Your Peanut Butter is in my Chocolate

I was craving a sweet treat during the holidays and thought I would get myself together and make some Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls. I haven't had them in years. They were always available during my family's Christmas get-togethers. To make them, I took several recipes and mixed them together to this version. They are good, exactly the way I remember them. But I need to fix one thing. The chocolate didn't have a snap when you bite into it, it was very soft. Could have been the chocolate? A guest at our house said it was the missing paraffin wax...could be. I remember it being used. Will try that next time. In the meantime...


I pulled out my fancy Double Boiler to melt the chocolate and keep it smooth for dipping.


After mixing the peanut butter together, I used a small scoop to make round balls, then I inserted toothpicks to make coating the balls in chocolate easier. Remove the picks when you set the covered balls on the wax paper and dab some chocolate over the hole.


Keep the treats in the fridge, or they become soft and may become melty; especially if you have a warm house.

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls
2 cups Peanut Butter (I prefer Skippy Extra Crunchy)
1/2 cup Butter, room temperature
1 TB Brown Sugar
1 cup Crisp Rice Cereal, crushed
2 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
2 cups Milk Chocolate-Chips or Blocks
1 TB Shortening (or maybe food grade paraffin wax?)

Mix the peanut butter, butter and brown sugar until well blended. Add the crushed rice cereal, blend well. Mix sugar until smooth.

Scoop peanut butter mixture into small-ish balls, no bigger than an inch wide. Roll into balls. Insert a toothpick into each one and place in the fridge to firm up. 30 minutes to an hour.

Melt chocolate and shortening in a double boiler or in the microwave until smooth. Keep warm, but off of the heat.

Using the toothpick and a spoon, dip and cover each ball with chocolate. Allow excess to drip off; place on a wax paper covered sheet. Place in the fridge to chill and allow the chocolate to fully set. When chocolate is firm, covere with wax paper and plastic wrap to keep fresh.

I Want Candy...

Well, it was bound to happen. Fudge! Well, in actuality, I haven't made fudge in several years. This was a pretty good recipe.

Fantasy Fudge
(from the jar of Fluff)
Makes 3 pounds

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 stick butter (3/4 cups)
1 small (5oz) can of evaporated milk (not sweetened/condensed)
1 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 7oz jar Marshmallow fluff
1 tsp vanilla

Line a 9-inch square pan with foil, allowing the ends to hang over the side. Alternatively, line a 1/4 sheet pan with foil, allowing the ends to hang over the side. (you'll have thinner fudge, but you can cut it into slightly larger squares.)

Place the sugar, butter and evaporated milk in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 4 minutes or until a candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat.

Add the chocolate and the marshmallow and stir until completely melted and incorporated. Add the vanilla, stir. Optional: If you want to add nuts, you can do so now. 1 cup chopped nuts.

Pour immediately into the prepared pan, spread to form an even layer. Let stand at room temperature for 4 hours or until completely cooled. Cut into one inch squares. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature.





Hope you're all having a lovely Christmas Eve. We already opened all of our presents. There have been times when we've opened them on the 23rd....oops! PS: Every time I type "fudge," I type "fudget." Wonder why?

Three Ingredients

This recipe couldn't be easier, but you do need one specialty piece of equipment. There are work around, but it's easier to do if you have a candy thermometer.

To make Salted Caramels you need just three ingredients:

1 tsp Sea Salt
1 cup Honey
1 cup Heavy Cream

For equipment you need a larger heavy pot-I used my 3-4 quart enameled cast iron pot. You need the aforementioned candy thermometer, a heat resistant scraper and a small pan lined with foil and lightly coated with butter.

Add your three ingredients into the heavy pot. Bring to a boil; lower heat slightly and stir until you reach the temperature of 130 celsius. This took me just over 25 minutes...but I started using a small pot and was worried about the caramel boiling over, so I didn't get the temperature hot enough. I transfered the mix into the larger pot, got the heat nice and high and we moved along at a much faster clip. When you hit the 130, pour the mix into your lined pan--and 8x8 square would be good. Allow to cool. Please be careful as hot candy mixes can BURN YOU very badly.

When cool and set up, cut into pieces and enjoy. Wrap pieces individually in wax paper.

Start with a good sea salt. I recently picked this up from Penzeys. Tasty, salty, sea!

Granular.

My three ingredients. I used two types of honey: orange blossom (my favorite) and blackberry.

After I transferred everything to the larger pot. Boiling away, getting darker and richer and thicker.

The caramel has been poured out.

Make sure you line your pan with foil and coat with butter. Or you might end up with a very sticky candy you can't get out of the pan.

Little pieces of chewy, rich caramels.

If you like honey, you're going to love these caramels. The first flavors that approach are the salt and creamy caramely flavors. But as you chew you get the spicy bit of the honey. Very nice.