Peppermint Meringue Cookies

Fit a pastry bag (12″ or 18″) with a 1/2″ large open star pastry tip. With a small paint brush paint stripes on the inside of the bag with a gel food coloring paste.

Ingredients

3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract (peppermint oil will not work)
dash of salt
3/4 cup sugar
parchment paper

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In metal mixing bowl beat egg whites, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter, a dash of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract to soft peaks. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, beating until very stiff peaks form.

Fill pastry bag with meringue and pipe one inch stars onto the parchment paper.

Bake for 90 minutes, but do not let them brown. Allow to cool completely. Meringues will be crunchy. Store in an air tight container. The meringues should keep for a couple of weeks.

If you are looking for more homemade gift ideas, from edible gifts to sewn gifts you might enjoy browsing my Handmade Gift Guide!

Peppermint Bark is a super simple and delicious holiday treat! It makes a quick and easy homemade gift that everyone will love!

Peppermint Bark Recipe

All you need is 1 pound of white candy coating and 1/2 cup peppermint pieces (or finely crushed starlight mints or candy canes).

Melt the candy coating very slowly in the microwave. If  the candy is melted too fast and it gets it too hot it will harden and not become liquid.  Start with 30 seconds and then stir. Continue heating at 15 second intervals, stirring each time until melted. Add in 1/2 cup peppermint pieces.

Stir until completely combined.

Spread candy thinly out on wax paper and allow to cool. (About an 11″ X 17″ area)

Once hard, break candy into pieces. This is the perfect treat to keep on hand for unexpected guests and it makes a wonderful hostess or neighbor gift when wrapped in a pretty container.

Believe me, your friends will eat this up! Enjoy!

If you are looking for more homemade gift ideas  you might enjoy browsing my Handmade Gift Guide!

Everyone loves a homemade gift – especially when it’s edible! There is plenty of time before the holidays to package up one of these tasty treats. Your friends and family will love you!

Red Velvet Cake in a jar – are you kidding?!  Wow, who would not love this treat from My Cakies? So pretty too.

drooling. 

For the chocolate lover on your list, here is a great little cocoa mix from MyRecipes.com.

Real Simple shares a BBQ Rub. It’s a perfect idea for your favorite grill-master.

Look at this beautiful Chocolate/Orange Shortbread Cookie to share.  Oprah.com has easy directions for this fun gift.

If you need more inspiration take a look at some of my favorite edible gifts or check out my handmade gift guide below….

My son ( who doesn’t want to be on my blog) just graduated 8th grade! I am so proud of him!

This kindhearted, athletic, smart, capable, hardworking, caring kid that is always hungry is certainly deserving of fudge!

If you have someone special that could use a sweet treat here is the Kraft Fantasy Fudge recipe I used.

Homemade Fudge Recipe

A

3 cups sugar

3/4 cup  (1-1/2 sticks) butter

1 small can (5 oz.) evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup) (Do not use sweetened condensed milk.)

1- 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups  (7 oz.)  Marshmallow Creme

1 tsp. vanilla

a

Line a small pan (about 6″X10″ or 9″ square) with foil. Extend edges of foil over sides of pan and spray with cooking spray. Place sugar, butter and evaporated milk in large heavy saucepan. Bring to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 4 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 234°F, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat.

Yummy homemade gifts from your kitchen!

1. Homemade Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

2. Homemade Caramel Corn

3. Homemade Onion & Pepper Relish (tastes like Harry & David’s)

4. Toffee Pretzel Bark

5. Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur

6. Homemade Wheat Waffle Mix

7.  Caramel Dipped Pretzel Rods

8. Homemade Granola

9. Peppermint Bark with Cute Printable Label!

10. Peanut Butter Buckeyes

Candy Coated Peanut Butter Crackers

Just a few supplies is all you need to make these tasty treats. I used Ritz crackers, creamy peanut butter, white candy coating and some rainbow coarse sugar (or color of your choice). A half pound of white candy coating will coat at least one dozen cracker sandwiches.

First begin melting the candy coating. Place candy discs in an oven safe bowl. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. When oven is heated turn the oven OFF. Place bowl of candy in the oven for 10 minutes.

While candy is melting make the peanut butter sandwiches. Spread peanut butter between two crackers (tops to the middle) and smooth the sides. You don’t need much peanut butter ( I was a little generous —but if you like peanut butter go for it).

Let the sandwich go for a swim in the candy!

Lift the sandwich out with a fork or tongs. Firmly tap the handle of the fork against the top edge of the bowl to remove extra candy from the cracker sandwich.

