move all during the holidays, I had no time.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used granulated brown sugar)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup quick oats
1 green apple, chopped
1/2 cup toffee bits

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
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Cut in butter and sugars together.  Add egg and vanilla, and mix until well incorporated.
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Add oatmeal and apple and stir by hand until combined.
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Form dough into ping-pong sized balls. Form an indent on the top and fill with toffee bits (see the top row). Cover the toffee with the dough from the sides of the well (see the bottom row).
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Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges start to turn golden brown. Then transfer to a cooling rack.

I made a double batch since we were asked to bring 2-4 dozen. These suckers had lots of butter, brown sugar, and oatmeal. I mixed in granny smith apples but filled them with toffee bits. I think the apple did a lot to keep them soft and the toffee melts so much faster and might leave these with burn toffee oozes if it isn’t stuck in the middle.

Baking a double batch and filling each cookie was a test of my patience. I tried to just go slow and make them all perfect. They came out awesome but baking cookies is hard work! I had 2 trays going and my apt oven was terribly uneven. Two timers, fifty million cookies, and creative cooling racks I was done and ready for the swap. (Mine are in the middle in the back).
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There were some awesome cookies at the swap. I had to admit there were a few I thought were below par. I’d never bring chocolate chip cookies to a swap unless they were perfectly cooked and the best ever…these weren’t.
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I was hoping Joanne Chang would talk more about baking, about Flour, about holiday cookies, etc. She talked about why they hosted this event again but I would have liked to hear about her cookbook or her favorite goodies. She had made Butter Breton Cakes that she was testing for her next cookbook.  They were reallllly good.
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Multiple Christmas Dinners

Christmas probably seems like a long time ago for you, but for Mr. J and I, it was a whirlwind and feels like it just happened. We really tried not to wish Christmas away while awaiting our closing date and moving day. Christmas is a multi-day, multi-state, multi-family celebration for Mr. J and me. We coordinate our travel plans to spend time with his family in Maine and with my family in Greater Boston. It’s so fun, quite tiring, and there’s many meals. Here’s my recap of how those days were enjoyed through the meals.

At my family’s holiday, we are all about the traditional foods year after year. Apparently we cannot (or will not) break a few of these food traditions. On Christmas eve the R family has soup (clam chowder)
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My dad madee an amazing antipasto salad. He’s not really the cook in our family so we were impressed!
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My mum made the cutest cheese ball I’ve ever seen.
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On Christmas morning, we have coffee and a cheesecake-like coffee cake while we start gifts. It had apricot jelly and almonds on it.
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During a gift break, we have brunch with this casserole assembled the night before. It has rice, ham, cheese, eggs, and asparagus. It’s creamy and delicious.
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Christmas dinner was a surprise this year. Turducken! I was sooo excited to try it. We weren’t overly impressed and I think their suggested cooking time was way too much.
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We weren’t sure it would feed the 7 adults attending so we had a few heftier sides like this awesome shrimp dish (just shrimp, butter, and ritz).
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We had a Yule Log since it’s Dad’s favorite.
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In Maine Mrs. S recreated my failed apple bacon stuffed French toast. Amazing. It was so thick, sticky, and had plenty of crunchy bacon. I loved it and I knew somebody else could do it right.
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For lunch/dinner we had a cool ramen and cabbage salad. I’ve never had one with grapes and I loved it.
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We had some crockpot dishes that were good for feasting throughout the afternoon. The turkey meatballs we delicious.
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I wish I got a shot of the cake balls. I mean I ate enough of them there really wasn’t an excuse not to get a photo.

Christmas was really fun and we are always so grateful to make it to both families.