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Holiday Treat Making

December 13, 2015 by girlinspired 3 Comments

Simple Holiday Treat MakingWhat treats do you have on your holiday baking list?  I always have a pile of things I want to make, so this year we started early.  We try to do plenty of baking activities that involve the kids (and I always have a few recipes that I prefer to do after bedtime so that my inner control freak doesn’t embarrass herself).  I laid out all the supplies for this particular activity on a lazy Sunday afternoon and let the kids go to town dipping pretzels and treats in melted candy.  It was super fun for them and stress-free for me.  It’s hard to go wrong with these simple ideas for holiday treat making!

Simple Holiday Treat Making

Simple Holiday Treat Making

The ticket to baking + candy sprinkles + kids is….candy melts!  Candy melts are a lot of fun to use.  They’re easy to melt, they taste great, and they stay wet long enough that you can sprinkle on decorations before they dry hard!  (And once they do dry, they’re easy to handle!) We made dipped pretzel rods, dipped Oreos, and dipped “candy cane spoons.”

Simple Holiday Treat MakingThe supplies can be found at Jo-Ann and your neighborhood grocery store.

Candy Melts in desired colors/flavors (plan on two packages per dipping color so that the cup can be filled deep enough)
pretzel rods/cookies/marshmallows
candy sprinkles Christmas mix
Peppermint crunch sprinkles
candy cane spoons or candy cane twists
disposable decorating bags 12″ for drizzling
deep mugs or candy melts melting pot
parchment paper
cookie sheet
bowl for catching sprinkles

Simple Holiday Treat Making

Fill a mug with candy melts and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between every interval, until the candy melts are completely smooth.  Once my candy started melting down, I added additional melts to get the candy as deep as possible for dipping.  If you are going to dip pretzel rods and would like to more fully coat them, you will need a taller, narrower glass for melting the candy.

Simple Holiday Treat Making

If you plan on adding a drizzle over dipped items, now is a good time to get the drizzle prepared.  Heat a large measuring cup filled with water for 2-3 minutes in the microwave so that it is very hot (not quite boiling).  Fill a disposable decorating bag with a handful of candy melts and clip or rubber band the end closed.  Place the bag in the water; the candy melts will start to soften and melt.  Every now and then, squish the candy around to redistribute the heat and fully melt the candy.  Keep the bags in the warm water until ready to use.

Simple Holiday Treat Making

Simple Holiday Treat MakingSimple Holiday Treat Making

I found it easiest to prepare the candy melts and set out the food for dipping before alerting the girls to our afternoon activity.  It doesn’t take much time to prepare, but we all do better if they’re not jumping up and down with the jar of sprinkles before the treats are ready to be made!  The actual dipping is easy and the girls (ages 6-10) were able to do all the steps independently.  Dunk your food into the melted candy, tap off the excess, add sprinkles, set on parchment paper to cool.  EASY!  FUN! Allow the food to cool and the candy to harden; slip the parchment paper onto a cookie sheet and pop it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to speed up the hardening process.

Simple Holiday Treat Making

Once the dipped candy has hardened, you can add the chocolate drizzles.  Remove the decorating bag from the warm water and dry the exterior completely with a towel.  Snip the very tip off of the decorating bag with a scissors.  Squeeze the bag gently and sweep your hand quickly from side to side across the food tray. You can achieve a more even drizzle if you lay all the pretzels, for example, next to each other and then start and finish your drizzle motion on the paper to the sides of the pretzels so that your hand is already moving as the drizzle hits the pretzels.  Immediately pick up the drizzled food and move it to a fresh sheet of parchment paper for cooling so that the lines of drizzle don’t cool into one big piece.

Simple Holiday Treat Making

Simple Holiday Treat Making

We all loved the candy cane spoons and packaged up some little mason jars with hot cocoa mix (layer equal parts granulated sugar and unsweeted cocoa powder, plus a dash of salt) to pair with the spoons as quick gifts.  Attach a tag that says “mix 1/4 c. cocoa mix with 1 cup of hot milk, stir, and enjoy!”  I couldn’t resist this “Jar Jewelry” – festive snowflake mason jar lids and felt star twine wrap.

Simple Holiday Treat Making

Simple Holiday Treat Making

This kind of holiday crafting is my favorite – fun, festive, relaxing!  I have some great little gifts on hand and another fun activity with my kids in the books!

You might also like:

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies - topped with Peppermint Marshmallow Frosting and Candy Cane bits!Candy Cane Sugar Cookies with Peppermint Marshmallow Frosting

20 DIY Christmas WreathsLoads of Christmas Wreath Inspiration!

Pattern and Tutorial for Fur and Flannel Stockings - easy!

Fur and Flannel Stockings Pattern

 

Filed Under: Christmas, Crafting, Food and Recipes, gifts, Holiday Inspiration Tagged With: candy melts, holiday treat making, neighbor gifts

S’mores Bark

April 10, 2015 by girlinspired 3 Comments

Super Easy S'mores Bark - love this easy recipe to make s'mores bark without all the mess!

