Sweet Treats

Christmas is the season of goodies and sweet treats.  (Just ask my oldest two who attended their 4-H Christmas party where each of them one the guess-how-many-candies-are-in-the-jar game and walked away with 129 pieces of candy each, plus the regular candy prizes for Bingo.)   We usually make a variety of goodies to share at the holidays.  I always try to have a recipe or two the kids can help with so that they have some investment in the gifts they give their teachers.  This year, the kids help make M and M Party Popcorn and Peppermint Patties.  I've never made the popcorn mix before but peanut butter and white chocolate mixed with the salty hint of crushed corn chips plus M and M's, popcorn and peanut butter sandwich cookies sounded hard to beat.   The peppermint patties I have made before.  I press mine into a pan and top with the chocolate rather than forming them into patties; that just saves on time.  The best part?  They feature a mystery ingredient:  mashed potatoes.

I also made Saltine Toffee, which I have made and love.  It is seriously the easiest, yummiest stuff!  I've seen recipes floating around calling it Christmas Crack because of it's addicting nature.  The last recipe I made was a new one to me for Chewy Chocolate Meringues.  This recipe used egg whites like a traditional meringues but they are chewy rather than crispy.  They feature dark chocolate, dried cranberries, and walnuts.  I subbed out pecans for the walnuts.  I can't say I was overly impressed.  They were good but I wouldn't say they would make my top ten list of cookies.  Maybe if they had had more cranberries or pecans.  It seemed like you couldn't really taste either.

So what's in your goodie bags this season?

Conleigh assembling our treat boxes for our teachers.

Completed boxes

M and M popcorn mix 

Satline Toffee

Chewy Chocolate Meringues

Sugar Cookie Bars

Can I tell you how awesome I am at not buying junk food while grocery shopping?

Can I tell you how not awesome I am at making something fattening?

Last night, I saw a recipe for Sugar Cookie Bars.  (The recipe is smack in the middle of a post featuring oodles of other yummy looking bar cookies.  Things like Marshmallow Blondies and Smores Cookies.)  So of course, tonight, I had to make them.  They were wonderful in a lot of ways.  One of the things I like least in a cookie are sandy, dry cookies.  Sugar cookies, when done wrong have a tendency towards the dry and sandy.  These cookies are not that.  They are slightly underdone but not in a bad way, just soft.  My other gripe about sugar cookies is that they take forever to prepare.  Even if you are not cutting out shapes, they still manage to be a time sucking project.  Not so with bar cookies.  And this recipe makes a large batch.  I did two 8 x 12 pans full.  I did mix some cardamon into my batter and made my frosting with lemon juice and lemon zest.  The photo with the recipe shows a lot of frosting so I went that route but if I were to do it again, I use less.  I thought the frosting almost overwhelmed the cookie.  I let the kids decorate them so we had rainbow sprinkles on half and purple sugar on the other. (Mostly even but clumped up in a few spots.  See the photo evidence.)

Butter, sugar, sprinkles, some footie pajamas...what more could a kid want.

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats

Since there is apparently nothing of interest going on in our life right now, perhaps we'll continue on with the "it's too hot to cook/use your summer produce" recipe series?  (Completely not true but I just can't seem to get around to posting about it.  Some of it's cruddy stuff and some of it's fun but I just haven't made the time.)

I found this recipe on Pinterest, which is frankly my newest online obsession.  (Think a giant online board where people post their favorite crafts, recipes, quotes, etc..)

Anyway, while perusing the things others love, I saw the heading "Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats" and was intrigued.  (Much more appetizing than some of the things people share like vinegar dipped, oven baked radish chips or guacamole spewing out of the mouth of a mini jack o lantern.  Both of those just kind of grossed me out.)  The basic jist is this:  take your regular ole Rice Krispie treat recipe and while the marshmallows are melting with the butter, add a bit of powdered yellow cake mix.  (I especially thought of my friend, Cari, while writing this because she loves Rice Krispies and also has a funfetti cookie recipe that she likes to make.)  D said he thought they tasted the same.  I thought they definitely had a cake flavor to them.  The kids just liked that they had sprinkles and Kenson was very excited that I actually let him measure and cut the butter.  I'd say they are worth a try if you're looking for a quick and easy dessert that won't heat up your kitchen.

Peanut Butter Brownies

Jen requested the recipe for these so I'm sharing it. I can't say they are the best culinary treat but they were tasty enough for us to be down to 1/2 a brownie as I'm writing right now. D wanted chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for his birthday but I had a box of brownie mix I wanted to use up so I was improvising.

I took a box of brownie mix and added on the top a peanut butter cheesecake mixture. (Beat 6 ounces cream cheese, add 1/3 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 egg, and 2 T. milk.) I used a pan that was a bit smaller than 9 x 13 so the brownies would be thicker. My original goal was to swirl the cream cheese mixture through the brownies. But for some reason, it wouldn't swirl. It just sat on top of the brownie batter. So if I did these again, I would probably use half the brownie batter, top it with the cream cheese mixture, and then the remaining brownie batter. I did top them with a chocolate frosting but they turned out really sweet and chocolatey, almost too much so I'll spare you the frosting recipe. I think some chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups would be a great topping to add before you baked the brownies. (Or to put on right after you took them out of the oven so that the chocolate would melt against the warm brownies and then set up again once they cooled.)