hot pepper jelly candied walnuts

Lots of holiday parties this time of year. And while at these holiday parties do you ever find yourself sizing up the all the dishes and trying to figure out which one belongs to which person? Do you see the same old dishes year after year and think "jeez, did that person bring that crappy dish again?". Are you as bad as I am? And put a face to each and every dish and then wait to see which person comes over to the dish to 're-organize it', 'clean it up'? Well, yes I am guilty of that. But I'm also guilty of waiting to see who belongs to the fabulous dishes too. Dying to find out who it is and ask them why this, what made you think of that? Because that means there is another foodie at the party and a good "food" conversation will surely start.
So I made these candied walnuts with the hope in mind that a few people will bite into them and then a few seconds later a gentle expression of "oh, that's different", "what's in this?". I love that part. And of course I love to answer every single ingredient query. Do you?
What's the worst party themed dish you've seen?
What's the best?

These candied walnuts came about when that jar lone of peppered jelly was just sitting in the cupboard for a couple months. I did have plans to use it in a cheese/wine roll of some sort, but saw the walnuts and knew immediately what to do with it. I was hesitant at first because it doesn't make it completely candied/hardened but does lend a nice unique flavor. They are sticky but tasty.

hot pepper jelly candied walnuts
print recipe

¾ cup hot pepper jelly/jam
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 dashes of Tabasco sauce
2 cups walnuts (pecans would work well too)
1 egg white, room temperature

Cook notes: the nuts will be sticky after baking; they will not form a hard shell; sticky but very tasty. The pepper jelly is not that spicy at all--a gentle heat.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
In a bowl mix the hot pepper jelly with salt and Tabasco sauce. Set aside.

In separate bowl beat egg white frothy but not stiff. Add in the walnuts, and stir to coat evenly. Next add in the pepper jelly mix and toss until evenly coated.

Spread the nut mixture onto a parchment or silicone mat lined cookie sheet.
I gave them a light sprinkle of salt before baking, optional.
Bake for 30-40 minutes; halfway thru mixing up the nuts and/or rotate the pan. Check at the 30 minute mark for doneness.
You will know the nuts are done when they are slightly browned and the jelly coating is firmed up a bit.
Remove from oven. Nuts will be hot, so be careful touching them.
After they’ve cooled a bit, separate and break up any large clumps.

When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.

PMS Christmas Bark: Part 1, 2, & 3

Jokingly on facebook I stated to my friends that years ago I created a Christmas bark that can easily be given as a gift and double as a PMS bark. The agreement was overwhelming by all my female friends; a bark made of salty, sweet, sticky, chewy and a hint of crispy--how could anyone, let alone a female disagree? I mean it covers all the four food groups that females tend to crave while going through PMS. Right?

Here is the PMS Christmas bark Part 1. Made of Cheez It's, chocolate Oreo's all nice and cozy warm in a base of thick white chocolate. Last year it's first appearance was resounding BUT this year people went crazy for it.



Part 2 was a whole other kind of creation made to satisfy those wanting milk chocolate instead of white chocolate.
So here is PMS Chrismtas Bark Part 2, or Cheez It Bark. Made with again Cheez It's with a hard caramel middle, covered in milk chocolate then a nice sprinkling of salty pecans.

And now we have a Part 3. The peanut butter and bacon chocolate bark. Bacon of course is a very important food group when creating a PMS bark? So why not.

Part 3 is very easy to make. Just roll out the dough onto a baking sheet. Originally this was done with cookies--my almost flourless peanut butter cookies with chocolate. This dough makes the perfect bark.



As soon as it comes out of the oven place cooked strips of bacon on the top. Gently pushing them in.



When the cookie layer has cooled then drizzle with bittersweet chocolate. You can use whatever chocolate you like; I found that bittersweet was just the right balance as the semi and milk chocolates were just too sweet and overpowered the bacon and peanut butter flavors. Can't have that can we?




peanut butter & bacon chocolate bark
print recipe

1 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter (natural peanut butter works best just not too oily)
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
½ ts baking powder
1 ts baking soda
2 TB flour
1 ts sea salt

5-7 strips of cooked bacon, in strips or in small chunks
6-8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Cook notes: this dough cooks very fast. It may not look like its done at the 10 or 11 minute mark but it is. Since there is almost no flour in there it cooks very fast. The next time I make this I will drizzle way less chocolate. In my opinion I put too much chocolate on there and it drowned out the peanut butter flavor. I highly doubt this freezes well. Natural peanut butter is best for this, just not one that's too oily.

In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.
Crack egg open in a small bowl and beat. Add egg to the cookie mixture, mix well.
Next sprinkle the flour mixture over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump. Mix till combined. Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about an hour or more.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place a parchment sheet on jelly roll pan. Place dough on sheet and spread it out. It will not spread out the whole size of the jelly roll pan only about halfway
If dough is sticky, just wet your finger tips.

