Shortcut recipes for this busy week. Peppermint layered brownies and a Creampuff Christmas Tree tower!

I had to make some food for an event on very short notice this past week and came up with a couple of shortcut recipes you might want to try out yourself.

First, I love the 3 layer Peppermint Brownies I make every Christmas but I knew that I would be too busy to get a batch made up with only a couple of hours notice so I did the next best thing. I ran to Sam's club and bought some premade brownies and them added the layer of peppermint frosting and the chocolate on top. They took about 40 minutes with 25 of that being a quick chill in the freezer and cutting! Not bad. The great thing is that they tasted just as good a homemade. Just go to the recipe and skip the brownie part.

The other thing I came up with was for a party I had forgotten about and I needed to bring a dessert. I grabbed some frozen cream puffs out of the freezer and made a Christmas tree with them.

Here's how I did it.

Take a box of frozen cream puffs- about 48

3/4 cup of white sugar

1/4 cup chocolate chips melted- use only if you need to transport the tree to a party. If you're serving it at home you won't need this. I'll fess up and admit that I used the melted sugar as the glue. Not one of my better ideas, first of all, I burned the crud out of my fingers more than once, melted sugar is HOT. Second of all, the dang sugar is such great HARD glue that we had to pry the puffs apart, breaking some of them. Not the dainty pickup a creampuff picture I had in my head!!!

1. Melt the 1/4 cup of chocolate chips in a small bowl. Again- if you're serving these at home, just stack the creampuffs and skip to step 4.
   
2. Make a base of cream puffs in the shape of a circle. Us a tiny drop of the melted chocolate between them to act as glue.
   
3. For the next layers, put a small drop of the melted chocolate on the bottom of each creampuff and stack them up into a tree shape.
4. Into a small sauce pan, place the 3/4 cup of sugar. Turn the heat to medium high and watch carefully as the sugar melts- DON'T stir- just watch, when the suger begins to get medium brown, you can swirl the pan GENTLY to get any unmelted sugar to mix in. When all of the sugar is melted and a medium golden brown. Immediately remove from the heat. 

• Dip a fork or a tined whisk into the melted sugar and wave back and forth over the pan until the sugar starts to create threads/ Once you begin to get threads, dip and wave over the top of the tower of creampuffs. I'm no expert so I ended up with dropletts and the intended threads of sugar. It still looked and tasted great.
  
• Continue doing this until you have the coverage you want. If the sugar gets to thick put it back on the stove for a few seconds to warm it up a touch.
• Serve!!!
  

Sangria for the Holidays

Sorry only had my cell phone camera with me so this picture is not very good!!!

Last night I went to a Christmas Party with a group of friends. Everyone brings an appetizer and we all talk until we're hoarse. The hostess with the mostess made this amazing sangria for the party and it was delicious. This recipe is fast, easy and doesn't contain the hard liqueur the many sangrias have.
Sangria is basically a combination of fruits, fruit juices and wine. There are thousands of recipes out there and it's fun to play with the different combinations. Many people think of Sangria as a summertime drink but I think that it's festive and perfect for winter holiday parties, especially when made with red wine. The site Wine Intro.com has over 80 Sangria Recipes if you want to try a few out.
Sangria is also a great money saver for a large party because you can use an inexpensive wine, I usually use a $5 to $8 range wine in sangria. I've even used 2 buck Chuck in a spiced sangria for a huge crowd.

Here's how my friend made it.
                   1/3 C sugar
                   1/3 C lemon juice
                   1/3 C orange juice
                   1 Bottle of red wine, 750ml size
                   1 orange, thinly sliced
                   1 lemon, thinly sliced

1. In a large pitcher, add the 1/3 C sugar, 1/3 C lemon juice, and 1/3 C orange juice 
2. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  
3. Add one bottle red wine.  
4. Thinly slice oranges and lemons and place into the pitcher with the wine mixture.
5. Chill and serve.
   

That's it, you are good to go and ready for a party. You can make this a few days in advance and stick in the fridge until you're ready to serve it. The sangria was the hit of the party.

