Marshmallow Caramel Crispies

I'm not sure what to call these things, as evidenced by the oh-so-creative name, but they are tasty. They remind me of Halloween. When I was little, I made these with my grandma a lot. I think one year I even took them into school as a treat during the Halloween party.

There are two ways to make this. One is a bit time consuming all the way through and the other is time consuming followed by quick and easy. The first method requires the larger marshmallows and the second needs the tiny marshmallows. Both produce something yummy. Either way, feel free to make this for any occasion during any time of the year!

Marshmallow Caramel Crispies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz of caramels
1/2 C butter
bag of marshmallows (big or small)
box of crispy rice cereal

Place the condensed milk, caramels, and butter in a medium sauce pan. Heat over medium-low heat (this is the time consuming part). Once the butter is fully melted, the stirring will have to be constant so the mixture doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. A double boiler would be useful for the melting phase, if you have one.

Once the caramel mixture is fully melted, remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. The mixture coats better when it is thicker.

Option 1: Stab the marshmallows with a toothpick like so. Place a decent amount of crispies in a bowl as well. The toothpick part is optional.

Dip the marshmallow into the caramel mixture and then roll it in the crispies. You can toss the marshmallows in the caramel and fish them out with a spoon to transfer them to the crispies bowl.

Place on a cookie sheet to dry. Repeat until all marshmallows are coated.

Option 2: Once the caramel cools a bit, pour the marshmallows into the caramel mixture. Stir. Add some crispies and stir. Continue to add the crispies until the mixture is to your liking.

Pour the marshmallow caramel crispie mixture into a greased cake pan to cool.

Tiny Sugar Cookie Houses

I have a post-Christmas cold which means I don't feel like baking. Instead of something new, here is what I intended to post a few days ago.

Every year for Christmas I make a cake. I was going to just make a Santa face this year, but the whole gingerbread house making spree made me want to make tiny houses. I've also been curious if houses could be made out of sugar cookies. I had the brilliant notion to combine these two things into one. And so I made a cake with a small village on top!

Below I present the recipe for the sugar cookies and a step-by-step guide to making the tiny houses (and a tree!). The sugar cookie recipe is very good, it doesn't need frosting or sugar or sprinkles. So feel free to just make some sugar cookies instead. (I cut the recipe in half because I didn't need a lot of cookies, the images reflect this!)

Sugar Cookies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 C butter (softened & salted)
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1 t baking powder

Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix until creamy.

Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

Add the flour and mix well.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours (can be chilled overnight as well).

If you plan on making tiny houses, draw the template pieces while the dough is chilling. I made houses that were 2 inches high, 1 1/2 inches across the front, and 1 3/4 inches long.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

After the dough is chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Since I needed the house pieces to be perfect, I rolled out the dough on parchment paper. Cut out the pieces of the house (or of cookies) and place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely on the parchment paper (which may be removed to a cooling rack).

After the cookies are completely cooled (they were small, so this took around an hour), make the royal icing glue for the houses.

Each house  needs a front & back, two sides, and two roof pieces. Take the front piece and draw a frosting line down each side. Attach the side pieces to the frosting strips. Draw two more frosting lines on the back piece and attach that to the side pieces. This frosting is sticky and dries kind of quickly, so the little houses shouldn't need much support. I took a large marshmallow and place it inside of the house just in case.

Trace the top of the house with frosting. Place one roof piece on. Draw a line of frosting across the edge of the roof piece and attach the remaining roof piece. Tada, you have a tiny house.

Repeat until all houses are assembled.

If you desire a 3D tree for your little town, you should have cut out tree pieces during the rolling & cutting phase. A few of these trees should have been cut vertically down the center.

Color a glob of the frosting glue green. Obtain a full tree cookie and two tree halves.

Smear the green icing on the front of the full tree cookie. Now smear some icing on both sides of a tree half. Smush the tree half into the full tree. Hold it for a minute until the icing has dried enough to hold the tree half in place. Repeat with the other side of the full tree and the other tree half. Add some optional decorations. Tada, a Christmas tree.

The tree might need to be propped up during the drying phase. I used a small round cookie cutter to hold it up.

Here is a picture of the cake & town I made.

Royal Icing

Royal icing dries hard, kind of like candy buttons. It can also taste like candy buttons. Royal icing is needed if you want to make cute little flowers or certain types of frosting decorations. This batch, however, will be used for gluing together the pieces of tiny sugar cookie houses.

When making and using royal icing, it is very important to make sure it doesn't come into contact with shortening or butter. This will make the icing turn runny and it won't set. So wash your mixing bowl and utensils with hot soapy water before starting!

Royal Icing (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 egg white
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla

First, sift the powdered sugar. This will break up any clumps in the sugar and ensure the icing is nice and smooth.

Place the egg white and vanilla in the mixing bowl. Beat until it starts to get frothy.

Add the powdered sugar and mix together on a low speed until it is combined. A high speed will result in a cloud of powdered sugar emitting from the mixing bowl. Scrape the sides of the mixing bowl.

Beat on a high speed for 5 minutes.

If you are concerned about using a raw egg white, you can microwave the royal icing for 15 seconds. Be sure to move the icing to a non-metal and microwave-safe dish first!

The royal icing sets quickly. Keep it covered with a moist paper towel.

The icing takes up to 24 hours to set.

