It's that time of year...

Goodie Plates!!!!  Someone commented to me that I make too many things, that they wouldn't go to all the work.  But then I thought.  If I only made a few things, but still took around the same amount of plates, there wouldn't be very many leftover's for me!!!  I'd rather make all my favorites (let's face it I was going to make them all anyway) and double the recipe (no extra time that way) and have plenty for plates AND my own enjoyment!  Plus it isn't hard, just time consuming, and OH so worth it!  So here is the set up around the island while I'm making the plates.

A sample plate.  I should have gotten bigger plates so I could have fit 3 of each thing (but that mean's less for me... hmmmm maybe these plates were the perfect size).  So we have (starting from the top and going counter clockwise) Sugar cookies, caramel brownies, candy cane marshmallows, peanut butter squares, almond brittle, sandies and chocolate pecan fudge.  I didn't get around to making truffles, but they wouldn't have fit on the plate very well.
 
And here is Tonight's round of plates.  I'm sure I'll be making some more (you always want one for that person that drops off a plate that you weren't expecting to so you can reciprocate right away) and Santa has to get one...  And since I know I'll get some request's for recipes see below.  I'll be posting each recipe for your enjoyment!  Merry Christmas!

Candy Cane Marshmallows

I have to give credit to Martha Stewart for this one! You can find it on her site here. They turned out great. My 2 1/2 year old can't stop eating them and they are great in my homemade hot chocolate. Pretty too! I'm not sure if I am allowed to reproduce it here so if someone knows one way of the other just tell me. For now here is the recipe (in her words, not mine- I like my recipes short and to the point).

Candy Cane Marshmallows
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
4 packages (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons red food coloring
1. Coat an 8-inch square pan with cooking spray; line bottom with parchment paper. Coat the parchment with cooking spray, and set pan aside. Put sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring; let mixture come to a boil. Raise heat to medium-high; cook until mixture registers 260 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over 3/4 cup water in a heatproof bowl; let stand 5 minutes to soften. Set the bowl with the gelatin mixture over a pan of simmering water; whisk constantly until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat, and stir in extract; set aside.
3. Beat egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Whisk gelatin mixture into sugar mixture; with mixer running, gradually add to egg whites. Mix on high speed until very thick, 12 to 15 minutes.
4. Pour mixture into lined pan. Working quickly, drop dots of red food coloring across surface of marshmallow. Using a toothpick, swirl food coloring into marshmallow to create a marbleized effect. Let marshmallow stand, uncovered, at room temperature until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Cut into squares.

Sugar Cookies

These are actually from my Grandma Houghtaling. My mom talks about how she always had some of this dough in the freezer ready for a batch. But since my mom and her siblings would sneak some every so often that by the time Grandma pulled out some dough there wasn't much left. I have about 120+ different cookie cutters and my kids and I make these cookies for EVERY holiday. My husband complains that the peppermint icing should only be for Christmas so I do experiment with other flavors, but my favorite is still the peppermint I grew up with. I use these 13x20 pans for my kids to decorate on, it catches the extra sprinkles which I pore into a misc sprinkle bag that they love to use up, you can see the misc sprinkles on the trees above.

Sugar Cookies
3 ¼ C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder
½ C Butter and margarine
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ C thick sour cream
Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and powder. In separate bowl cream butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill in fridge for 3-4 hours roll out to 1/4 inch cut into shapes. Cook at 350 for 15 mins

Frosting
4 ½ C powder sugar
¼ C milk
1/3 C butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
Food coloring (optional)
Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint add more milk if needed

The secret is in the thickness of the cookie's, don't be stingy when you roll them out. The dough can actually stay good in the freezer for months (if it last's that long without being eaten!). For icing flavors I've tried almond and been happy with it, and even substituted some of the milk for a flavored creamer and had success. So ENJOY! The decorating possibilities are endless.

Caramel Brownies

My ABSOLUTE favorite. I made a second pan of these just so I could eat one myself! My mom always made these, and my sister's and I love them. I can't imagine Christmas without at least one batch of these. I've made them during the year at times, but something about them just feels like Christmas too me. I'm not sure where my mom got this recipe, but it's the only thing I use a box mix for anymore. This year I couldn't find caramel squares ANYWHERE. So I used the new caramel dot things. They actually are a few ounces smaller than the old caramel square bags were but my husband liked it better with less of the caramel. I also use less chips. I just like the balance better myself, but to each his own!

Caramel Brownies
½ C evaporated milk
50 unwrapped caramels squares (about 14 oz)
½ C evaporated Milk
1 package German chocolate cake mix
¾ C butter melted
1 C walnuts chopped (I prefer pecans but I think my mom and sisters would have a heart attack if I actually changed the recipe to SAY pecans)
12 oz Chocolate chips
Mix ½ C milk, cake mix, butter, and walnuts. Press 2/3 dough in bottom of glass pan (9x13) cook at 350 for 6 mins. In sauce pan melt ½ C milk and caramels pour over cooked crust. Sprinkle chocolate and rest of dough on top cook 15-20 min at 350

Peanut Butter Cup Squares

I actually got this recipe from my Aunt Lynne years ago. I'm not really into peanut butter, but these are my husbands favorites. In fact I made a batch last week for a cookies exchange and it only lasted one day. So I made another batch and it's actually already gone too! Lucky it's so easy to make, I think I'll make him another one tomorrow. My chocolate actually tempered very well, and was cooling perfectly right up until the very end. I made these too late in the evening and the FREEZING temp's here in UT ruined my nice looking finish, but hey, they still taste great, right?