Bake for 10-11 minutes, until very lightly browned. As soon as you remove it from the oven, place the strips of bacon on top and gently push down/in. Let cool at least 2 hours at room temperature.
When cooled drizzle with the melted bittersweet chocolate. Let chocolate harden and slice into squares.

Makes about 12-15 bars depending on how you cut them.



And finally the winner of the Nescafe Dolce Piccolo giveaway is Jen of Duluth, GA who was the lucky number 62. Please contact me Jen with your mailing address. Congrats Jen!

cream cheese filled sugar cookie wedges

Ever get that impulse when visiting the "larger" grocery stores to stock up? Like stock up on stuff you really don't need and shouldn't buy? But you buy it anyways because IT'S ON SALE?

Yeah, me too. And then those things you bought sit in your cupboards and you haven't a clue what to do with them? Well, I found something to do with the 'instant' sugar cookie packs! And they don't taste that bad really, I doctored them up a bit to make them even more appealing and tasty. A nice addition of cream cheese, then a warm chocolate bath followed up with a nice coating of crushed candy canes--they tasted fabulous.

So if you have an upcoming holiday office party or casual cookie swap or like me, need to use up the sugar cookie packs that might be sitting in your cupboards. They were quite a hit here at home --very tasty. Serve with a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Easy peasy to do. Just bake the sugar cookie packs (2) in cake pans. Let cool.





Let them cool. Then spread a nice even layer of the cream cheese filling, being careful not to go to the edges. Place other sugar cookie cake on top and into fridge to set up for a bit.



When ready to start dipping, use a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the sugar cookie cake. Push down all the way but don't remove--we want to use this as a guide for cutting even wedges. Cut like you would an old fashioned shortbread wheel.





Dip in melted semi sweet chocolate and garnish with crushed candy canes or whatever else you desire. (I tried using milk chocolate but it was just too sweet; the semi sweet tastes much better). Store in fridge.

cheese cream filled sugar cookie sandwich wedges
print recipe

Cook notes:
Feel free to use your favorite sugar cookie recipe for this. If you do decide to use your own sugar cookie mix make sure to make enough dough for two- 8 (or 9) inch cake pans.

Sugar cookie dough packs (2) or use your own favorite sugar cookie recipe

filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt

garnish:
18 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted
Crushed candy canes, optional but wonderful

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Prepare cookie mix according to directions, Instead of baking them on a pan we will use 2- 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Make sure to grease up the cake pans, really well as we do not want them to stick.
Bake at 350 for about 12-16 minutes or until edges are golden brown; center might still be somewhat soft. That’s ok as we will let this harden up in fridge. I like to think these sugar cookies taste a little better when they are soft, but if you like crunchy sugar cookies then by all means do what you like most.
Let these cool and meanwhile let’s make the cream cheese filling. Mix the cream cheese with about ¼ cup or so (taste test as you go to see if it needs more sugar). Mix well. Then spread a nice layer of the mixture on one of the giant sugar cookies (be careful not to go to the edges), place the other sugar cookie on top, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for a couple hours or overnight.
When ready to dip in chocolate, take a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the cake, pushing down, but do not take cutter out as this will help guide us in slicing them into wedges. You want to slice them into wedges like you would shortbread. You should get about 16-18 wedges depending on the size/width you slice them.
While you get your melting chocolate ready, place wedges back on cookie sheet and into fridge to chill them again.
Get your crushed candy canes ready and into a bowl for easy dipping.
Use whatever method you like best for dipping chocolate. (The semi sweet chocolate works best, the milk chocolate was just a bit too sweet). I used a double boiler for melting my chocolate as I have a few wedges to dip and want to keep the chocolate melted for a while.
Dip each wedge into the melted chocolate, then dip into crushed candy canes. I dipped the fuller/wider end of the wedge instead of the longer/skinnier end. If you’re not comfortable dipping then you can easily drizzle the wedges with chocolate. Place dipped wedges on parchment paper to set up.
Keep wedges in fridge until ready to serve. They don’t keep that long, maybe a couple days. I wouldn’t go past 3 days since there is cream cheese in there. Do they freeze well? I doubt it.
Makes about 16-18 wedges depending on how thick you cut them.

Giveaway. Nescafe Dolce Gusto Piccolo coffee/espresso maker

The wonderful folks over at Nescafe are giving away one of their fabulous line of coffee/espresso makers. The Piccolo. It's a little powerhouse for single cup coffee and espresso making. I have one and I love it. I am an espresso junkie, but what I love most is the ease of use of the machine--literally plug and play. So easy. And they have a huge assortment of various flavored and non-flavored pods, all coffee made with highest quality ingredients - featuring only 100% Arabica beans.