Here is the recipe for a spice sangria that I got years ago from a friend in Houston who served it at a Christmas party as well. It has a warmer flavor because of the spices.
         1 cup of cranberry juice
         1/2 cup sugar
         4 whole cloves
         1 cinnamon stick
         2 lemon slices
         3 orange slices
         1 750ml bottle of red wine
         2 to 4 tablespoons of brandy or triple sec depending on how orange flavor you want.
         1 orange (unpeeled), washed and thinly sliced
         1/2 cup of fresh cranberries
         1 cup club soda

1. In a small saucepan, place the juice, sugar, cloves, cinnamon stick, lemon slices and orange slices. 
2. Bring this mixture to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low. 
3. Simmer on low for 10 minutes. 
4. Remove from the heat and let sit for at least an hour to cool. 
5. When it's cooled completely, strain it (or just scoop out the chunks) into a large sealed container and add the bottle of wine and the liquor.
6. Place in the fridge to chill. You can do this up to 3 days before serving.

When it's party time, pour the sangria into your serving container. Add the club soda, the orange slices and the fresh cranberries to the sangria. To keep it chilled, you can freeze cubes of oranges and use them as ice cubes.

Homemade marshmallows and cocoa mix make great teacher gifts or neighbor gifts!

Here is an easy gift to make for teachers, neighbors or friends. Marshmallows and cocoa mix. If you've never made marshmallows, I hate to be the one to tell you that they are super simple and very impressive. I love making peppermint marshmallows to put in cocoa but you can make plain or if you just want them to eat, then try rolling them in toasted coconut or even chopped nuts.

Homemade Marshmallows:

For a printable version of this marshmallow recipe click here!

* 3 packages unflavored gelatin
* 2 cups granulated sugar
* 1/2 cup light corn syrup
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
* Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Sprinkle powdered sugar into 2 8"x8" pans or one 9"x13" until bottom is completely coated.
Pour the gelatin and 1/2 cup of cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with your whisk attachment and allow this mixture to sit while you make the syrup.

In a large saucepan, preferably one that has a spout, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Place the lid on the pan for 1 minute to wash down the sides of the pan. Raise the heat to high and cook until the syrup reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer. If you live at higher altitudes, reduce the final temp by 2 degrees for every 1000 feet in altitude. I live at 6000 feet so I only cook my mixture to 228 degrees. Remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer onto low speed, while mixer is going, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the dissolved gelatin. The gelatin will be all chunky when you turn on the mixer. Once all of the syrup is poured in turn the mixer up to high speed and whip until the mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Pour the marshmallow batter into the prepared pans and smooth the top of the mixture with damp hands. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or whatever topping you are using.

For the peppermint, I removed half the marshmallows for the plain pan and then stirred in 2 drops of red food coloring and 1/2 tsp of peppermint flavoring into the remaining half. After placing this into the second pan I sprinkled crushed peppermints over the top.

Allow to dry uncovered at room temperature overnight.

Remove the marshmallows from the pan and cut into squares. I dip a knife into very hot water before each cut then roll each strip in powdered sugar before cutting into squares. Roll the sides of each square carefully in confectioners' sugar.

 

Once they have dried for a few hours and aren't sticky, they  can be bagged up for gifts or stored in a  sealed container or sealed baggies.

Creamy Cocoa Mix

     For a printable version of these cocoa mixes, click here!

This makes 20 cups of mix or about 60 servings. I make a big batch at the beginning or the winter and we use it all season.

• 13 cups dry milk powder
• 6 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups powdered non-dairy creamer (1- 15oz jar of powdered creamer)
  

Sift together all these ingredients into a large bowl. 
For extra chocolaty goodness I  add-

• 2- 12 oz package of mini chocolate chips 

stir to combine the scoop into jars for gifts or store sealed in a container for storage.

Variations- You can use flavored creamer if you want flavored cocoa or try adding some cayenne pepper to the mix for a bit of spicy heat. 

To use this cocoa mix; Scoop 1/3 cup of mixture into mug and add boiling water. Stir and enjoy.

Alton Brown has a Recipe for Cocoa mix that I haven't tried just because I love the creaminess of my recipe but for those who don't want to use powdered creamer here is his recipe.

• 2 cups powdered sugar
  
• 1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
• 2 1/2 cups powdered milk
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Mix all ingredients together and store in airtight container.


Don't forget to post your Holiday recipes and your Christmas cookie recipes for the 25 days of Christmas Recipe Exchange by clicking these links here or the buttons at the top of the page.

The 25 days of Christmas Recipes Exchange

It's begun!!! Today is the start of The 25 Days of Christmas Recipes here and the 25 days of Christmas Cookie Recipes over at Buttercream Lane. Grab the button


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