It’s almost that time of year. We always make candy as presents for friends & family.
One we always do is the marshmellow fluff fudge. My mom made it every Christmas in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Now our family makes it too. It’s almost impossible to screw up.
I pine for my grandmother’s fudge, but, alas, she has been gone more than 20 years, and none of us kids inherited the fudge gene. I have never tasted fudge as smooth as hers was. Consequently, I dislike any fudge that has even a hint of graininess to it.
My son and I made some awesome toffee last year – the kind you coat with chocolate on one side.
I like making Peppermint bark. So simple, and so Christmassy. Take about 10 Starlight mints or equivalent amount of candy canes, put into a baggy and pound with a hammer (this part is fun, and a great stress reliever to boot!) You should end up with smithereens plus a few larger broken pieces. Then melt a bag of vanilla chips or white chocolate bark (this is the only slightly tricky part–you have to be careful not to burn so go slowly–use a double-boiler or the medium setting on the microwave), mix in the peppermint candy, then pour out onto a large piece of wax paper. Smooth it out flat with the back of a spoon, and let it cool. Once it stiffens, break it up into pieces and serve!
We also like to make another concoction that doesn’t really have a name–it’s basically Chex Mix covered in white chocolate. I can’t remember the exact amounts off the top of my head, but it’s basically Corn Chex, pretzels, Cheerios, & M&Ms, covered in melted vanilla chips or white chocolate bark. For this recipe, we always add cooking oil to the chocolate before melting–makes it smooth over the ingredients better. It’s a yummy combination of sweet and salty. If anyone’s interested, I can look up the exact amounts and post. The recipe we use makes a huge batch and so it’s great for gifts.
I use a variation on this recipe to make what I guess you’d call Dark Chocolate Pistachio Toffee - I leave out the spice, and use Ghirardelli 60% chips and chopped pistachios. It is heaven on Earth.
Unfortunately, it’s also pretty expensive, so I’ll be looking into the other ideas in this thread for neighbor gifts this year!
Buttermints
1 bag confectioners sugar
1 stick of butter
a few drops of flavor extract
a few drops of food coloring
cream the butter in a stand mixer, then beat in the confectioners sugar, and whatever flavor/color combo you want. The obvious ones are red/cinnamon, yellow/lemon, green/mint or pink/mint, but if you really want to fuck with people, do color/flavor combinations that are wierd … like yellow/cherry, green/anise. There is a large correlation to flavor and color <evil grin smiley>
I use small bendable silicone molds to mold them, or you can do stuff like roll the ‘dough’ in your hands into ropes and twist red and white or green and white or whatever together and make candy canes.
Airdry the candies for a couple days to harden the outside, layer in a tin between sheets of wax paper, or use mini muffin papers for the candy box effect.
We make the same fudge as the OP every year, but we also make peanut butter fudge too by adding creamy peanut butter instead of chocolate pieces. I can confirm the amount of peanut butter with Mom if anyone wants to try it, but I think it’s 8oz.
I also make my aunt and us chocolate covered cashews. Melt a big milk chocolate bar of your choice - I usually go for Symphony or Cadbury - in a double boiler. Dump in a handful of cashews and mix them, then spoon them out onto wax paper. Repeat until you run out of chocolate or nuts. Put them in the fridge to harden for several hours.
There’s half as much butter and no food coloring, but other than that this is also the recipe for chocolate covered buttercreams. They were good, but messy. I tried spearing them with a fondue fork to dip them, but they shattered so I resorted to the imprecise method of dipping them with a spoon. Does any one who makes candy have better advice for dipping something like this into melted chocolate (in a double boiler), that would leave them both fully coated, and less runny on wax paper?
I love homemade caramels and have a pal who makes some every year. I nave neither a candy thermometer nor the patience to boil the stuff for the length of time necessary to make them. But happily eat them, I will. [/Yoda]
My specialty is** Needhams**. Perhaps that’s a strictly local (Maine) term, but they are essentially little Mounds bars. Coconut candy filling dipped in dark chocolate. I make them every year and give them in little baggies or boxes. They are divine and are one of my steadfast Christmas traditions – I would disappoint several people if I failed to make them.
Another friend makes fabulous chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls every year. I don’t think she calls them Buckeyes, but that is what they essentially are.
Am I the only person on the planet who thinks that stuff is FOUL? My mother got hold of the recipe when I was a kid and started making that instead of the Hershey’s Cocoa-based stuff she’d made before. It’s telling that I would only eat a piece or two of it. Left a nasty cloying taste in the back of my throat.
I will say, it’s a lot easier than doing it the old-fashioned way. I finally tried my hand at fudge last December and actually produced a couple of pretty tolerable batches, but it’s not a fast-and-easy job for sure. I can’t double the batch, and it takes long enough that I can only make a single small batch in a day.
I love making chocolate truffles. I have tried Kahlua, Irish Cream, Raspberry liquor and Orange liquor, and really prefer the raspberry. Plus everyone gets so excited because they do seem like they are challenging to make, but really really easy once you figure it out.
Plus, Nordicware has this awesome petit fours pan that can be used to make chocolates. Its 10 different flower shapes, 3 of each (I believe). So I don’t have to dip the middle.
for some reason, without a pan to mold them I would be SOL. If the dipping chocolate is too hot (which is my problem) then the liquor-y center melts into it and ruins the consistency of the whole pan of chocolate. (That was my first year and what a frustrating (but delicious) problem to have!) Throw it out - never - its chocolate. Those are the kind of mistakes you just have to eat!
Interesting! How does that work? Do you pour a bit of the chocolate in, let it set for a minute or two, add the ball of filling and then pour more chocolate around?
Pretty much. I’ve found it works really well to fill the little cup about 1/2 way, swirl it all around, let it sit for a bit, and then flip the pan over and drain the excess onto wax paper (whereupon you peel off the chocolate dripping and re-melt it), fill and then top off with chocolate. You definitely have to be careful, because if you let it sit too long, then there isn’t much room for filling (which is the best part!).
The next challenge is getting it out of the stupid pan without ruining it! But freezing it, propping it up at an angle, and using a hair dryer on it works pretty well. unless it gets to melty and the pretty design is ruined. (oh darn, another mistake I have to eat!)
