Candy and Cookie Creations!

It is a holiday tradition for my mother in law to do candies and cookies with her friend Joyce. This year it was them, Joyce's mother, daughter, and daughter in law, and my sister in law and I, who made them this year. I fully intended to take pictures throughout the whole day, but I failed, and I'm sorry. I had asked Leon what he wanted me to make this year and all he said was that he wanted coffee truffles, of course I hate coffee and it is the only thing he wanted..... What I decided to make was caramel filled chocolate candies, butterfingers, chocolate covered pretzels, and saltine toffee.

 This is my nephew Jared, all too eager to be this close to so much sweet treats :)

Here is MOST of what all we made, there were still some of my candies in the kitchen.

 The ladies dividing out the goodies. After all the yummy stuff is made, we divide it out between each lady, that day there were 6 of us, but Joyce's mom didn't want much candy, so she got the odd leftovers when the candies weren't able to be divided equally.

 This is my other nephew Randy being bad....

 and this is good Randy..... (he never really is bad though)

 Here is the saltine toffee I made, it has a wonderful salty sweet flavor!!! Super easy!! (I will post the recipes at the end of the blog!)

 This is a ginger snowman cookie my sister in law made, I think it is sooo cute!!!!

 In this container ais the saltine toffee I made, the crunch toffee that Regina made, russian tea cakes that Joyce made, and the snowmen that Janette made.

 I think theses are called missionary valls, that my mother in law made, it has peanut butter and cheerios in it, and then dipped in chocolate :)

 This is my truffle container, the big brown ones are only some of the coffee truffles (each lady got 42!!!) The green ones are mint oreo truffle that I made, they are not that pretty, but they MELT in your mouth!!!!

 These are my SUPER EASY EASY butter fingers.....

 And my chocolate dipped pretzels.....

 These are caramel filled chocolate candies....

 I had a mold for covering long pretzels with, and that is how I made these, the molds use a TON of chocolate, so I only made a few of these.

 This is the yummy chocolate pizza that Joyce made!!!

 Here are the FUN and delicious hay stacks that Regina made....

These are my chocolate covered filberts that I made.

 This is my bounty for the day!!!!!!!!!

And finally the mess, this picture doesn't do justice, because we were doing dishes on and off all day, but here is a good snapshot :)

Recipes

Butterfinger

• 16 oz candy corn
• 16 oz peanut butter
• melted chocolate to coat with

This is a super easy recipe. Use pound per pound of the peanut butter and candy corn. Melt them in the microwave, on high one minute at a time until melted. Line a 9x13 pan with wax paper, and pour peanut butter mixture in the pan, let cool till firm. Slice into however big of pieces you want, the separate and dip into melted chocolate! THAT'S AL!!!!!

Mint Oreo Truffles

• 1 pkg of mint oreo cookies
• 8oz cream cheese
• 16 oz white chocolate
• green food coloring
• mint extract

Crunch up the oreos then mix in softened cream cheese mix WELL. Let cool in refriderator for an hour, or until firm. Melt chocolate, add food coloring to desired color of green, then add a few drops of extract (depends on how strong you want the truffle to be). Make little balls out of the oreo mixture, then cool again for about 1/2 hour in refridgerator. Then dip into chocolate and let cool in wax paper lined pan.

Caramel candies

I got a big brick of caramel from my friend, who got it at Cash and Carry (a local Eugene restaurant supply store) The caramel is hard, but you can easy tear off a small piece and roll into a ball. I got a candy mold in tha shape I wanted. Melt chocolate wafers, and pour a little bit of the melted chocolate into the mold and with a baby spoon or the Wilton candy pain brush, spread the chocolate up the sides of the mold, then put into the fridge for a few minutes, until hard, then put a little caramel ball into the middle, fill the rest of the mold with chocolate and then put back into the fridge for a few more minutes, then pop out onto a soft kitchen towel.

To make the chocolate covered filberts, just add a filbert instead of caramel. And for the chocolate covered pretzel, do the same thing with the chocolate, but with a pretzel mold, and add the pretzel.

Saltine Toffee

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 40 saltines
• chocolate wafers

Line a jelly roll sheet with foil then spray with cooking spray, and lay out the saltines. Heat the brown sugar and butter, on medium low heat until boiling, then simmer for 5-6 minutes, then pour over saltines, and spread out. put pan in oven at 350 for a few minutes, until the toffee starts to bubble, pull out and spread chocolate wafers over top, then cover with foil, to help the chocolate melt. When chocolate is soft, spread over the toffee, let cool, then cut and serve :)

I have TONS of candy and cookies from the day's festivities, so if you'r arounf my neck of the woods, feel free to stop by and grab some!:) (seriously!!! I dont want to eat ALL of the goodies!!!)