{holiday baking}

Although, not sure that I would call this baking....Eh, just go with it.

When your house smells like sugar cookies and fudge!  The best smell ever is holiday baking.  Wish I could bottle it up and sell it!

I do have a small problem with Holiday baking though. 

You see, I made this YUMMY, crunch-then-melt-in your mouth Reindeer Bait the other day for my co-workers. My poor co-workers ended up almost getting jipped! I literally could not stop eating it! I mean it was so bad that I had to make another batch. 

Addicting to say the least.  It's all over Pinterest! Here is the recipe if you want to come to the dark side. But you have been warned......:

Equal parts rice chex, stick pretzels, and popcorn {not a buttery flavor - I used Newman's Own Organic 'Pop's Corn'}. Mixed together and laid out on wax paper or a cookie sheet with wax paper for a little more containment. I just did it on the countertop. Melt your almond bark - enough to coat the popcorn/ chex/pretzel mixture, and pour it on top, then with your spoon mix it all together.  Once it's mixed I pour some festive sprinkles on top! I used the same recipe for my Halloween mixture, just with candy corn and Halloween sprinkles instead. 

It hardens quicker in the fridge but I didn't put mine in there this time. Once it's hardened, you can break it up and put it in Christmas baggies or my all time favorite gift bag: the mason jar :)

We also made some sugar cookies {using this recipe} last week and decorated them as a family. They turned out super yummy - I mean perfect after they were baked, stayed together but were still soft & easy to decorate.  I ran out of flour so ended up using powdered sugar to roll the dough out. Let's just say it didn't ruin the cookies - if anything it made them that much more yummy! 

Also, on Thursday night I made my all time favorite, Peppermint Bark! It turned out so good! I did however get a little impatient and poured the white chocolate on top of the dark chocolate before the dark had hardened. It didn't effect the flavor at all just made it a little marble looking. Who cares? It's chocolate, can you really go wrong? Here's the recipe for that:

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips, melted over steaming water on the stove (make sort of a double boiler out of a bowl & a saucepan with water)

The  mix in 3/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract.

A little bit more than 12 oz of white chocolate chips, melted also mix in 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract with this. 

Pour the chocolate into a 9x3 pan covered in foil. Let harden - can take up to 30 min! Be patient if you care about the separation of the dark and white. 

Then pour the melted white chocolate on top of the chocolate & immediately pour 3 crushed candy canes on top. 

Pop it in the fridge to harden, eat and gain about 15 pounds!  :) At least your taste buds and tummy will be happy.... your dentist probably won't be.

Merry Christmas Week everyone!