Friday, March 15, 2013

Homemade Easter Candy and a Spring Blog Walk


Welcome to A Spring Blog Walk
We now have 11 Blogs participating and we are so excited to share our fun posts with you.





The  Spring Blog Walk will be in the sidebar of each blog starting March 15th for 1 month.
We hope you take a walk on through each post and see what fun things are happening out there.

If you would like to participate in our next Blog Walk
send one of us an email and we will add you to the list.
Linda, Debi, Myrna, Joye, Marci, Kathy, Nichi, Diana, Evelyn, Lorraine, Deby, and Tammy
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Charly and I had so much fun getting these 5 Homemade Easter Candies ready for all of you for the Spring Blog Walk.  Our family and friends certainly reaped the benefits of all of this creativity also.  They have had tons of great snacks and candy.  Today we are sharing our Homemade Peeps, Jumbo Homemade Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut Butter Truffles, Almond Clusters, and Chocolate and Vanilla Dipped Cookies.   Now, on to the recipes



Homemade Peeps

I had never made marshmallows before now, so I thought this was going to be really hard.  Boy, was I wrong.  Marshmallow are really easy.  This recipe came from 52 Kitchen Adventures - Homemade Marshmallow Peeps

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup water
1 cup ultra fine sugar
1/4 cup water 
1 packet gelatin
colored sanding sugar
candy thermometer
Wilton silicone bunny mold (Michaels)

Directions:

Spray nonstick cooking spray in your mold and set aside.

In a mixing bow for a mixer pour 1/4 cup water and sprinkle gelatin over the top of the water.

In a saucepan put 1/3 cup water and 1 cup ultra fine sugar. Stir.

Heat over medium heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  

Once the sugar heat the sugar water to 235 to 240 degrees.  (Soft Ball)

Then turn on mixer and carefully pour the hot syrup into the bowl, taking care not to get it on the sides of the mixer or the mixer paddle.

Mix on medium low for a minute or two, until mixed with the gelatin.

Then turn mixer to medium high and beat for about 11 minutes, until the marshmallow has stiff peaks.

Next put the marshmallow into a ziploc bag and cut off a small piece of the corner of the bag.

Gently squirt the marshmallow into each of the molds, making sure that you don't overfill the molds.  You want your marshmallow to lay flat.

I had some extra marshmallow in the bag still and I just piped it onto a cookie sheet to look like peeps.

Let the marshmallow set up in the molds for a few minutes.

In the meantime pour your sanding sugar on plates so that you can  dip you peeps into the different colors.

Pop your peeps out of the mold and put in the sanding sugar.  I set them in the sugar on  one side and then turned them over and did the other side and pushed the sugar up around the sides and ears of the peeps.

Set on a serving platter or put into candy bags.



Makes 24 bunnies and 4 peeps
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Jumbo Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Peanut Butter
3/4 cup powder sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 TB butter (softened)
4 cup Milk Chocolate Chips
1 TB Coconut oil
12 muffin cup liners

Directions:

Put muffin liners in 12 muffin cups

Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, and butter in a mixer until smooth.  Set aside.

Next, put chocolate chips and coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds.  It should take about 1 1/2 minutes to melt the chocolate.

Put chocolate in a pastry bag or a ziploc bag and cut a corner and pipe chocolate into the bottom of the muffin liners.  

Next, make 12 patties out of the peanut butter and put it on top of the chocolate.

Then pipe the rest of your melted chocolate over the peanut butter.

Put muffin pan in refrigerator to help set chocolate.



Makes 12 Jumbo Peanut Butter Cups
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Peanut Butter Truffles

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Peanut Butter
3/4 cup powder sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 TB butter (softened)
1 12 oz bag milk chocolate chips
20 1 inch candy liners

Directions:

Put candy liners into the cups of a mini muffin tin.

Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar, salt, and butter in a mixer until smooth.  Set aside.

Next, put chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds.  It should take about 1 1/2 minutes to melt the chocolate.

Roll peanut butter into 20 balls and drop into chocolate 1 at a time. Use a spoon to remove chocolate covered ball and place in a candy liner.

Add additional chocolate if necessary

Set in refrigerator.


Makes 20 Peanut Butter Truffles

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Almond Clusters

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds
12 oz milk chocolate chips
4 oz vanilla blue Wilton's Candy Melt
4 oz vanilla pink Wilton's Candy Melt
9 muffin cup liners

Directions:

Put muffin cup liners into  9 muffin cups

Next, put chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds.  It should take about 1 1/2 minutes to melt the chocolate.

