Sweets and Treats

I've been on a bit of a treat making kick lately - the colder weather has that affect on me.  Way back in October, I posted a list of cookies/bars/treats that I wanted to make during the colder months.  Today I thought I'd post an update to that list, as well as a rundown on how the treat boxes shaped up.

I've made the following items from the original list.

• Russian Tea Cakes

Russian Tea Cakes - Delicious!

• Peppermint Snowball Cookies
• Chocolate Hazelnut Corners

Hazelnut Corners before cutting





Here they've been cut and baked.


• Cappuccino Praline Bars
• Shortbread Brownies
• Spicy Vanilla Pecans
• Gingersnaps

Gingersnaps

• Honey Butter Caramels with Sea Salt

They were all good, but I think my favorite was the Russian Tea Cakes or the Spicy Vanilla Pecans.

A few of these were good enough to make it into the Treat Boxes this year even!  I ended up buying 3-tiered box sets (although I didn't take pictures of them because I'm a loser and a bad blogger), so here's the plan I used to fill them.  The number in parenthesis is how many batches I made.

The Large Tier:
Candy cane shaped sugar cookies (3) - I used a plain powdered sugar icing to coat them in white, then peppermint flavored red icing for stripes.

Candy canes, Hazelnut corners and Pookie decorating some of the scraps

7 Layer Bars (4) - I bought enough ingredients to make one more batch because Bryant LOVES these.  We actually call them Vernetta Bars after his Grandmother.  She used to make them for him every time he'd visit her.
Cappuccino Praline Bars (3) - The recipe called for instant espresso powder, but I couldn't find any.  I used instant coffee powder instead; the flavor was quite mild and delicious.

The Middle Tier:
Peppermint Snowball Cookies (3) - The hardest part of this recipe was crushing the Starlight mints - I had to borrow Bryant's hammer! 
Chocolate Hazelnut Corners (2) - A single batch of this recipe makes approximately 17 dozen cookies - I doubled that.  But they're delicious and tiny, so I'm glad I made as many as I did.  There were very few leftovers.
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies (3) - Oh so good!

Sorry for the blurry picture - apparently I can't take a good picture of these cookies.

The Small Tier:
English Toffee (2) - I burned two fingers making these, but they were crazy good!
Spicy Vanilla Pecans (4) - I make these fairly often now since they're so easy and delicious.
Honey Butter Caramels with Sea Salt (2) - The first time I made these, I made a couple of mistakes.  First, I used foil to line the pan - Parchment paper made a huge difference!  It was so much easier!  Secondly, when we boiled the mixture for the second time, we only just got it to 250 degrees.  The resulting caramels were quite soft and had to be kept in the fridge to maintain texture and shape.  This time we cooked them up to 253 degrees and it made all the difference!  They were solid and more like what I imagined they would be.  Perfect!

Also, treat boxes for people outside of my immediate family contained Martha Washington Candy - a delicious mix of coconut, walnuts, powdered sugar, melted butter and sweetened condensed milk, rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate!  Mmmmmmm....

So there you have it - my holiday baking for 2010.