While cookies are still wet sprinkle with some colorful holiday coarse sugar. Allow cookies to harden on wax paper. In about 10 minutes you have a sweet treat!

Enjoy!

we love you…

but,  is time to see you go!

White Chocolate and Peppermint Popcorn

• 16 oz. white chocolate (can use white chocolate baking morsels) or almond bark
• 1 cup finely crushed (like sand) peppermints (about 10-12 candy canes or 40 mints) I crush my peppermints in my food processor. The mints will scratch the plastic.
• 4 quarts popped popcorn (about 1/2 cup  corn kernels) I used this to pop my corn, so it had salt. If you are using air popped corn, throw in a pinch of salt when you sprinkle in the crushed peppermints.

Slowly melt white chocolate or almond bark in the microwave or on stove-top with double boiler. Stir often to keep chocolate from burning.  Stir  1/2 cup crushed peppermints into the white chocolate.  Place popped corn into a large bowl.  Pour melted white chocolate and peppermint mixture over the popcorn. Gently stir to coat popcorn while sprinkling remaining crushed peppermints over the popcorn.

Pour out onto parchment paper and allow coating to harden.

oh yummy peppermint popcorn!

You can even drizzle with chocolate like Our Best Bites!

If you don’t like popcorn you might give Peppermint Bark a try.  Miniature candy canes make great heart suckers and cupcake toppers —perfect for Valentine’s Day! Learn more here.

Marie at Makes and Takes also has a round-up of ideas for left over candy canes.

Today I’ve united with twelve  incredible food bloggers to bring you a holiday cookie celebration so big, it’s being monitored by the North Pole. To see all of the participating bloggers, and to learn more about the valuable giveaways, please visit the Baker’s Dozen home site at www.13CookieChristmas.info.

I hope you will enjoy my Holiday Candy Cookie!

Not only are they yummy but the mix makes a great gift and I have included some free printable labels to make it so easy!

The Mix

1 1/3 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup M&Ms

1 cup regular oats

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp.Kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp table salt)

To make cookies, mix jar contents with 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Drop by 2 tablespoons on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 350°.

(makes about 2 dozen cookies)

Instructions

Layer in a 1 quart jar

1.  Mix flour, salt & baking soda, place in bottom of  jar

2. Oats

3. M&Ms

4. Brown Sugar (press down firmly)

5. Sugar

Screw lid on tightly, add ribbon and the labels and you have a sweet gift!

Holiday Candy Cookie Mix Labels

Abby’s Bakery is also in the giving spirit

Abby’s Bakery’s mission is to provide our customers with the best tasting, highest quality treats, created in a manner that is mindful of promoting sustainable, organic agriculture.

Abby’s Bakery will  choose TWO winners to each receive a 3 month subscription in the cookie of the month club.  All you have to do is visit their site, choose your favorite cookie and come back here and leave a comment tell me which cookie you liked.

One winner will be chosen at random on 12.14.09. Open to US residents only.

Please take a moment to visit the other bloggers.  They are dishing up some fabulous cookie recipes you won’t want to miss.  For more details visit http://www.13cookiechristmas.info/

…only a couple of weeks until Christmas. If you are needing some handmade gift ideas please check out the Handmade Gift Guide!

Onion and Pepper Relish

5 -  14.5 oz. cans chopped tomatoes (drained)

6 bell peppers (seeds and ribs removed) (I used two each of red, yellow and green)

6 cups sugar

2 Tablespoons salt

1 – 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes (I used 1 1/2 tsp)

6 jalapeno peppers with seeds and ribs removed (a spoon does this easily)

3 medium onions

2 cups white vinegar

2 small boxes powered pectin (1.75 oz)

First chop all vegetables. It goes together very easily once all the chopping is done. To make this quicker I used a food processor.

Mix everything together, except the pectin, in a large pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer about 1 hour. Add in the  pectin and boil for 1 minute.

Pour relish into hot sterilized half pint jars, leaving about 1/2 inch head room. I needed 13 half pint jars.

Place lids and rings on jars. Process jars by placing them in a large pot of water. Water level should be an inch over jars. Boil for 15 minutes.  Carefully remove jars from water and allow to cool. You know jars are sealed when there is no give in the lid.

I plan to attach a tag to mine that says, “For an easy dip, mix jar contents with 2 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese and serve with corn chip scoopers.”

Enjoy!

If you are looking for more ideas on handmade gift giving, take a moment to browse through the Handmade Gift Guide.