Spiced Caramel Apple Cider Doodles

 I really wanted to combine caramel and spiced apple cider into a cookie. I could get the spice and the caramel but the apple part was eluding me. So how would I get that intense apple cider flavor I wanted? Boil down some of our hand-pressed cider into a dark, syrupy goodness. Then combine it with butter, sugar and cream and make caramel. Place on top of a mulling spice snickerdoodle. Yup. That's it...

I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe HERE but only make a half batch for this recipe with a couple of changes.

First... make the snickerdoodles.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

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1/4 cup sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves & allspice

Heat oven to 400.

Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, salt, and soda. Stir into butter mixture. Mix well. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll in spiced sugar mixture.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. Before removing from pan and while still warm, press an indentation in the top of each cookie. I used my wooden tart shaper from Pampered Chef, but you can be creative.

Then remove and let cool on wire rack. (the cookies in the picture aren't the ones I used for these cookies, so no indentation for caramel... 😊)

Now to make the caramel. And this takes a while. Oh, and prep all your ingredients while you're reducing your cider. You won't have time later...

Reduce 2 cups of cider to 1/4 cup. 

You can't use just any cider for this. It needs to be the real stuff. Not the one you get at the grocery store. This needs to be hand pressed with the sludge at the bottom. Look at your local natural grocer or farmer's market.

Pour 2 cups of cider into a heavy saucepan and turn on a fairly high heat. Not your highest setting but close. And then just let it boil, hard. Stir it every once in a while. This is going to take a bit of time. Like maybe a half an hour. When it starts to get foamy, you know it's getting close. So keep an eye on it, it goes much quicker at this point. Have a heatproof measuring cup for liquids nearby so you can check your amount. 

Ingredients to prep while reducing cider:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix together in small bowl.

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix in small bowl

3 Tablespoons of heavy cream

Pour into small glass

4 Tablespoons margarine (I don't use butter because it makes a stickier caramel and I hate caramel that sticks in your teeth)

Cut the margarine into smaller cubes

When your cider is down to 1/4 cup, immediately pour it back into your saucepan and remove from the heat. Stir in sugars, margarine and cream (in that order) and stir until margarine melts. 

Place back on burner and reduce heat just a bit (still med-high). Put a candy thermometer into the pan. Bring the mixture up to 252 degrees that can't be stirred down, while stirring constantly. You don't want it to burn. 😬

Stir in cinnamon and salt.

Carefully pour the caramel into a bowl and stir until it cools and begins to thicken a bit. 

Then carefully fill the centers of the cookies with the caramel. 

Let cool completely before eating. 

Sugarplums

I have to admit that I'd never had a sugar plum before today. I've heard of them many times at Christmas but I honestly had no idea what they were. These are "easy" sugarplums, so I'm unsure how authentic they are but they were easy to make, tasty to eat and fairly healthy, too.

I don't know if you'll have visions of them dancing in your head, but you should give them a try... ;)

Here's all you do:

Throw some dried fruits and nuts (in about a 5:1 ratio of fruits to nuts) of your choice into your food processor.

I used a mixture of dates, figs, mixed raisins, prunes, apricots, cherry-flavored dried cranberries and almonds. You can use whatever fruits or nuts you like.

Pulse in food processor until it is very finely chopped.

Put into a bowl.

Heat a small amount of honey and mix with spices. I used cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. But you can also use fennel, cardamom, anise...

Mix into fruit and nut mixture until it is slightly more sticky.

Form into small balls, about walnut-sized. I used a small scoop, firmly packed.

Let sit on counter about 1 hour.

Then roll in granulated sugar.

Place on parchment paper and let sit out 12-24 hours before placing in container to store.  Should be eaten within a day or two.

Roca Blondies

We are lucky enough to live only about 2 hours from the Almond Roca factory and their factory outlet store in Fife! I am lucky enough that a friend just happened to mention the store on FB a few weeks ago. I am super lucky enough that we got to go to my BIL’s wedding in Tacoma a couple of weeks ago and make a stop at the store on the way. I am extraordinarily lucky that my sweet hubby let me spend way more money than I should have on Roca candy!!! :o)

One of the treats I brought home was a bag of broken up Almond Roca pieces for cooking.

The first thing I tried was making blondies with some of them stirred in… Jackpot!!!

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some smashed up Almond Roca, give these a whirl…

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Almond Roca pieces

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9” square baking pan.

Melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix in flour and salt. Fold in Almond Roca pieces.

Spread into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes or until set and golden brown.

Cool on wire rack.

Irish Creamy Chocolate Fudge

I love St Patrick’s Day! Mostly because of the food… This is my newest attempt at an Irish themed dessert using one of my favorite combos: chocolate and Irish Cream.

