Spring Time Candy Holders

 

I saw this idea years ago and thought it was pretty cute. Simple (which always catches my attention) and different. It's a candy holder. Cute, right?

 

I bought these little feeders at Wilco. Yep, you read that right. Feeders! They are chicken (or chick) feeders. At least I think that's what they are called. I'm not really a country, farm animal girl. Don't get me wrong.  I'll take a good looking cowboy anyday =o)  But knowing my way around a feed store is totally foreign to me.  So you should be proud of me for knowing what these bad boys even are.

 

Back to the candy holders...  You can buy them in plain metal (or is it aluminum?  Dang.  See?  I know nothing.)  And then you can spray paint them all sorts of fun colors.  Or you can buy these plastic ones in fun, Spring time colors.  We went for the plastic ones.   

 

 

They come with a plastic container thing.  (It's all so scientific in my house.)  But you can also use a canning jar if you want it smaller and/or clear. 

 

 

Take them home and clean them.  (You never know what strange farm animal nosed their way around them.  It's a feed store after all.  And then fill them with your favorite candy.  We went with Easter M&Ms because they were so pretty.  My daughter, of course, wanted hers to be filled with gum balls.

 

 

Mine is going on my desk at work.  The kids at my work will love it!

 

 

 

 

 

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Chubby Hubby Truffles

I warned you that we did some baking over the holiday =o)  Here's another delicious treat we made for company.  Have you heard of them?  Chubby Hubby Bars are all over the web.  Why the heck are they called Chubby Hubby Bars?  Do I want to know this???  But bars seemed too simple.  We wanted to jazz them up a little bit.  So we found truffles.  Truffles!  YUM!

Chubby Hubby Truffles

Source: Brown Eyed Baker 

* 1 1/2 cups pretzel pieces

* 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

* 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature

* 2 Tbsp. light brown sugar

* pinch salt

* 3 Tbsp. powdered sugar

* 3 Tbsp. malted milk powder

* Melting chocolate

The original recipe from Brown Eyed Baker didn't have malted milk powder in it but I noticed on all the Chubby Hubby Bar recipes, they had malted milk powder in them.  So I added this to mine.  You don't have to if you don't want to =o)

Mix together the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, salt, powdered sugar and malted milk powder.  Stir in pretzel pieces.

Form into 1 inch balls or little oval shaped.  (What the heck do you call this shape???)

Place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper and then freeze for about 15 minutes.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt your chocolate in 30 second bursts, stirring after each burst.  (That sounds totally kitchen savvy doesn't it?) =o)

Dip the peanut butter/pretzel logs (or balls) into the chocolate, tapping off the excess chocolate.  Place on a piece of waxed paper and let harden.

You can drizzle more melted chocolate on top to make them look fancier.  (They look fancy, right?)  Or sprinkle some of the crushed pretzels on top of the chocolate before it hardens.

They didn't have enough peanut butter taste for me.  Next time I'll add less pretzels and more peanut butter.  But I loved the malt in there.  It added a great, "different" flavor to the normal peanut butter and chocolate.

Enjoy!

 

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Oreo Cookie Balls

Well, it's 2013.  Yikes.  Do you ever look in the mirror and think "what the heck happened to me?!?!"  Yeah.  I'm having one of those moments.  I'm old.  What the heck?!?!  When did this happen???  So what do I do?  Bake, of course =o)

So I'm sorry to say that the next few (or more than a few) posts aren't healthy and low cal.  They are sweet and delicious!  I hope you don't mind.  It makes me feel better.  Let's call it "therapy".

Oreo Cookie Balls

* 1 package of Oreos (any kind)

* 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

* melting chocolate

Crush the Oreos in a food processor.  Mix cookie crumbs with cream cheese until blended.

Shape into balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.

Place in the freezer for about 10 minutes.  While they are freezing, melt your chocolate.  You can melt it in a double boiler or in the microwave in 30 second spurts.

Dip each Oreo cookie ball in the chocolate and place back onto waxed paper.

Decorate with sprinkles or crushed Oreos while the chocolate is still wet.

Voila!  Oreo Cookie Balls.  Easy!  And oh, so good!

I tried to use white chocolate on some.  Every time I try to dip anything in white chocolate it's lumpy.  Is it just me?

Not as pretty as the milk chocolate ones.  It's hard to beat milk chocolate!  

Take a look at the inside.  Delicious!!!

