12 Days of Christmas Cookies--Chocolate Pretzel Toffee Bark

DAY 7: Chocolate Pretzel Toffee Bark

Another very tasty bark.   These barks take little to no effort.  Just melt a little chocolate and crunch up a few ingredients throw it all together, and wait for it to set up.  A quick and easy gift.

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Triple Chocolate Mocha Truffles

We are going to take a side-step from the cookies for a minute and show you some heavenly truffles!  If you like mocha flavor and chocolate you have to try these lovelies!  They are delicious, fun to make and pretty.

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Cherry Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

I threw together some cupcakes Saturday morning for a party I having that afternoon and they turned out pretty good and so easy I thought I would share.

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Flock of Turkeys

I have been getting into the holiday spirit.  Doing some early Christmas shopping, wrapping gifts (I don't allow snoops around my house) and last Saturday I went to Holly Legare's Christmas Stamp-A-Stack.  It was a lot of fun.  So my holiday cards are made and now I can check that off my list.

But we don't want to forget about Thanksgiving.  I have a few November projects planned, I just hope I have time to get them posted!  For a recent family birthday, these cute turkeys were amongst the party-goers. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Fudge-striped shortbread cookies
Fudge-covered graham crackers (or you can use fudge-covered sugar wafers as I did)
Miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups
Mini chocolate covered peanut butter cups or round chocolate-covered chewy caramels
Candy corns
1 tube decorating gel for eyes

1. In a small freezer bag, place chocolate chips; seal bag.  Microwave until softened.  Snip off corner of bag. Squeeze bag to pipe a line of chocolate across the bottom of the striped shortbread cookie.  Center onto the graham cracker and hold until it begins to set.  Repeat with remaining cookies.  Allow to set up, about 30 minutes.  I put mine in the freezer to set.  It also helped with the next steps to have the cookies cold.
2. Using melted chocolate attach the mini peanut butter cup to the miniature peanut butter cup.  Allow to set.
3. Pipe melted chocolate onto the large side of the peanut butter cups and attach to the shortbread cookies, resting against the graham cracker. 
4. On a piece of candy corn, pipe melted chocolate.  With the pointy end toward the peanut nut butter cup, center on the cookie.
5. Place a piece of candy corn on each side of body for legs.  Using the decorator's gel, add eyes on each candy corn beak.  Let stand at least one hour to set. 

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Catchall Bars

This is the second cookie from the list six that can be made from the Basic Cookie Dough recipe I posted last month.  Since it was made in a bar form, baked in layers and cut after baking--it was easier and faster than the last recipe.  Also I think everyone that tried both cookies liked this one better.  It was tasty, but I couldn't decide which I liked best. You be the judge!


RECIPE:
Basic Cookie Dough recipe
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate pieces
1 1/2 cups toffee pieces
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup flaked coconut (I didn't use a whole cup of coconut, since we're not that crazy for the stuff.)
1 cup chopped pecans

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 13x9x2 inch baking pan with foil extending the foil over the edges of the pan.  Grease foil; set pan aside.

2. Prepare Basic Cookie Dough as directed.  (See recipe here.)  Press three-fourths of the dough evenly onto the bottom of the prepared baking pan.  Bake crust in the preheated oven about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

3. In a large bowl, combine chocolate pieces, toffee pieces, coconut, and pecans.  Add the sweetened condensed milk.  Spread mixture evenly over the baked crust.   Crumble the remaining one-fourth of the dough evenly over the top.

4. Bake about 20 minutes more or until crumbled topping is lightly browned.  Cool in pan on wire rack.  Using the edges of the foil, lift out of the pan.  Cut into bars.  Makes 24 bars (I cut into smaller pieces so I got more than 24 bars).

To store: Place bars in single layer in an airtight container; cover.  Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

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RoCkY rOaD cAnDy--YuM!

This is a family (and many of our friends) favorite recipe. It seems everyone we make this candy for, falls in love with it. My mom would make this candy every Christmas season. Although we (my siblings) all loved it, it was my brother Steve’s favorite. My marshmallow-loving husband absolutely fell in love with it after I made it for him the first time. And my daughter once dated a guy who would do just about anything for a batch. So for the marshmallow and chocolate lover on your list, this is a must have recipe.  It is super easy to make.


RECIPE:
One bag of Holiday-shaped marshmallows
Two large chocolate bars
2 cups chopped walnuts

Mix the marshmallows and the nuts into a large bowl.

Melt the chocolate and pour over the nuts and marshmallows.

Stir until well covered.

Spread over a cookie sheet.

Cut into bite-sized pieces.

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Mother Goose Popcorn

This is a childhood favorite, introduced to me by my grandmother.  She made this popcorn every Christmas.  Soon we made it throughout the year, changing the color and flavors for different holidays.  I changed it up by drizzling chocolate (milk and white) over the top.  It tasted great!


RECIPE

1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp butter
dash salt
1 1/2 tsp desired flavoring
Food coloring
Popcorn

Ingredients

Mix sugar, water, butter & salt.

Bring ingredients to a boil.

When it reaches the soft ball stage, remove from heat.

Add flavoring and a few drops of desired food coloring.

Pour over popcorn and stir until it becomes sugary and cold.

Drizzle with chocolate (if desired).

Voilà!  Yummy popcorn, great for gift-giving! 

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Caramel Crunch Bars

I found this recipe on the back of the bag of Kraft Caramel Bits.  They are tiny caramel balls ready for melting in any recipe.  No more unwrapping caramels!  This recipe is super easy and very yummy.  I have made it a few times now and the only thing I changed was the graham cracker layer.  The recipe called for a layer of graham crackers lining the bottom of the pan, but the first time I made it I didn't like the way the crackers cut.  So after that I made a graham cracker crust layer first and then followed the recipe exactly.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 honey graham crackers
1 pkg. (11 oz.) Kraft caramel bits
 2 Tbsp. milk
 1/2 cup Cocktail peanuts
1/2  cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 coarsely crushed pretzels
 4 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate melted


Line 8-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides.  grease the foil.  Place grahams on bottom of pan cutting to fit if necessary.

(Like I said above, I made a graham cracker crust instead of the graham crackers along the bottom.)

Microwave caramel bits and milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2minutes or until caramel bits are completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every 30 seconds.  Pour over graham layer.

Top with peanuts.

Then add the marshmallows and pretzels.

Drizzle with melted chocolate.  Refrigerate 1 hour.  Use foil handles to remove from pan before cutting into bars to serve.

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