Christmas Goodies!

My Aunt Julie came over tonight and helped my Mom and I make some Christmas Goodies. I love Christmas treats! For me, not only are they delicious they also have a lot of memories that go with them. The nice memories of my family are one of the most important parts about Christmas. I am so grateful for this wonderful time of year, for the true meaning of Christmas and for my wonderful family to be with during this time of year.

Any way on to the treats. :)

Caramels! (Carmels?)

I love these caramels. I look forward to the holiday seasons just for these little gooey wrapped deliciousness. My Aunt Julie makes these and no one can make them like she does. I have tried and they just don't turn out as well. 

Caramels

1/2 lb. butter

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cup corn syrup

2 cans milk

Melt butter in heavy sauce pan, add sugar and syrup. Bring to a rolling boil and add milk with wooden spoon. Add slowly so it doesn’t stop boiling. Cook until it is a firm ball, pour onto a cake pan sprayed with Pam. Let cool, cut into strips, than cut into cubes and wrap into wax paper. Put in sealed container to prevent from going hard.                                                                                Julie Dunn

English Toffee!

Now I haven't had English toffee in a long. Mainly because most of them have nuts, and I normally don't like nuts in my treats. (I am starting to come around though, I have had a few treats with nuts in them and I enjoyed them.) Well my cousins don't like nuts in the toffee so Julie doesn't add them to her toffee.  Which is fine by me cause this stuff was GOOD!

English Toffee

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup chopped nuts

chocolate chips, melted

Boil butter, water and sugar over high heat, stirring constantly, until it begins to smoke and becomes the color of peanut butter. Pour onto a buttered cookie sheet  quickly. (My aunt buttered it and put the cookie sheet in the fridge while we boiled the ingredients so the sheet was cold when we pour the toffee on.) Do not scrape the pan. Top with melted chocolate and spread it around.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Break into pieces when completely cooled. (We put it back in the fridge so it cooled quicker.)

Mint Cookies

Now these little treats are a bit deceiving. They aren't an actual cookie, they are Ritz crackers dipped in chocolate that has mint flavoring added to the chocolate. They taste like Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints! They are so easy to make too.

Mint Cookies

Molding chocolate chips, dark or white (Do not use chocolate chips, the mint oil doesn't blend well with regular chocolate chips.)(Also if using white chocolate and you want to add coloring you need to use powder coloring.)

peppermint or mint oil, about 1/2 tsp. 

Ritz Crackers

Melt chocolate, we used the little crock pot we have to melt the chocolate chips, just fill it up till about an inch from the top. Add the peppermint oil, its really up to your taste on how minty you want it, so make sure you add too little to start then add more if its not enough. Julie did 1/2 tsp and it was perfect. 

Take the crackers and dip them individually into the chocolate and tap off excess chocolate.

Place them on wax paper until chocolate has harden. (Thank David for making me do a step by step demonstration of how to dip a cracker.) :)

Enjoy!