Christmas Candy

It's that time of year again!  

It's Christmas here at Casa Collier!!

Now that the decorations are up and most of the gifts are wrapped, I have started making candy.

 Below are a few of our favorite candy recipes!  

Hope you enjoy

Peanut Butter Fudge:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup evaporated milk

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/8 cups peanut butter

1 7oz jar marshmallow creme

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Grease an 8x8 inch dish.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, sugar and butter. Bring to a rolling boil, and let boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, marshmallow creme and vanilla until well incorporated. Spread into prepared dish. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Original Fantasy Fudge:

This is the original Kraft Fantasy Fudge recipe I grew up with. I don’t use nuts in mine, Chris & the kids don’t like them.   My Daughter would eat the whole pan if I let her.  It’s definitely a family favorite!  This is really rich, I try to cut in small pieces a little packs a lot of flavor.

Ingredients: 

3 cups  sugar

¾ cup  butter or margarine

1 small  can (5 oz.) evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup) (Do not use sweetened condensed milk.)

3 pkg.  (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped

1 jar  (7 oz.) JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme

1 cup  chopped PLANTERS Walnuts

1tsp.  vanilla

Directions:

·      LINE 9-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3-qt. saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 4 min. or until candy thermometer reaches 234°F, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

·      ADD chocolate and marshmallow creme; stir until melted. Add nuts and vanilla; mix well.

·      POUR into prepared pan; spread to cover bottom of pan. Cool completely. Use foil handles to lift fudge from pan before cutting into squares.

Peppermint Bark:

Hands down the easiest candy I make during the holidays!! The hardest part is taking all the plastic off the candy canes. The fun part is putting the candy canes in a zip-lock bag and crushing them with my meat tenderizer.    Just be careful when melting the white chocolate, it has a tendency to seize up much faster than regular chocolate.  It’s a week away from Christmas and my brother is texting me to make sure I’ve made this.  Guess I should make a separate batch just for him. 

Ingredients:

1 bag White Chocolate chips

1 cup of crushed Candy Canes bits

1 tsp of Peppermint Extract (optional)

Directions:

·      Line Cookie Sheet with Foil and butter or spray with non-stick spray

·      Melt Chocolate over double boiler until smooth and shiny.

·      Mix in Candy Cane pieces and Peppermint extract.

·      Pour mixture onto cookie sheet and spread to ¼ inch consistency

·      Cool for 3 hours and then break into pieces.

Toffee:

Again, I don’t add the nuts to these for my family, but I do make a batch each year to give away with them.  The toffee is delish!!!

Ingredients:

14 Tbs butter

1 cup of Sugar

2 Tbs cold water

½ cup of chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

1 t pure vanilla extract

Dash of Salt

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

·      Line Cookie Sheet with Foil and butter or spray with non-stick spray

·      Combine butter, sugar, and water in a heavy pan over med-high heat.

·      Bring to a bubbling boil, stiring constantly with a wooden spoon about 10 mins.

·      Remove spoon from pan and cook to a very brittle stage (300-310 degrees on a candy theromoter)

·      Remove from heat, add nuts, vanilla and dash of salt.  Stir until well combined. 

·      Pour onto cookie sheet and spread to ¼ inch thickness.

·      Pour chocolate chips over top, spread chocolate as it melts to cover top.  Make sure not to stop until chocolate is completely melted. 

·      Cool completely and break into pieces.  Store in an air tight container.

Merry Christmas!!!