If there’s one thing my whole family can agree on, it’s that we love candy!  For me, the focus is on chocolate – and especially chocolate with stuff in it.  What I don’t love is making treats that produce so many dishes, the whole kitchen ends up in disarray and the treats are gone before the dishes are done!  So I did a little experimenting and I came up with what is possibly the easiest, mess-free treat – S’mores Bark!  Wait till you see how super easy it is to make!

Super Easy S'mores Bark - mess free and so easy to make! Yum!

Basically, the only cookware you’ll need is an 8.5 x 11 baking dish and a sheet of parchment paper.  Throw a 12 oz bag of chocolate (I used real chocolate pieces, but you can also use candy melts) and a 12 oz. bag of white melting chocolates/candy (Wilton even makes a marshmallow flavor!!) into your baking pan lined with parchment paper.  Toss in a cup of nuts, too, if you like the added crunch (I always like crunch!!)

Super Easy S'mores Bark - mess free and so easy to make! Yum!Next, pop the pan into the oven and turn it on to 350 degrees.  No preheating required!  After about 5-7 minutes, check the chocolates.  They won’t be fully melted, but they will be very soft all the way through and melty around the outside.  Done!  Pull the pan out of the oven and use a spoon or knife to swirl the candy together into a big melted puddle.

Super Easy S'mores Bark - mess free and so easy to make! Yum!

Sprinkle the warm chocolate with graham cracker pieces and mini marshmallows and place the pan in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Super Easy S'mores Bark - mess free and so easy to make! Yum!

When the bark has hardened completely, lift the whole sheet out of the pan by the corners of the parchment paper.  Peel the paper from the bottom and break the bark into chunks!  That’s it!  If you covered your pan well with the parchment paper, you may not even need to wash the pan!!  Don’t you love that?

Super Easy S'mores Bark - love this easy recipe to make s'mores bark without all the mess!

Super Easy S'mores Bark - love this easy recipe to make s'mores bark without all the mess!

I’m going to go with pretty awesome treat here!!  I hope you love how easy this is!  My girls were all kinds of crazy over this one!  Have fun!

Super Easy S'mores Bark - love this easy recipe to make s'mores bark without all the mess!

More from our S'mores Themed Campout!

S'mores Party with Chinet® Cut Crystal®, Printables and Cash Giveaway

S'mores Bark

Gone Camping Printable Cupcake Toppers

S'mores Cheesecake Parfaits

Filed Under: Desserts, Food and Recipes Tagged With: candy melts, chocolate, easy recipes, marshmallow, s'mores

Molded Candy Seashells

June 22, 2012 by girlinspired 16 Comments

 I promise that I’m working diligently to prepare for an upcoming mermaid birthday party; I just don’t have a whole lot of finished product to show here yet!
 
  I do have these beautiful molded candy seashells, though.  Aren’t they lovely?  I used plastic molding trays purchased from Sugarcraft and super white candy melts.  Once the candies were molded and popped out of the trays, I dry-brushed them with a few shades of dusting powder.  Specifically, I used Luster Dust in Salmon and Georgia Peach and Pearl Dust in Super Pearl.  Dusting powders were also purchased from Sugarcraft.  
 
I can’t wait to see how the finished product turns out when I use these for the birthday party, but I can’t tell you just yet what my plans are – you know, in case it doesn’t all pan out.  They sure are pretty, though.  I’m such a sucker for some shimmer.
 
For additional candy-making instructions, visit my Molding Chocolate post.

Filed Under: Cake Decorating Tagged With: candy melts, candy mold, seashell

Cookies for the Teacher

May 31, 2011 by girlinspired 9 Comments

I recently came across this tutorial on making chocolate covered Oreos and was introduced to chocolate transfer sheets.  Let’s just say I spent more than a minute or two browsing all the online options for transfer sheet patterns.  When I came across an adorable apple pattern, I thought it would be the perfect gift for the girls’ teachers this year.  Who wouldn’t love some decked out Oreos? 

Supplies:
Oreo cookies (or any sandwich cookie, really)
Plain oreo cookie mold – I got mine here
Candy melts, candy-coating pieces
Chocolate transfer sheets – I got mine here

The first thing you’re going to do is cover your cookies with chocolate/candy coating.  It’s pretty simple.  Just put a couple spoonfuls of melted candy into the mold, press the cookie in, cover the top with a little more candy, and tap the tray to help fill in the gaps.  Put the tray into the refrigerator to help the candy set up quicker.  Twist the tray to release the covered cookies.  Then…

And that is it!  Consider this your one and only warning, though…browsing those two sugar supply stores, Fancy Flours Bakery and Sugar Craft, may leave you sounding an awful lot like Veruca Salt, “I want it now!” (and I WANT IT ALL!!)  or maybe it’s just me.

Filed Under: Cake Decorating, Crafting, Tips and Tutorials Tagged With: candy melts, Oreos, teacher appreciation

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