White Chocolate Coconut Clusters

Geez, I'm such a slacker. I was supposed to get this post up last week. I sure hope you weren't holding your breath for these White Chocolate Coconut Clusters.

I don't like loose ends though, so I'm posting this recipe anyway and you can save it for next year.

C'mon, I'll show you how to make them.

You'll need small candy cups (get them now for next year, on sale . . . um, unless you live in my town because I bought all of them), finely chopped pecans or macadamia nuts, peppermint extract, sugar sprinkles, vanilla bark, white chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and flaked coconut.

Combine the nuts, coconut, peppermint extract and sweetened condensed milk. Chill for an hour.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and vanilla bark in a bowl over a hot water bath. A hot water bath is simply a pot of hot water, not boiling, in a pot on the stove. Then you put your chocolate in a metal bowl that rests over the hot water.

This ingenious little condiment bottle is going to make your work practically effortless, and waaaaaaay less messy. This brilliant idea came from Peanut Head's cousin, Alison, who makes these treats with the Barefoot Contessa every year.

You simply take a condiment bottle and cut the tip slightly larger to allow the melted chocolate to flow.

Then you keep it warm in a pan of hot water on the stove on low.

Now you're ready to put a small amount of chocolate in the bottom of each candy cup.

See how neat this is. No mess.

Next, take 1/2 teaspoon of your chilled coconut mixture and place it in the center of each candy cup.

Finish with more chocolate, about half way up the candy cups.

Sprinkle with pretty sugar crystals and . . .

Ta Da! The sweetest perfection.

And here's that recipe card. Enjoy!

The Buckeyes Are Here! The Buckeyes Are Here!

I'm so excited that I'm almost finished posting my holiday baking recipes. One more after this one and I'm done.

Of course that doesn't mean I won't keep pelting you with recipes. They just won't be these recipes.

These little beauties are Buckeyes.

Lots of people make Buckeyes, but Peanut Head has fond memories of his Grandpa Jones making these particular Buckeyes.

And our holiday treat containers just wouldn't be the same without them. People get angry when we leave out the Buckeyes.

You think I'm kidding, I know, but I'm not.

If you're familiar with Buckeyes, you're probably wondering why these are completely covered in chocolate. Most Buckeyes are dipped only three quarters of the way in chocolate. And the answer is, because Peanut Head likes them that way. He's like that. He always has to be different.

Now if you have a peanut allergy, you'll want to give these treats a wide berth or you'll swell up like a beach ball.

And Buckeyes are dang good, but I don't know if they're worth all that, if you know what I mean.

Here's the recipe for those of you without the peanut allergy. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jane Anne, if you have a peanut allergy in your house you can make Sunbutter Buckeyes. Mom's Food Allergy Diner has a recipe for you. Thanks Jane Anne!

Chocolate Mint Truffles

Quick! Don't look. I know you don't want these. They're Chocolate Mint Truffles.

I discovered them in this cookbook. I think you're going to like this recipe because it's super easy. And it doesn't require a ginormous list of ingredients.

And Leslie, you don't even need a candy thermometer. Yay!

See. All you need is some mint chocolate chips (or Creme De Menthe baking chips), hey whatever you can find that's in the mint family, semi-sweet chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk (not to be confused with that nasty evaporated milk), and sprinkles (or anything else you might like to roll your truffles around in.

I said easy, didn't I? Well, I meant it. You can even melt your chocolate in the microwave.

I know y'all in Texas don't like to be using your oven, like ever, because it's too dang hot, so you're going to love this recipe.

So, as I was saying, you melt the chocolates in the microwave, or on the stove if you're in Antarctica and you want to warm up your igloo, dump the sweetened condensed milk in, mix it around real good, then chill it for a couple hours.

Then you'll want to skim the nasty film off, the stuff that formed on the top while the truffle love was cooling, toss it over your shoulder, and get down to business.

Just start making little one inch balls. Kiy, you're going to have to get over that OCD messy hand thing. Although I feel your pain, you can't be letting it stand between you and the chocolate.

Just so you all know, Kiy won't touch food with her bare hands. Not even with food prep gloves. So I gave her some homework per my new OCD camp skills that I learned from watching Oprah. Yep, that makes me an expert. Anyway, she is to bathe in cold, raw meatball mixture. Then she has to lick her hands and she'll be cured. So, Kiy, did it work? We're dying to know.

Anyway, I was saying, roll the truffle mixture into one inch balls and then roll them around in the sprinkles until every millimeter is covered with sprinkles. Or you can use nuts if you want, or unsweetened cocoa, sugar, or coconut even. Really, whatever you want.

Then let them cool for an hour and they're done. Wasn't that easy?

I'm getting a little crazy with the macro setting on my camera. Don't these chocolate sprinkles look like little turds up this close?

I'm sorry. I really don't want to ruin the truffles for you. They're divine.

And the recipe card . . . Enjoy!

