Peppermint

Peppermint Bark Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

December 19, 2017

How many versions of peppermint bark are there? Tons, I bet. I think I have made half of them, myself. It’s a holiday staple!

But there can always be more, right? So I thought I would add this cookie version of peppermint bark into the mix. (Although, I’m sure someone else has already thought of this, so it’s just new to me.

What I like about these peppermint bark chocolate Shortbread cookies is that they are, well, cookies. I would pick a chocolate cookie over a chocolate bar, any day of the week. But for those that need a chocolate fix, there is a nice white chocolate coating.

Speaking of which, for the white chocolate coating of these peppermint bark cookies I just melted down some white chocolate chips and also tossed in a drop or two of peppermint extract to give it even more peppermint flavor.

Then I dunked the cookie right in the melted chocolate. You could also spread the chocolate on the cookie, or drizzle. It’s up to you!

As for the cookie itself, I made a chocolate shortbread, which is one easy cookie to make. Classic shortbread is just butter, sugar, and flour. These obviously also have some cocoa powder.

The beauty of these cookies is that you can use whatever cookie you want, be it homemade or store bought.

Oh yes, my friends, I am not above buying some store bought chocolate cookies, dipping them into some chocolate, sprinkling with candy cane pieces, and calling them homemade. Okay semi-homemade.

It’s the holidays. We’re all busy. Work smarter, not harder.

Okay, rant over. Now onto the finishing touche…candy canes!

I threw a couple candy canes into a zip top bag and then smashed the heck out of them until I had itty bitty pieces. Some we’re a bit ittier and bittier, but I liked the contrast of larger chunks and candy cane dust.

While the chocolate was still wet, I sprinked a generous amount of candy cane pieces of top.

And that’s it! Delicious homemade (or semi-homemade) peppermint bark chocolate shortbread cookies.

Make them asap before the holidays are over!

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Snowflake Peppermint Marshmallows

December 17, 2017

What is better than peppermint and chocolate? I’ll tell you: nothing! Okay, maybe not nothing, but peppermint marshmallows and hot chocolate are pretty high up on my list of favorites after making these snowflake-shaped marshmallows.

It’s the perfect treat on these cold winter days with Christmas music playing in the background. It just gets you right into the holiday spirit!

As I mentioned in this post, marshmallows are super fun to make but oh-so messy! You really have to be prepared for powdered sugar and stickiness to be all over your kitchen. But I promise it’s worth it.

Making marshmallows starts with the gelatin. First, you first bloom the gelatin with water until it forms a thick jiggly blob, like really thick Jello. Next, pour boiling (240 degrees to be exact) sugar and corn syrup into the gelatin while you whisk it on low speed. Then, turn the speed up high and watch the liquified sugar and jiggly Jello blob magically turn into this light, fluffy, marshmallowy substance.

Once the mixture becomes pretty thick (about 10 minutes of whisking), it’s ready!

Before this whole baking experiment starts, you will want to prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and powdered sugar. In this case, I also crushed up some candy canes and sprinkled them on the baking sheet so that they sticky marshmallow would have bits of candy cane all over. Yum!

Spread the soft marshmallow on the baking sheet and then sprinkle with more powdered sugar and candy cane dust on top.

After a few hours, the marshmallow will set and become, well, a marshmallow!

I cut out my marshmallows using various snowflake cookie cutters to make them extra festive, but I did spray them down with some baking spray beforehand so that they wouldn’t stick as much.

You can cut them out in any shape you like. Candy canes would be fun! Or even just big squares or circles. Eventually, they are all just going to end up in a nice hot cup of hot cocoa!

Which is exactly where my peppermint marshmallows ended up.

I love that these marshmallows not only taste amazing on their own but when you add them to the hot cocoa, they lightly flavor it so that it becomes peppermint hot cocoa. It’s delightful!

Don’t just make these peppermint marshmallows for yourself, though. These would make a great gift or stocking stuffer! Marshmallows last quite a while, so as long as you store them in a bag, people can enjoy them long after the holidays!

However, I have no room to judge you if you keep these all for yourself. I didn’t share these with anyone! They didn’t last long enough.

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Peppermint Popcorn

December 19, 2016

My friend, Michelle, shared this recipe with me a couple Christmases ago. She refers to it as “Christmas Crack” due to it’s addictive qualities. But since I think of this when I hear “Christmas Crack”, I am going to refer to this super easy and delicious holiday snack as Peppermint Popcorn.

Even though this recipe is only 3-4 ingredients and can be pulled together in a pinch, it is so so good! But how can popcorn covered in white chocolate and candy canes be bad?

I started this recipe by getting out all of my frustration on a bunch of innocent candy canes. I placed the unwrapped candy canes in a plastic bag and whacked them to smithereens with a meat mallet until they were candy cane dust.

Then, popped the popcorn. I prefer using an air popper most of the time. Not only is it a bit healthier, but for me it’s a bit more fool proof. I haven’t quite mastered the art of popping popcorn on the store without burning more than a few pieces.