Melt 1 12oz bag of chocolate chips with 1 stick of butter in a large bowl in the microwave for 45 to 60 seconds. Stir until smooth.

Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in 3/4 cup Irish Cream and 1 tsp vanilla until very smooth.

 
Spread chocolate mixture into sugar mixture and mix well.

Pour into buttered 8x8 baking pan. Score when soft.

Place in fridge. Cut when firm.

Store fudge in the fridge but serve at room temp.

Cranberry Fruit Gels

This is the latest chapter in my candy making obsession… I mostly just think about making candy but since I have perfected my fudge and caramels, I am now turning my attention to gumdrops. I wouldn’t called these gumdrops exactly, but they are pretty tasty! Next time I’m gonna try more fruit juice and then experiment with different flavors…

Mix in small bowl:

4 envelopes of unflavored gelatin

2 ounces cranberry juice concentrate, thawed

3 ounces cold water

Let this stand while you boil your syrup. This will get very thick! Don’t worry, it will be just fine!

Bring to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat:

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup water

Bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and add thickened juice mixture. Don’t worry about the chunks, they’ll melt as you stir them into the hot syrup.

Pour them into a pan lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick baking spray.

Chill in fridge at least overnight. The longer they chill the better!

I didn’t get any pictures of this part. :o(

Lay a piece of parchment paper on the counter. Sprinkle liberally with sugar. Peel the gelled candy off the foil and onto the sugared paper. Sprinkle the top with sugar, too.

Now cut out your candies with a knife, small cookie cutter or pizza cutter into desired size and shapes.

Sprinkle them with sugar on all sides to prevent sticking.

Place back in fridge.

Chill them up to 2-3 days more before serving.

Peppermint Marshmallow Hearts

What’s better than a fluffy homemade marshmallow??? A tiny pink heart-shaped peppermint homemade marshmallow dipped in dark chocolate!

Combine in stand mixer bowl:

3 packets of unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

1 1/2 tsp vanilla or other extract of your choice

It gets thick immediately

Combine in medium saucepan:

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup boiling water

1/8 tsp salt

Cook on medium high heat until candy thermometer reads 236. Stir occasionally. (It took about 10 minutes) Add 3 drops of red food coloring.

Remove saucepan from heat and pour into gelatin mixture in mixer bowl.

Beat with whisk attachment on medium high speed until the consistency of thick marshmallow cream. It should form peaks in bowl. (It took me about 15 minutes) Start mixer slowly after adding sugar syrup. It’s HOT and you don’t want it to splash!

Pour into a well-greased and powdered-sugared baking dish.

Let sit in fridge or at room temperature until set.

Remove from pan and cut into heart shapes with small cookie cutter.

Dust well with more sifted powdered sugar until no longer sticky. (It takes quite a bit of powdered sugar)

Shake off excess sugar and store in air tight container.

Make a chocolate dip by melting 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 Tablespoon shortening in the microwave for 60-90 seconds.

Dip or drizzle marshmallows into the chocolate. Or just enjoy them plain in a cup of hot cocoa!

Must Have Christmas Treats

The week before Thanksgiving is a frantic rush of trying to get all of the Christmas baking done and in the freezer before Black Friday! All the cookies have to be ready to eat by Saturday, so we can read the Christmas story by candlelight and enjoy hot cocoa and Christmas cookies. The tradition just doesn’t work without the cookies… Not to mention the ease of holiday entertaining with a freezer full of treats ready to pull out in a moment’s notice!

Some are yearly traditions, every year we try a couple of new recipes; some stay and some go. Here is a list of this year’s stash of Christmas treats. Just click on their name to go to the recipe.

From left to right:

Chocolate-dipped chocolate chip: These are my hubby’s all-time favorite dessert! We HAVE to make these!

Cookie Stamp Cookies: I made the stamp by hand while pregnant with our middle son and are fun to make with the kids. This is a fun and sentimental must-have!

  Mint Meltaway Brownies: These chocolate-mint brownies are making their first Christmas appearance but may become a regular… Just make the recipe for my brownies using peppermint extract in place of the vanilla, stir in about 3/4 cup of Ande’s mint baking chips, and top with a swirl of green candy melts. Super easy!

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread: Every cookie tray should have an old family recipe and this one is it! It is my Great-Grandma Miller’s recipe and is the ideal blend of cranberry and orange!

Top tier:

See’s Fudge: Easiest best fudge ever! ‘Nuff said!

Petticoat Tails: I haven’t made these for Christmas in a few years. This year I divided the dough into thirds, dyed two red and green. Rolled them flat, stacked them up, rolled them again before chilling and slicing. I like the way they look on a Christmas plate!

Mexican Wedding Cakes:Also known as Russian Teacakes, these were a yearly tradition growing up and will be for my kids, too!