Enjoy!  And happy 2013!

 

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Oreo Truffle Easter Eggs

I love making candy.  Well, not candy... but chocolates.  You can make exactly what you like and then yum... gobble them up. 

I found this great Easter Egg silicon mold at my favorite store, Decorette Shop.  I could stay there all day!  I love it!

Oreo Truffle Easter Eggs

* melting chocolate

* Oreos

* cream cheese

I painted different colored chocolate into the mold.  I use Guittard Chocolate A'Peels because it tastes amazing.  It melts so smooth and thin.  It's not all goopey like some of the other cheaper candy melts.

Let it harden before you add in the filling.

We filled ours with Oreo Truffle filling.  YUM!  I crushed about 12 Oreos in the food processor.  Add about an ounce of softened cream cheese and mix.  You want it a pastey consistency so add more cream cheese a little at a time until it is a thick as you would like.  I love the cream cheese in it so I added about 4 ouces but you might want to add less.

Press the Oreo filling into the chocolate shell.

Melt more of the chocolate melts and pour over the top of the Oreo filling.  You'll want to lightly tap the mold on the counter top to get out any air bubbles. 

Let harden and then pop out of the molds.

This is about as fancy as I could get.  I don't have the patience to do anything more detailed.  But my kids didn't mind. They loved them!  And they were soooooo delicious!

Enjoy!

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Milk Chocolate Covered Raspberry Creams

It's no secret that I love chocolate... and chocolate and raspberry together?  Oh man.  I'm hooked!  I absolutely love that combination.  When I made our chocolate covered raspberry jellies I was in heaven.  But they were a little messy to make so I wanted to try something a little different.

Last year we made homemade peppermint patties (delish, by the way.)  I wondered what would happen if we used the same recipe but replaced the peppermint extract with raspberry extract.  Oh yeah.  Good call (if I do say so myself.)  They were delicious!  And so easy!

Raspberry Creams

* 3 ounces cream cheese, softened

* 1/2 tsp. raspberry extract

* red food coloring

* 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

* melting chocolate (I always use milk chocolate)  =o)

Cream together cream cheese and extract.  Add a couple of drops of food coloring (as much as you want color.)  Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth.  You want it thick enough to roll into balls but not so it breaks apart and cracks.

I had a helper assisting me (which always makes everything more fun and exciting.)

Roll them into 1 inch balls and flatten slightly with your fingers.

Melt chocolate in the microwave in bursts of 30 seconds, stirring after each time.

Dip each patty into chocolate and let harden on waxed paper.

They were delicious!

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator and gobble them up!

We have two fun things going on here right now!  One is our handmade card swap.  Have you read the post?  If not, check it out here.  We have over 30 people participating and I can't wait to see what everyone creates!

The second fun thing is we will be having a giveaway starting Saturday!  It's my daughter's birthday so what better way to celebrate than to give away something?!?!

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No Bake Cake Batter Truffles

Cake Batter Truffles
Source: Chef in Training from The Girl Who Ate Everything

* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 1/2 cups flour
* 1 cup cake mix
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 1/8 tsp. salt
* 3-4 Tbsp. milk
* sprinkles

Coating
* melting chocolate

Beat together butter and sugar until well combined.  Blend in vanilla.  Blend in flour, cake mix and salt.  Add 3 Tbsp. of the milk and mix thoroughly.  (It needs to be dough consistency.)  Mix in sprinkles by hand.

Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes to chill.

Meanwhile, put chocolate into a bowl and microwave in 30 minute spurts, stirring after each 30 seconds.  Using a fork, dip each of the dough balls into the chocolate to coat.  Tap off excess chocolate and place on waxed paper.

Let's take another look at these bad boys...

Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving.

Just a personal note here... these are AWESOME!  Yowza!  So glad it only made about 24 of them because I would have eaten them all!

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Candy Robot Valentines

We have a lot of playdates with friends.  It's wonderful!  We go to my work and the kids run through the school screaming, playing tag.  They run until they can't run anymore and then we make a craft.  I love that both my kids love to make crafts.  And this was definitely a fun one!  It's super similar to our Juice Box Robots that we made for my daughter's birthday last year but I didn't even think about making them with all candy until I saw these over on Seasonal Expressions.

My kids had a blast creating, glueing (and in my daughter's case, eating)!  Look at the great creations they made.

Totally cute, right?!?!  And what a great time with friends.

How cute!

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