Peanut butter cup squares
1 ½ pkg graham crackers crushed
1 lbs powdered sugar
1 C melted Butter
½ C peanut butter
Mix all together and press into buttered 9x13 pan. Top with 12 oz milk chocolate chips melted. Refrigerate.

Almond Brittle

This is a family favorite. My mom always made two batches. The first never seemed to work, but the second always did. We always thought that it was weird, but couldn't figure it out. Then I moved to AZ! Dry, DRY desert, and it worked EVERY TIME. Perfectly. It also worked in UT. Then I moved to TX and it NEVER worked. Turns out candy making is affected a lot by the barometer range. SO if it's going to rain DON'T bother! In the house we're in now we actually bought and installed a whole house humidifier. While it's nice for our nose/throats/etc... It doesn't help with candy making much. This batch started to separate right before I was about to pour it out! FRUSTRATING. But I caught it JUST in time and after soaking up the separated butter it turned out almost perfect! Not at all grainy, very crunchy, really quite nice! One of the FEW nice things about dry places (I still prefer humidity, but it is nice to get to make this treat this year).

Almond Brittle
1 C butter
1 C sugar
1 C chopped almonds
King size Hershey bar chopped
Mix butter and sugar in sauce pan heat till at “Cracked Stage” on candy thermometer or when caramel colored and smoking. Mix in Almonds. Pour onto cookie sheet spread chocolate on top and finely chopped almonds

Fudge!

My mom loves fudge, but we've never found a successful recipe that we could count on. Then a few years ago she found a box mix for fudge! You read that right, a box mix for fudge, AND it not only worked it tasted GREAT! So I bought a box, measured out everything (from the prepackaged baggies) and created this recipe. Easy, quick and, so far, perfect every time! I double the recipe and use a 9x13, but just so you know it's a VERY thick fudge, I might use 2 pans next time.

Chocolate pecan fudge
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or a mixture of semisweet and milk chocolate)
1/4 cup butter
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional- you can also use walnuts)
Place chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter or margarine in large microwaveable bowl. Zap in microwave on medium until chips are melted, about 3-5 minute, stirring once or twice during cooking. Stir in nuts, if desired. Pour into well-greased 8x8-inch glass baking dish. Refrigerate until set.

Sandies

You might also know these as Mexican Wedding Cookies. I've heard a few other names for them too. Everywhere I move I have to learn new names for recipes and ingredients I use often. But these are also from my Grandmother. She grew up in Mexico and has a lot of wonderful recipes. These are very delicate when they come out of the oven so be careful when you cover them with the powdered sugar. Of course if some break feel free to eat them!

Sandies
1 C butter
¼ powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs water
2 C sifted flour
1 C chopped pecans
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and water, mix. Add flour, mix. Add pecans, mix. Form balls bake at 300 for 20 min, while hot roll in powdered sugar

Christmas cookies

I got an order for 8 dozen Christmas cookies on Monday. I have a family sugar cookie recipe that is just wonderful. I love it. Anyway I made the cookies Wednesday night, and last night frosted them and delivered them this morning. The cookies turned out great. But I had MAJOR issues with the icing. It just wouldn't stay consistent. I like to outline with a thicker icing tip 3, then once it dries fill in with a thinner icing. It just looks so nice. But this time the thicker icing was too thick then too runny and after awhile it started to separate. I don't know if my recipe needs tweaking or if it's something else. It's the same recipe I've used for the last 20+ years, and my mom and grandmother before that! I think I did something wrong. Maybe added too much milk when it was too thick, then couldn't get the balance right after that. It's a lesson in only adding a tsp at a time when thinning icing!  Either way I wasn't as happy with these results as last years. Oh well. Doing 8 dozen in one night I didn't have alot of time so I just got it done. Here is the recipe if your interested!

Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C Butter and margarine
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C thick sour cream
Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and powder. In separate bowl cream butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill in fridge for 3-4 hours roll out to 1/4 inch cut into shapes. Cook at 350 for 15 mins.

Frosting
4 1/2 C powder sugar
1/4 C milk
1/3 C butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
Food coloring (optional)
Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint add more milk if needed.

M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e

A good friend of mine asked me to make a birthday cake for her mother.  When talking about what she liked it came out that she LOVES Mickey Mouse.  And that she really loves the hat's you can get when you are there.  SO we came up with this design.  Now I don't like to write on cake's.  It makes me nervous, that and while I can make a great cake, I tend to shake when it comes to the precise details (thanks MOM- I got it from her!), which makes writing NICELY difficult!  BUT I think it turned out great.  The ears were really fun to do.  AND I discovered a GREAT lemon cake recipe while trying out new recipes for this cake.  I'm still not happy with my Strawberry cake recipe though, so anyone that has one they love let me know!