Bottom tier:

Gingerbread: Because it just isn’t Christmas without gingerbread!

Orange biscotti: Dip these in hot cocoa and you’ll know why we make them every year! Chocolate and orange, FANTASTIC!

Egg nog logs: These became a new tradition last year. A truly spectacular cookie with a cup of coffee (or without)!

This Butter Almond Toffee will probably become yet another Christmas staple!

I don’t have a picture, but no cup of Christmas hot cocoa should be without a homemade peppermint marshmallow!!!    It’s like eating a fluffy minty cloud! They aren’t as hard as they seem… give ‘em a try. You won’t be sorry!

Well, that wraps up our Christmas line-up. What’s on your Christmas must-have treat list???

Almond Butter Toffee

After my first failed attempt at making toffee, I was certain that my candy-making skills ended at the soft-ball stage. But I tossed the candy thermometer, flew by the seat of my pants and everything turned out hunky-dory!!!

First thing to do is line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and butter it.

Then mix the following ingredients into a 2-quart saucepan.

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter or margarine (I used half butter & half margarine)

1/4 cup water

Cook on high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is completely dissolved, smooth and golden brown. Don’t forget to keep stirring!!! You have this on high heat!

Immediately remove from the heat and pour onto the cookie sheet. Spread out to about 1/4” thickness. Let stand about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle with 1/2-1 cup chocolate chips. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until all the chips are shiny. Then spread over toffee. Immediately sprinkle with almonds, or other chopped nuts of your choice.

Let cool on counter or in fridge until firm. Break into bite-sized pieces. Store in cool place or fridge in airtight container.

I guess I can make it to the hard-crack stage after all… ;o)

Sweet Anna’s Quick & Easy Truffles

This recipe from Sweet Anna’s blog is just as quick and easy and she said it was! I love the rustic look and the smooth dark chocolate… All you need is heavy cream, butter, chocolate chips (I used extra dark) and cocoa. And there are so many possibilities for these candies with a myriad of extracts and liquors to choose from!

So check out the recipe HERE at Sweet Anna’s.com.

Caramel Chocolate Pretzels

These little gems were inspired by our trip to Disneyland and a delicious treat from the candy store on Main Street.  Thankfully they are easy to make and MUCH less expensive than on Main Street…

First make a batch of Easy Caramels.

Let it cool a little bit before dipping the pretzel rods into the caramel. Lay the dipped pretzels on a parchment-lined tray and let cool in fridge.

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon shortening together. Then dip caramel dipped pretzels into the chocolate. Place back on parchment and into the fridge.

Drizzle with melted white chocolate for a decorative accent.

Store the dipped pretzels in the fridge.

Candied Citrus Peel

Making lemon curd means lots of lemons! And I just couldn’t let that much lemon peel go to waste… So I did a bit of searching and found a recipe for candied lemon peel.

First thing you have to do is peel your lemons. Do this before juicing them. Wash the lemons before peeling.

Use a vegetable peeler to take the zest off the lemon, getting as little of the bitter white pith as possible.

Then use a sharp knife to remove as much of the remaining pith as you can.

For smaller strips of peel, cut the larger pieces up into narrow strips.

Next step is to boil 2 cups of water. Then drop the lemon peel into the boiling water and continue to boil until the peels are tender, about 5 minutes.

After the peels are tender, remove them from the water and stir in 2 cups of sugar. Stir until dissolved. Place peels back into syrup and bring back to boil.

Boil peels in syrup until they are transparent.

Remove from syrup and lay on a wire rack to dry.

After they are dry, toss them in a bag of sugar to coat.

 

Store in an airtight container in fridge for up to 2 months.

You can then use them chopped up in cakes, cookies, quick breads or muffins. You can also eat them as candies or use them on top of cakes.

You can also keep the syrup to use as lemon simple syrup.

Peanut Butter Fudge

I got this recipe from my friend Annalise’s blog (you can also see the link on the right). I made it once, loved it so much that I had to make it again. Especially when I was blessed with a quart jar of dark chocolate ganache from my dear friend Betsy!

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

5 large marshmallows

Bring to a boil over medium heat in a heavy saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the marshmallows melt. Stir often.

Remove from heat and stir in:

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

Spread into foiled and buttered 8” pan.

While fudge cools in fridge, prepare the ganache.

Heat 1/2 cup heavy cream in a saucepan until just simmering. Pour over 1 cup chocolate chips and let sit 1-2 minutes. Stir until smooth and glossy. (If you need to, you can microwave them for 15 seconds to smooth them out)

Remove fudge from fridge and smooth ganache on top.

Chill for 1-2 hours or until ganache is set.

Remove from pan and cut into small squares. Store in fridge for up to 1 week.