Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzels and Holiday Bark

You would never think something so simple as pretzel rods coated in chocolate and drizzled in peanut butter would be so good, but oh my god, it is. The saltiness of the pretzels and the sweetness of the chocolate and peanut butter make it something you could just gorge yourself on for hours. Although I'm fat enough, so I probably shouldn't...

They are really pretty simple to make. Melt chocolate, coat pretzel rods in chocolate...

Melt peanut butter chips....

And drizzle over the pretzel rods until your sweet tooth can't take it anymore!

 Another yummy, super easy candy is holiday bark. You can use whatever you want really, you just need some sort of chocolate for the bark, and whatever toppings you find interesting. The new (and really pretty) winter Oreos, peppermint, and Christmas Sixlets. I actually prefer Sixlets to M&M's, not sure why....

I milk chocolate chips and white chocolate chips and melted them. The reason I have the chocolate chips separated is because after they are melted, I added red and green food coloring to plop onto the melted chocolate and swirl into it, making pretty designs.

After the chocolate is melted, you spread in out onto a piece of wax paper in whatever shape you would like.

After that, start plopping and swirling, I use chopsticks to swirl mine. Unfortunately, it was hardening so fast, I didn't have time to take anymore pictures. Sorry....

After the swirling, you just start tossing the candy onto it and pressing it into the chocolate. That's really all there is to it. So easy, yet so yummy.

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Hot Cocoa Cones

Hot chocolate, probably considered one of the most loved comfort foods during cold weather. For good reason too, there is nothing like sitting under a blanket with a nice steamy mug of cocoa. My favorite hot cocoa has crushed peppermint, cream, and lots of marshmallows. So yummy.

I decided to make some hot cocoa cones to sell at the Yuletide Bazaar next week, I figured who not, just about everyone loves hot cocoa!

They are fairly simple to make, and really fun too. To make the cocoa mix, you combine:

2 cups of powdered milk

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup powdered nondairy creamer

You don't have to put into cello cone bags, but I think that is part of their charm. You could put them into tins, bags, jars, whatever your heart desires. 

If you use the cello cone bags, take 3/4 cup of the cocoa mix and pour into one of the bags. Twist the bag where the cocoa is, and take a small rubber band or twist tie and tie it off. Take a pair of scissors and clip off the extra , leaving about an inch above where it is sealed off. 

Then you take the small cocoa cone, and put it inside one of the larger ones. The reason I do this is so the cocoa mix is sealed off, and is easy to get to without much fuss. You then pour in 1/4 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels, and then 3/4 cup of mini marshmallows on top of those. I then top mine off with either a red or green spiced gum drop. Each cone is about 2 servings, just divide the mix into a mug full of hot milk, (or water if you prefer), stir in the morsels, and top with marshmallows.

There are so many variations to this, you could use different flavors of creamer, you could substitute the chocolate morsels for chopped up Andes mints, crushed peppermints, toffee bits, the only limit is your imagination.

Tomorrow I'll be making some chocolate dipped plastic spoons in little bags, and attach them to the cones with some decorative ribbon and a nice little tag. I usually sell these for $3 dollars each, or 2 for $5. I think I will probably keep that the same.

With how chilly it is outside, I'm tempted to tear into one, make me a mug full, and find something nice on the television!

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Getting Ready For Yule

I've started to get ready for Dec 10th, when I will be setting up a vending table to sell goodies at a local Christmas event. I'm very excited, but also quite nervous because I'm afraid I won't get everything done.

As you can see, I've bought a few things to get started, but I still have loads of stuff to go.

Fudge is going to be my main selling point, as always. I'm also planning to sell jar mixes, hot cocoa cones, dipped pretzels, peanut butter cups, s'more cups, brittle, toffee, caramel, divinity, truffles, ganache, and an interesting chocolate dipped cookie called a Brandy Snap. I have a few other things planned as well, see why I'm nervous! Also, if I have the time and resources left, I would like to sell some whole baked goods like bread loaves and pies for people to take home.

I'm trying to stay away from individual baked items. I really would like to focus more on the candy aspect of this sale, and also, the group that is hosting the event will be selling individual baked items to help fund their cold weather care packages for the homeless in the area. I would hate to infringe on that, it really is a great group of people hosting the event and I wish them the best of luck.

In the next two weeks, I plan to update a good bit with my progress. I would love to do a step-by-step for the Ganache and Brandy Snaps as well.

I hope all goes as planned!

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First Entry!

This is my second attempt at blogging. I've wanted to start blogging for a while about my baking, but I either never had the time, or didn't have the motivation, it seems to always be something. But not anymore, I'm really going to try to do at least one or two entries per week, and see how that goes. My original blog went pretty well for a while, but it turned into more of a personal, in general blog...I want to keep this one strictly food related.

Baking, and cooking in general, has always been a huge passion. It makes me smile and makes others smile, it's something I've always done for the people I care about. I've also done it to make money, usually during the fall and winter when shipping baked goods and candy is easier because of not having to worry about the heat. My big selling point has always been fudge. I can make so many different varieties of fudge I can't even list them all. Last year around Christmas, I think I sold over 30 batches, which was quite a load for my little kitchen. Surprisingly, the regular chocolate fudge was the number one seller, I guess sometimes the most simple thing is best. 

I still have a couple pictures from my fudge sales last year. One is the regular chocolate, the other is cookies and cream.

Hopefully I will be making another post very soon. And to anyone who stumbles across my humble blog, thank you for taking the time to read and check it out, I will try not to let you down! :)

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