With the holidays so near, I know everyone is searching for the perfect holiday treat to make! ForRent.com wants to provide you with our holiday recipe tips. The first six are regarding essential holiday pantry items and the remaining six are holiday treat recipes!
6 Essential Holiday Pantry Items:
- Chocolate Morsels
- Pam Cooking Spray
- Vanilla Extract
- Holiday Candy
- Sprinkles/Food Coloring
- Cookie Cutters
During our annual Marketing Department treat exchange, here were six of our favorite treats that were brought. You’ll see that some of them require one of the essential holiday pantry items mentioned previously!
SALTINE TOFFEE BARS
Ingredients:
- - unsalted Saltine Crackers (not premium-too thick)
- - 1 stick butter
- - ¾ cup sugar
- - 12 oz bag chocolate chips
- - sliced almonds, optional
- - powdered sugar, optional
- - “Pam” cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350-400 degrees. Line a 9 X 11 jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and spray with Pam. Place saltines, edge to edge, over the bottom of the pan. Melt butter, add sugar and bring to a boil. Boil about 3 minutes to dissolve sugar. Spoon (not pour) over the saltines and then settle the saltines and bake for about 5 minutes. The saltines will look like they are floating. Turn off the oven and remove saltines. Sprinkle chocolate chips over crackers and return to oven until they are melted then add almonds if desired. Cool a bit then cut (but do not try to separate- too runny still) and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Refrigerate until hard then break into pieces, removing foil from the back of the crackers.
Peppermint-Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients:
1 (16.5 ounce) tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/4 cup all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Directions:
Decorating suggestion: crushed candy canes or peppermint candies; white, red and green sprinkles; or red and green decorating sugar
Special equipment: a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, and a ½ ounce cookie scoop
Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, knead together the cookie dough and 1/4 cup flour until smooth. Lightly flour a work surface. Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick. Using a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter, cut out circles from the dough. Knead together any scraps of dough and roll out again. Continue to cut out pastry circles until there are 24 pieces in total. Place the dough circles on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are slightly golden around the edges, about 10 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Reserve 1 parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Combine 1 cup of chocolate chips and the cream in a small bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the peppermint extract and refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour. Using a 1/2-ounce cookie scoop or a tablespoon measure, place the chocolate mixture in the center of the flat side of 12 of the cookies. Place the remaining cookies on top and gently squeeze to distribute the filling evenly. Place on a baking sheet and freeze until the filling has set, about 25 minutes.
Combine the remaining chocolate chips and the vegetable oil in a small bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Dip the top of each cookie in the melted chocolate and return to the baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with crushed candy canes or peppermint candies. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight plastic container.
Christmas Cupcakes
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Cake Mix Funfetti
Duncan Hines Classic Vanilla Frosting
Eggs
Vegetable Oil
Baking Cups
Directions:
Follow directions on the box for cooking cup cakes. After cup cakes have cooled, put vanilla frosting on the cup cakes. For extra decoration, you can use holiday colored sprinkles!
Peppermint Bark
Ingredients:
12 oz bag of White Chocolate Morsels
12 oz bag of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
8 regular sized Candy Canes
Directions:
Lightly grease a large cookie sheet. Break up candy canes into one inch pieces and put into a sturdy plastic bag. Crush candy canes inside the bag until they are in very small pieces. Next, put the semi-sweet chocolate morsels into a bowl and put in the microwave for 1 minute; stir in 15 second increments until it is completely melted. Pour melted chocolate on the cookie sheet and spread to make a thing layer. Put the white chocolate morsels in a bowl and repeat microwave cycle (while white chocolate is in the microwave, put baking sheet of semi-sweet chocolate in refrigerator for cooling). Once melted, stir in ½ of the candy cane pieces and spread on top of semi-sweet chocolate layer. Top with the remaining pieces of candy cane; be sure to lightly press into the chocolate layer to secure. Cool in refrigerator until hard and then break into pieces!
PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE KISS COOKIES 
Ingredients:
1 c. butter
2/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. granular sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
16 oz. pkg. chocolate kiss candyDirections:
Combine butter, peanut butter and sugars; blend until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; blend. Mix flour, salt and soda, add to cream mixture; stir well. Roll dough into quarter size balls. Roll ball in bowl of sugar. Bake dough at 350 degrees for 8 minutes, take out, place chocolate kiss in center of each cookie. Bake an additional 2 minutes.
M&M Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
Bag of Holiday Colored M&Ms (could be the regular kind or the mint flavored!)
Directions:
Cut the sugar cookie dough into slices for the appropriate sized cookies (you could also roll into whatever size you choose). Put on greased baking sheet and lightly press to flatten the dough. Place M&Ms on top of the cookies and bake accordingly. Wait for the cookies to cool before taking them off the baking sheet.
Happy Cooking!
Tags: apartment, apartments, bags, baking, boil, bowl, butter, candy, chocolate, christmas, classic, color, colors, cooking, cream, cup, decor, decorating, decorations, eggs, favorite, first, follow, food, for rent, forrent.com, green, having, holiday, Holidays, large, lined, look, mixture, next, overeating, place, plastic, put, recipe, Recipes, salt, search, security, small, special, sticks, sugar, tip, tips, top, treats, try, tsp, undefined, water, whatever
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under 12 Blogs Till Christmas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