White Chocolate Egg Nog Fudge

We are nearing the end of our holiday baking, and I'm way backed up on making the recipe cards and posting them for you. It's hanging over my head like a dark cloud.

Because I dislike dark clouds, here's one more recipe towards that goal. I think I have six more to post yet.

Forget my holiday stress though, we all have it, don't we? Then we have post-holiday stress to look forward to, then New Year's Resolutions and Weight Watchers.

But for now, we party, so here we go. I'm excited to share this recipe for White Chocolate Egg Nog Fudge with you.

This is another of the recipes from Peanut Head's family, and one that we've been making for years. It's very tasty and I haven't met anyone yet that doesn't love it.

I'm not a fan of Egg Nog myself, but I love this fudge. In fact, I don't drink Egg Nog at all. Blech.

Here are the ingredients: marshmallow creme, sugar, butter, white chocolate, dairy Egg Nog, pecans, Rum Extract and Nutmeg.

Start by melting the butter over low heat.

Add sugar, then Egg Nog and start heating it up.

You want the temperature to reach 235 degrees fahrenheit, so you'll need your candy thermometer clipped to the pan and in the mixture at this point.

Once you reach the magic number, take the mixture off the heat and stir in the marshmallow creme. You have to be a little rough, it's like smacking the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man around.

That's right, he's in the Dog House. Bad Marshmallow Man.

Once Mr. Stay Puft is incorporated, you can add your nuts.

Then pour it all onto your parchment paper lined pan and let cool at room temperature, then in the fridge for a couple hours.

Since I live in Ida-below-freezing-in-the-winter-ho, we use our garage as a freezer for our holiday baking spree. It's very convenient.

I just left the fudge in the garage for a bit and it was ready to cut up in a jiffy.

By the way, I doubled this recipe so that's why it's bigger than 9x9 like the recipe states. We make four batches of this stuff during our holiday baking spree, so I double recipes whenever I can.

The parchment paper makes it super easy to get the fudge out of the pan, so cutting it is a breeze. No lie.

See. Just grab your butcher knife and go to town.

I love my butcher knife. I get jealous when other people use it.

You think I'm kidding, I know.

We like to put the pieces in individual candy cups so they don't stick to everything else once we put the goodies together to distribute. Plus it makes them pretty.

Do not, I repeat, do not stay in the house alone with this fudge. Once you start, you cannot stop.

Trust me.

Do you see what I'm talking about?

Go make some and enjoy the yum!

Pecan Molasses Toffee

This, by far, is my favorite, most sinful treat to make during the holidays. Once I make this, I have to hurry up and get everything else done so I can get it all out of the house. It's that dangerous.

Some people are intimidated by making toffee, but if you have a candy thermometer, it's a piece of cake.

Here are the ingredients: molasses, brown sugar, granulated sugar, water, cinnamon, BUTTER, pecans (they're hiding in the background) and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Did I mention the TOWER OF BUTTER? That's a pound and a quarter of butter. There's no way to get around it, if you want to make toffee, the two basic ingredients are butter and sugar.

It's a fact.

You should see us shopping for ingredients in the months prior to Thanksgiving. We look like very unhealthy eaters with our ginormous bags of chocolate chips, pecans, and vats o' butter.

Yep, we shop in bulk. That means we regularly have to use the food scale when baking.

Are you ready to make some toffee?

I implore you, before you even begin, make sure all your ingredients are at the ready and measured out.

Everything.

Once the Toffee Vesuvius starts, you can't be hunting for your cinnamon.

In fact, it gets so hairy at the end, that I have to place my 2 cups of pecans and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon right on the parchment paper lined jelly roll pan, or else I'll forget to mix them in before spreading the toffee out.

I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten this step, and you cannot, I repeat, cannot, mix these ingredients in once the toffee hits that cookie sheet. It's impossible.

I have tried. No lie.

The start is easy. Just melt that butter and add the sugars (yes, plural), water and molasses.

Heat that buttery bliss up and get it real angry-like.

270-280 degrees angry.

Then take it off the heat pronto, and mix in the nuts and cinnamon.

Then dump it all onto your jelly roll pan.

This part is cool because the toffee leaves the pan as a single unit. It's like watching a snake slither on home.

You need to be quick here and start spreading the toffee out until it covers the entire jelly roll pan.

It starts setting up right away and you can feel it resisting.

It should look like this.

Next, sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the toffee and let them sit and melt for one minute.

Then take a metal spoon and start spreading the chocolate over the surface of the toffee with the back of the spoon.

In no time, it will look like this.

Next, sprinkle the remaining pecan pieces over the chocolate and press them gently into the surface.

There is no need to wear food prep gloves for this step, as it is much easier to lick your hands clean without them.

And plastic tastes nasty.

Chill the sin for a couple hours and break it into pieces. Then hide it from all your friends and enjoy it like a bad addiction.

And here's that recipe card. Enjoy!