And along with the espresso maker they are sending along a few sample coffee/espresso pods to get you started and figure out which one you like best. How fabulous is that?

I'm not sure which ones exactly since there are so many, but trust me, they'll take care of you and give you a good amount to get you going--they are good like that.

Personally I love the espresso and the cappuccino ones. BUT the chai tea latte is also pretty darn good too. Did you know you can make cold coffee drinks too? Pretty neat. And now they carry iced peach tea too. Wow.

Do you know that I love their coffee and espresso's so much so that I made a version of espresso cookies using the actual coffee. They were fabulous. Like a mix of molasses/sugar cookie with a hint of espresso inside. Nescafe posted the cookies over on their Facebook Page under the recipes tabs.

Also, if you follow Nescafe Dolce Gusto on Facebook or Twitter I know that they do feature a fair amount of giveaways. For more information regarding the full line of Nescafe Dolce Gusto products just visit them here.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is tell me what flavor you like most by visiting their website. That's it. Just tell me in the comment section. One entry per person please or you will be voted off the island! Please have a valid email, no anonymous comments please.

The drawing will be Tuesday Dec. 13, 2011. Good luck!

crunchy caramel bark

It's that time of year again where we all start making those delish homemade goodies to give away to friends, coworkers and family for the upcoming holiday.

Every year I get the same requests from the same people wanting my sweet & salty Cheez It bark. I beg them to let me give them something new and different and they always say NO. They explain to me that they patiently wait the entire year for that salty-sweet cheez it bark. OK, who can argue with that?

But this year, like every year I do like to try new things. With this turtle like bark, I've always wanted to take the famous "ghetto toffee" bark and put REAL CARAMEL inside of it. And boy sure glad I did. It gave it a rich, creamy inside--almost like a turtle candy. I did add a touch of salt to my homemade caramel so all the better.

Please don't get put off by the caramel making step, it's really not that hard and does not require a ton of time. You can easily make the caramel sauce a day ahead.

Trust me you will love this--it's really decadent and will be a present people will definitely remember you by. <----that's the best part isn't it? Yeah.

It's so easy to make, you'll see. First off make the caramel sauce, pour over a nice, even, all gaps covered, layer of Ritz crackers.

Put in fridge to set up/harden. Then put down a smooth layer of melted milk chocolate.

Let set up at room temp, then into to fridge to finish hardening.

Next we flip it over to give the other side a nice happy chocolate layer too.

(Once it's all harden it's very easy to flip over).

Don't forget to add the roasted pecans while the milk chocolate is still melted, this way the nuts will stick and stay.

Let harden in the fridge or room temp before cutting into squares. Use a sharp knife as it makes it a lot easier to slice right through the bark without all the caramel oozing out.

If you are curious about the infamous Cheez It Bark, click here

crunchy caramel bark
print recipe

caramel filling:
1/2 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 & ½ TB light corn syrup
Giant pinch of sea salt, optional
1 cup heavy cream

In a sturdy/heavy medium size saucepan, over medium-high heat, heat up the water, corn syrup, sugar and salt. Stir a bit to make sure it’s combined-that's it no more stirring. You will cook this for at least 10 minutes (maybe longer) until it turns a nice golden brown. Once it starts to turn brown, do not leave the stove because it turns dark brown very fast. Swirl the pan, once or twice to confirm color is a nice golden brown, once it is, take off heat and add in the heavy cream. Let it bubble up and do its thing, then stir sauce with a heat proof spatula or whisk, and keep stirring till you get it combined and thickens a bit.
Put off to the side or in a heat-proof glass measuring cup (easy for pouring later) to let cool.
If all went well you should have a fairly thick, pourable caramel. Let this cool at least an hour before using.

bark:
2 sleeves of Ritz crackers (50 crackers? More or less)
1 cup of roasted pecans (I used roasted and salted pecans)
16 ounces of milk chocolate: melted in 2 batches; 8 ounces each (use a good quality chocolate, they melt better)

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Lay down an even layer of Ritz crackers; add more crackers to cover up any gaps. All gaps need to be covered as the caramel will ooze out.
Take the cooled caramel and pour over the crackers. You probably won’t use all the caramel; I didn’t, so save the remainder for another use.
Place pan in fridge to chill and set up for at least 2 hours.
When set up melt about 8 ounces of chocolate in a double boiler, spread the chocolate over the cracker and caramel. Let cool and harden at room temp for about 20 minutes then into fridge for an hour.
Take out of fridge, and being careful, flip the mixture over exposing the other side. This side will now get covered in chocolate.
Melt the remaining milk chocolate, spread over the bark and then sprinkle on the roasted pecans. Push the pecans down into the chocolate a bit to make sure they stay.
Let this harden for at least a couple hours before slicing. Use a sharp knife to cut this so the caramel doesn’t ooze out.