Gingerbread House Pieces

Since my freshman year of high school, I have been making gingerbread houses almost yearly. In German class, we received bonus points for baking, assembling, and bringing in a gingerbread house the week before winter break. I participated every year. I made a normal gingerbread house the first year. The second year I made a gingerbread disco. For the third year I made a small gingerbread village. And finally, I made a gingerbread ski lodge my senior year.

Unfortunately, I can't find the recipe that I received in German class all those years ago. The past few years I've looked for different recipes and haven't liked any of them. The dough made from this recipe seems to be nice. The basis of the recipe is from the 1996 Joy of Cooking cookbook. I changed it a bit for the flavor. More accurately, I changed it for the smell. I don't really like to eat gingerbread! The house smells like gingerbread and it is delicious. If anything, make a gingerbread house instead of buying an air freshener. The scent will linger for days.

I've made gingerbread houses with friends the past few years. This year I needed to make 5 gingerbread houses. I ended up with enough pieces for 6 by making this recipe twice. This recipe will make 3 small gingerbread houses or 1 large gingerbread house. It all depends on the size you want to make. This is a bit time consuming as well, so keep that in mind.

Gingerbread House Dough
5 1/2 to 6 C flour
1/2 t baking powder
2 1/2 t ground ginger
2 1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 1/2 stick butter softened (12 T)
1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 C molasses
1 T water

Place the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg into a bowl. Stir together to combine.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. It won't be creamy, it will just be well blended.

Add the eggs, molasses, and water. Mix at medium speed until well blended.

Add half of the flour mixture. Stir until combined.

Add the other half of the flour mixture. Stir until combined. It will be a bit crumbly at this point. I placed the dough in a larger bowl and mixed it by hand. It may still seem a bit dry, but that is fine. If the dough seems too sticky, add a bit more flour. If it seems really dry, add molasses until it isn't extremely crumbly.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours in the refrigerator. It can chill for up to 3 days.

While the dough is chilling, make the pattern pieces. The pieces I made have the following dimensions: Front/back: 5 5/8" high, 4 3/8" wide. Sides: 5" wide, 4" high. Roof: 3 1/8" high, 5 1/2" wide. I always seem to make the roof pieces too narrow. Feel free to play with a ruler, paper, and pencil to create your own pattern. I think that making your own pattern results in a better house! I used a heavier card-stock to create the patterns this time. Any thickness of paper would work fine.

Once chilled, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Let it warm a bit while gathering all of your tools. Preheat the oven to 350.

You will need: parchment paper, rolling pin, knife, gingerbread house pieces pattern, cookie sheets, small cookie cutters for windows. I have a fondant/dough cutter that I used to cut out the pieces. A sharp knife works just fine.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit flat on the cookie sheet. If the paper isn't flat, your pieces will be bent. Work a chunk of dough in your hands, sprinkle some flour on the parchment paper, and roll out the dough on the parchment paper. Place the house patterns on the dough and cut out.

Peel away the extra dough from around the house pieces. Cut out any windows or doors you want at this point. Carefully transfer the parchment paper to a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes. It depends on the size of your pieces. Once they start to brown and aren't smushy when you poke them with your finger, they are done.

Let cool until firm on the cookie sheet. Transfer the parchment paper to a cooling rack to cool completely. Cool overnight before assembling the house.

I'll post the royal icing recipe tomorrow and possibly a basic "how to" for assembling... but that is a pretty easy & obvious thing.

Peanut Brittle

Another holiday staple around here is peanut brittle. This requires boiling sugar to a high temperature and then cooking peanuts in the boiling sugar. The process isn't very time consuming unless you decide to make 5 batches of it. After the 3rd batch you begin to wonder what you were thinking.

Peanut brittle isn't difficult to make. If you haven't worked with boiling a sugar mixture, I recommend getting a candy thermometer before attempting this recipe. The peanuts also have to be raw to get the right flavor. Raw peanuts can be bought pre-shelled and skinless.

Peanut Brittle (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1 C white karo syrup

2 C sugar

1/2 C water

1 T butter

1 t vanilla

2 t baking soda

2 1/2 raw peanuts (approx. 1 pound)

Prepare your ingredients before starting. Place the nuts in their own bowl (we used a bit less than 2 1/2 cups). Place the butter & vanilla in a bowl together. Put the baking soda in a separate bowl.

Prepare cookie sheets by coating them with a thick layer of butter. We use old cookie sheets for this.

Place the karo syrup, sugar, and water in a medium or large pot. Heat over medium-high heat while stirring constantly until the sugar boils. Continue to boil and stir until the sugar mixture reaches the hard crack stage (this will take around 12 minutes). The hard crack stage is at 300degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can test by pouring a bit into a glass of cold water. At the hard crack stage you will hear a cracking noise as the sugar cools in the water. The sugar will also be hard (and pointy!) when you try to remove it from the glass of water. Under-heating the sugar will cause the peanut brittle to be soft and gooey when cooled.

Once the sugar reaches the hard crack stage, add the peanuts. Cook the peanuts in the boiling sugar for about 4 minutes. The peanuts will be done when you can see them "talking". The sugar mixture will also start to bubble.

Add butter and vanilla. Stir until the butter is completely melted.

Add the baking soda and stir. Remove from heat and immediately pour onto a buttered cookie sheet.

Let cool completely. Remove from the cookie sheet and break into small pieces. Enjoy!