Holiday Cooking Guide - Candy

Christmas is a great time to get together with friends and family to make special holiday treats. It's also a wonderful opportunity to spread the holiday joy by sharing those tasty goodies with friends, neighbors, and family. Of course, if you want you can just make them and eat them all yourself. Following are a few recipes and tips for holiday candy making.

A Few Tips to Start
Making candy can sound like a headache. Trying to figure out the perfect temperature on that candy thermometer or trying to determine if your recipe has really gotten to hard ball stage can be a big deterrent from even bothering to attempt to make candy. So my first tip is to skip the recipes that are a headache to make. The holidays are a time to relax and have fun and that includes all the cooking!! There are tons of recipes that utilize the microwave or other cooking techniques that don't require all the trouble as some other recipes yet the end product is just as good - if not better.

Peppermint Bark
This is one of the easiest recipes to make but really provides great results and a gift that everyone enjoys!!

Ingredients:
2 lbs white chocolate or vanilla baking pieces
25 small candy canes

Lightly grease a large cookie sheet. Place all the candy canes in a sturdy plastic bag and crush using a rolling pin until in small pieces. Melt chocolate in a plastic bowl in the microwave starting with 1 minute then stirring in 15 second increments until all melted. Stir in ½ of the candy cane pieces and spread evenly on the cookie sheet. Top with remaining pieces and lightly press in to secure. Cool in refrigerator till hard then break into pieces.

Chocolate Fudge
Fudge is a holiday classic. This recipe is great way to make fudge quickly and it's an easy recipe to adapt with your own preferences such as adding in nuts, marshmallows, or peanut butter.

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter
5 oz. can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
7 oz marshmallow cream
12 oz chocolate chips

Grease 13 x 9 inch pan. In a large saucepan combine sugar, butter, and milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add marshmallow cream and chocolate chips. Stir till smooth. Stir in vanilla and any other add in's you prefer. Pour in pan. Cool to room temperature, cut into pieces and eat!

Truffles
A very easy holiday recipe with lots of options for different varieties.

Ingredients:
¼ cup heavy cream
1 ¼ cup chocolate chips
1 tsp extract (can be vanilla, almond, peppermint, etc)
Topping (shredded coconut, cocoa, powdered sugar, pecans, hazelnut, etc)

Boil cream over medium heat - when bubbling add chocolate and turn to low heat and continue cooking until all chocolate is melted. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Put in bowl and refrigerate until firm. (About 1 ½ -2 hours) Remove from refrigerator and form into small 1 inch balls. Roll in topping of choice. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

I hope you will enjoy making these easy candy recipes and that your holidays will be filled with lots of warm memories!!