Holiday Baked Goods

Happy Monday!

For today's "BLOGMAS 2015" post, Nat Hennessey and I decided to collaborate and try our hands at two Pinterest-y holiday recipes. We did lots of pinning and searching to find these recipes and we think they turned out tasty! We also added a family fun recipe that Natalie enjoyed as a child, thanks to her aunt. It's "our" addition to the Pinterest holiday collection!

The first recipe we tried our hands at was Peanut Butter Balls! Peanut butter is a staple in both our households and making them into balls and adding chocolate seemed like a great idea! Neither of us had made PB balls prior to this, so we had a few mishaps along the way ... but they turned out and we were throughly enjoyed!

Here is a link to the recipe we used - it's from SheWearsManyHats. The recipe was easy and super simple to follow and only took us about 10 minutes to prepare. Note: the recipe says it makes 25-30 pb balls. We got about 13 "normal" sized peanut butter balls out of this.

We followed the directions by mixing the ingredients together and forming the peanut butter mixture into a large ball. We then put it in the fridge ... however, we were impatient and didn't quite leave it in long enough to stiffen. This was the result after attempting to dip it into chocolate...

After that mishap, we decided to form them into the bite size balls and put them in the freezer for an hour (while we carried on with the other recipes). 

The chocolate melted easily in a double-boiler and after an hour, the balls were a breeze to dip as they were slightly frozen. We added a sprinkle of crushed candy canes on top - and ta-da, they're good to go! Another modification we made was to use "honey roasted peanuts" which we found at the Bulk Barn in the "grid your own" section. Here is our finished product:

Our second recipe was a bit more labour intensive. We came across a recipe for "Reindeer Crunch" that was just too good looking to pass up! The recipe can be found here from FamedCooks.

Although the recipe was more labour intensive, it was fun and easy to make. This would be a great option to make with children in big batches for school Christmas parties. Again, we followed the instructions, the only substitution we made was with the chocolate drizzle. A walk through Michaels led Nat and I to pick up some salted caramel flavoured Wilton candy melts to use instead of chocolate. What a great choice that was!

As perviously mentioned, the recipe was easy to follow. Once the sugar, syrup and butter were melted we poured it over the popcorn which was waiting on two cookie sheets ready for the oven. Once the popcorn was in the oven, we started melting our chocolate wafters in the microwave and when the popcorn was done, we drizzled it over the top.

The finished product sat for about 1 1/2 hours at room temp, but the original recipe says that throwing it in the fridge will speed up the "hardening" process. Check out final product below: 

Finally, we tried our hand at one of Natalie's favourite childhood memories! Every year at Christmas her family would host her aunt's family at their house - and every year her aunt would show up with these amazing cookie wreaths. This is what they look like before decorating... which the children get to do.

Natalie laughs about it now, but says that for the longest time she "COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW THEY WERE MADE"! (Keep in mind she was 5-10 years old) Here is the recipe to the magic...

You will need (for 2 large wreaths):

~ 1 batch of your favourite cookie dough recipe. We used this one.

~ 2 round pizza pans

~ cake boards (or cardboard circles covered with tinfoil or wrapping paper)

~ icing and decorations (ready made royal icing is the easiest)

You want to start by making the cookie dough as you usually would, just follow the directions. 

When the dough is completely mixed, you want to roll 1 inch balls. We used about 17 balls/wreath. When your balls are rolled, it's time to place them in a circle on your pizza pan. The key here is to MAKE SURE THE COOKIE DOUGH BALLS ARE TOUCHING!!! We essentially want all of the cookies to mush together when they spread out while baking. They should look like this when you have placed the balls correctly.

When you bake them, follow the directions in the recipe and let the giant cookie cool completely before trying to remove it. 

I found the easiest way to get the cookie off the pan in one piece was to loosen it from the pan with a flat spatula, put the cooling rack on the top of the cookie, flip it out so it's upside down, then place the cake board on the cookie, which was on the cooling rack and flip it over again so the cookie is upright.

We found some ready made royal icing and picked up a few treats to decorate it. We used crushed candy cane, smarties, pull and peel liquorice and let our childlike imaginations fly!

Here are the results:

These wreaths would be great addition to any Christmas party for kids or even as a great fundraiser around the holiday season!

We hope you've enjoyed seeing our picks from Pinterest. Let us know if you attempt the recipes and be sure share the results with friends and family. 

HAPPY BAKING