Usually for the holiday season I spend about two days holed up in my kitchen baking cookies to take to all the family gatherings. This year, I just don't have the time to be spending hours and hours in the kitchen, so I'm making some easy-peasy recipes that don't require too much oven time. There are 5 recipes here and I got a few from pinterest and a few I had in my arsenal. Happy Holiday to all! (I'm not adding my own photos to this post or a husband review so that I can make sure to get this post out in time for anyone that wants to try these recipes out for Christmas.)
1. Oreo Truffles
Ingredients:
1 package Oreos (regular - not double stuf)
1 package (8oz) cream cheese
1 package vanilla almond bark
1 package (8oz) cream cheese
1 package vanilla almond bark
Directions:
Crush 2 1/2 rows of the Oreos in a food processor (I don't have a food
processor, so I used a gallon sized ziploc bag and a hammer). Make sure
there aren't any big chunks of Oreos, you want a fairly even texture.
Then mix the crushed Oreos with the cream cheese until completely
combined - you don't want to take a big bite of just cream cheese. Melt
the almond bark in a microwave-safe bowl, first for a minute, then 30
second intervals after that, until smooth. Roll Oreo/cream cheese
mixture into 1 inch balls and dip into the melted almond bark. "Fish
out" with a fork and let them dry on a piece of wax paper. If you want
to add crumbled Oreo garnish on top, do it quickly before they dry. When
you have them all dipped and dried, keep in the fridge until ready to
eat. I like them fresh out of the fridge, but I know other people like
them room temperature.
2. Wreaths
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 package mini marshmallows
6 cups cornflakes cereal
green food coloring
Red Hots cinnamon candy
Directions:
Melt margarine/butter in a saucepan then add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Add enough food coloring to get the desired green that you'd like. Add cornflakes and stir until completely coated. (If you need more cornflakes here, toss them in, you don't want these too gooey.) Form into rings and set on waxed paper. (I usually just drop a glob on the wax paper and don't worry about the ring.) Top with the cinnamon candies for garnish. (I've used mini M&M's for this as well for the people that don't care for the Red Hots. You can also add a licorice bow made from a Twizzlers Pull & Peel string... but that takes more work.)
Ingredients:
1 (16-oz) jar if creamy Natural Jif peanut butter (or use whatever you have)
1 (2-lb) bag (or 2 1-lb bags) of high quality chocolate chips, milk or dark (we’re a MILK chocolate sorta family)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4-6 Tablespoons melted butter
Cooking Spray
Mini Cupcake Papers
1 (2-lb) bag (or 2 1-lb bags) of high quality chocolate chips, milk or dark (we’re a MILK chocolate sorta family)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4-6 Tablespoons melted butter
Cooking Spray
Mini Cupcake Papers
Directions:
Melt butter in microwave. Empty the peanut butter into a bowl and stir
in the powdered sugar. Mix in 4 Tablespoons of melted butter. If it
seems a little dry and crumbly, add another 1 to 2 Tablespoons of melted
butter. Just enough to make into a thick, smooth filling. Set aside.Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or the microwave), stirring often until it becomes smooth and velvety.
Arrange your cupcake papers onto a baking sheet and lightly mist with cooking spray. (I used my mini muffin pans.)
Spoon the melted chocolate into the
cupcake papers, coating the bottoms and sides entirely. I had to use one
finger to “coax” the chocolate up the sides of the cupcake wrapper. Set
the extra chocolate aside.
Once all cupcake papers are coated, place the tray in the refrigerator to cool for about five to ten minutes.Pipe
or spoon the peanut butter mixture into the cooled chocolate cups. I
used a Ziploc bag to pipe the mixture into the cups…SO fast and easy
that way!When all the chocolate cups are filled, dip one finger into
some water and then press down on each glob of filling to flatten a bit.
Then spoon the remaining melted chocolate over the top of the peanut
butter and place the tray back in the refrigerator for another
30-minutes to set completely. Recipe should yield about 55 mini peanut
butter cups.
Ingredients:
1 bag of pretzels (16-18 oz) I used the thatch ones because they would catch more chocolate
2/3 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup cinnamon sugar for sprinkling
1 cup white chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Whisk together oil, sugar, and cinnamon.
2. Pour pretzels into a microwave safe bowl and pour oil mixture in. Stir until coated.
3. Microwave for 1 minute, remove and stir. Microwave 45 seconds more.
4. Spread pretzels evenly onto two cookie sheets covered in parchment paper.
5. While still warm, sprinkle cinnamon sugar generously.
6. Melt white chocolate (on low heat, be careful not to burn) and drizzle over cooled pretzels.
7. Store in an airtight container.
Ingredients:
- 8 quarts air popped corn (about 2 cups of kernels)
- 1 cup salted butter
- 2 cups light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup salted peanuts
- 30 “Fun Size” Snickers bars coarsely chopped
- 3 oz melted semi sweet chocolate (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 200°
- Over medium heat boil butter, brown sugar, salt and corn syrup for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in your baking soda.
- Pour over your popcorn and stir to coat evenly.
- Transfer to waxed paper lined counter and sprinkle peanuts on top. Stir until all is coated evenly.
- Transfer popcorn into a large roasting pan and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and stir in your coarsely chopped Snickers. Return to oven for 3 more minutes so the Snickers begin to melt slightly into the popcorn.
- Remove from pan and transfer popcorn back to wax paper to cool.
- Drizzle melted chocolate on top of popcorn if desired.
- Let set and store in an airtight container.
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