And while the popcorn was popping, I placed the white chocolate chips in the microwave to melt. I also stirred in some peppermint extract for even more peppermint flavor.

Once the popcorn was popped, I drizzled on the white chocolate and gave the popcorn a good toss so that each piece was nice and coated in chocolate. Next, I sprinkled on the candy canes, and tossed again. I also like to toss in a little bit of salt, for that sweet, salty flavor.

Once the popcorn was covered in chocolate and candy canes, I dumpped it out on a piece of parchment to dry. After about 10 minutes, it is ready be packed into bags to hand out to friends, or you can just eat it yourself. I probably ate about half of this myself before I remembered that I made this for other people (I have no self control!).

Michelle loves to set this out at parties for her friends to munch on. I have made this for work functions in the past as a nice alternative to Christmas candy. It still satisfies any sweet tooth, but it’s not quite as heavy as a piece of fudge or a cookie.

But that’s also what makes this popcorn so sneaky addicting. Because it’s lighter, you can eat a lot of it before realizing “holy crap, I just ate an entire bowl of this stuff!”. But it’s also delicious, so you don’t really care.

Can you tell I am speaking from personal experience? That’s pretty much what happened to me when I was packing up little gift bags of this stuff for friends. I ate an entire small popcorn bowl of this stuff.

I guess I will just have to make another batch. Aw shucks. 😉

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:108]

Peppermint Brownie Cookies

December 9, 2016

I feel like there are two kinds of people in this world: those that love the brownie edge, and those that love the brownie center. Guess which one I am. I’m team brownie edge all the way. I love the crunchy, caramelized corners and sides of the brownie. Sometimes when I make a batch of brownies, I will cut off the scraggly edges and tell myself I am just making them look prettier and more uniform. But if I am being honest with myself, it’s so that I can eat all the edges.

And that is what I love about these cookies. It is 90% brownie edge!

What I also love about these cookies is how easy they were to make! It literally took minutes to mix everything together and pop in the oven. In just about 30 minutes I had warm, fresh peppermint brownie cookies.

These cookies start with, what else, a bag of brownie mix! To that I mixed in some melted butter and one egg. I did not follow the recipe on the back of the box.

Once it’s all mixed together, its pretty thick. Not at all like a brownie batter but (shockingly) more like a cookie dough.

For that peppermint flavor, I mixed in some Andies peppermint chunks because that’s what I found at the grocery store. But if you can get your hands on some peppermint chocolate chips or even other peppermint candy, you can add those in instead.

Another great thing about these cookies is that don’t take nearly as long to bake as a normal batch of cookies. Within a matter of minutes, the chocolate dough had spread out and crisped up around the edges, but remained a bit soft in the center.

For the brownie edge love, like me, these cookies are perfect. The first bite it all crunch. But the center is super soft.

However, for those of you who love the soft gooey center of the brownie and are not willing to give that up. Guess what! You can pretty much make the exact same recipe in brownie form! Just follow the recipe on the back of the box and add the water and oil as necessary.

I can’t alienate half (maybe more) of the brownie loving population. Everyone deserves a delicious bite of chocolate and peppermint. Especially during the holidays.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:105]

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

Peppermint Chocolate Chex Mix

December 7, 2015

So what do you do with the extra candy canes you bought after you make peppermint bark brownies? You make peppermint chocolate Chex Mix. Then you eat almost all of it before taking pictures for the blog.

Yeah, it was that good. It almost tastes like if they made Chex Mix with Thin Mint cookies. So if you like Thin Mints, you will probably like this.

This would be the perfect party mix for any of your holiday parties. That’s actually what I intended for this Chex Mix. We have several gatherings and parties coming up so I planned on bringing this for our friends. Fortunately I have plenty cereal left over so I can make another batch. I am just worried it will have the same fate as the first batch. And let me tell you, my waist line can’t take any more.

Here’s how it starts…

3 cups of Rice Chex Mix, 3 cups of Chocolate Chex Mix, and 2 cups of Cocoa Puffs

Then I added in about 1 1/2 cups of pretzels that I broke up into smaller pieces.

For the “special sauce” I mixed about 1 tablespoon of hot cocoa mix, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp peppermint extract, and 6 tablespoons of butter. I mixed it thoroughly so that the cocoa mix dissolved as much as possible into the butter.

I then tossed the butter mixture through the cereal until it was pretty well mixed and the butter coated all of the cereal.

I made my Chex Mix the quick way and went with the microwave instead of the oven. I microwaved this for a total of 5 minutes, mixing twice after 2 minutes and 4 minutes.

Then I spread it out over a baking sheet to let the mix cool. Once cool, I tossed in a few marshmallows, because, why not! Then I drizzled it with white and semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkled crushed candy canes on top. I let all of that cool for an hour or so until the chocolate was no longer wet.

I would say that this is the point I served it to our friends or brought it into work to share with my coworkers and everyone loved it. But it didn’t get that far. My husband and I ate all of it ourselves. Which is either a testament to how delicious this Chex Mix was, or how big of pigs we are. Maybe both.

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