Spoon into 9 muffin cup liners

Then, melt Wilton's Blue Vanilla Candy melts in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds.  It should take about 1 minute and 10 seconds to melt the candy.

Drizzle over the Almond Clusters.

Repeat with the Pink Candy Melts

Let harden and serve.



Makes 9 Almond Clusters.
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Chocolate Dipped Cookies



Ingredients:

20 Lorna Doone's Shorebread Cookies
20 Biscoff Cookies
12 oz milk chocolate chips
4 oz vanilla blue Wilton's Candy Melt
4 oz vanilla pink Wilton's Candy Melt
8 muffin liners

Directions:

Put chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds.  It should take about 1 1/2 minutes to melt the chocolate.

Then dip each cookie in the chocolate and lay on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
Then, melt Wilton's Blue Vanilla Candy melts in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds.  It should take about 1 minute and 10 seconds to melt the candy.

Drizzle over the cookies

Repeat with the Pink Candy Melts

Let harden and put in muffin cup liners to serve.


Makes 40 Chocolate Dipped Cookies.

We hope that you enjoy these recipes and that they give you lots of ideas for Homemade Easter Candy.  We also hope that you have fun at our Spring Blog Hop.
We always love hearing from you.

Enjoy!!!
Debi

18 comments:

  1. Oh, my Gosh, you girls really outdid yourself!! Very cool. Linda

    Come over and link to my party also!

    http://www.craftsalamode.com/2013/03/what-to-do-weekends-10.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Linda,
      Thanks so much. We really had fun doing this. So happy to do the blog walk with you.
      Debi and Charly

      Delete
  2. Oh my! I love Candy, especially chocolate! Love the Jumbo Peanut Butter cups! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Melissa,
      It was fun to do, and those peanut butter cups were amazing. Thanks for stopping by.
      Debi

      Delete
  3. I love these recipes, especially the peeps. So fun!! Glad to be a part of the Spring Blog Walk. See you at my Tasty Thursdays linky party. Thanks, Nichi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Nici,
      We were so happy to have you join our spring blog walk. The peeps came out so cute. I was really surprised at how easy they were. Thanks for stopping by.
      Debi

      Delete
  4. Hi Debi and Charly,
    Your two have been very busy and it shows. Your candy all looks delish!
    Looks like you are ready for the Easter Bunny.
    The Busy Bee's,
    Myrna and Joye.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Joye and Myrna,
      We were busy. It was crazy for a few days here, but we did it. Thanks for joining us in our blog walk again. We love seeing your recipes.
      Debi

      Delete
  5. WOW you have made me so hungry! And I never knew you could make peeps! I have got to try that! Thanks for sharing on We Made That!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tracey,
      I never knew I could make peeps either. Once Charly found the mold it was a done deal. They are pretty easy to make also. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great weekend.
      Debi

      Delete
  6. HI Sweet Crafty Friends!!

    You know we love your projects! Thank you for sharing this in the Craft Showcase. We are featuring you in our - Get Crafty with 10 Easter Recipes - http://bowdabrablog.com/2013/03/21/get-crafty-with-10-easter-recipes/# posted today on our blog.

    Thanks so much for sharing! Susie @Bowdabra

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Susie,
      Thanks so much for featuring our Easter Candy. We are so excited. It was really fun making them, but more fun to eat them. Have a great week.
      Debi and Charly

      Delete
  7. Thanks so much for sharing this at the Say G'Day Saturday party! I have pinned this and shared on Twitter and Facebook too.

    Hope you to see you again this weekend!

    Best wishes,
    Natasha in Oz

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Natasha,
      We are so excited to have you feature out Easter Candy. We really appreciate it. In October when you pinned our Homemade Chex Mix we got 2,000 pageviews. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
      Debi

      Delete
  8. So many great recipes. I run & hide from anything requiring a candy thermometer. Not sure why I am so scared. Thanks for organizing the walk.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Debi,
    lots of fun recipes. I make what we call peanut butter balls. So similar to your truffles and we love them. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have never made marshmallows before either! You make it seem so easy. Your peeps are so cute!

    I am in love with all of the other candies you all made too!

    Thank you for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen party! I can't wait to see what you bring next week.

    Cynthia at http://FeedngBig.com

    ReplyDelete

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