Chocolate Covered Banana Pops


This recipe was a big hit at my parents house on Christmas Eve!  The only note I have for this recipe is, at the time I did this recipe I did not have any popsicle sticks in the house so I ended up using plastic forks as you will see if you look closely at the picture above.

Small warning when eating these; Chocolate will be hard on the outside, but the banana on the inside will be fairly soft as bananas do not freeze completely.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed pops, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

I'm part way into book 2, City of Ashes of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and I just wanted to share some amazing fan artwork I found of two of the main characters; Clary and Jace.  The artist captured both characters exactly how I pictures them.  So far this series has been highly addictive - I've barely been able to put the books down!

Peanut Butter Blossoms










48 Hershey's Kisses
3/4 cup Smooth Peanut Butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Extra granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove wrappers from chocolates
2. Beat peanut butter and shortening with electric mixer on medium speed in large bowl until well blended.  Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls.  Roll in additional granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookies will crack around edges.  Remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I absolutely LOVE these cookies - I warn, they are very addictive if you like peanut butter!

My only notes to make about these cookies is the same as I did with the macaroons:
Once you have added the kisses to the cookies, the kisses start to melt.  Be VERY careful when moving the cookies off the cookie sheet as the kisses will deform.  Also note, I kept these cookies in the fridge, but they are definitely better if eaten at room temperature due to the kiss getting very hard if the cookies are eaten directly from the fridge.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed cookies, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cattails












1 cup Milk Chocolate Chips, divided (1/2 cup + 1/2 cup)
1 cup Peanut Butter Chips, divided (1/2 cup + 1/2 cup)
2 tsp shortening (DO NOT use butter or margarine)
12 to 14 pretzel rods

1. Stir together milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.  Place sheet of wax paper on tray or counter top.  Finely chop 1 cup chip mixture in food processor or by hand; place on wax paper.  Line tray or cookie sheet with wax paper.
2. Place remaining 1 cup chip mixture and shortening in narrow deep microwave safe bowl.  Microwave at medium 1 minute; stir.  If necessary, microwave additional 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred.
3. Spoon chocolate-peanut butter mixture over about 3/4 of the pretzel rod; gently shake off excess.  Holding pretzel by un-coated end roll in chopped chips, pressing chips into chocolate.  Place on prepared tray.  Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set.  Store coated pretzels in cool, dry place.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

This is a very quick, very easy recipe to do!  I don't have too much to add to this recipe, it's fairly straight forward.  My only recommendation well preparing this recipe is to let the mixture cool slightly after removing from the microwave and before spooning it onto the pretzels.  I found the hotter the mixture the harder is was to get the chopped chips to stick to the mixture on the rods.  Also, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips in place of the milk chocolate chips as that was what I had on hand.

Pretzel Rods - the only store I was able to find these was the Bulk Barn.  Below is a variation if you can't find the pretzel rods or would like to use regular pretzels.

Variation: Melt entire package of chips with 4 tsps of shortening and dip small pretzels into mixture.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed cattails, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Macaroon Cookies with Kisses













1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp almost extract
2 tsp orange juice
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 cups sweetened coconut flakes, divided - 3 cups + 2 cups
48 Hersey Kisses

1. Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed in large bowl until well blended.  Add egg yolk, almond extract and orange juice; beat well.
2. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixer.  Stir in 3 cups coconut.
3. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to handle. Meanwhile. remove wrappers from chocolates.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in remaining 2 cups coconut.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Immediately press chocolate peice into center of each cookie.  Cool 1 minute.  Carefully remove to wire rack and cool completely.

Tips/Tricks/Notes

Note: This recipe can be done without the chocolate kisses to get just normal Macaroons.

Once you have added the kisses to the cookies, the kisses start to melt.  Be VERY careful when moving the cookies off the cookie sheet as the kisses will deform.  Also note, I kept these cookies in the fridge, but they are definitely better if eaten at room temperature due to the kiss getting very hard if the cookies are eaten directly from the fridge.

Separate yolk and egg white - this recipe calls for just an egg yolk and I had no idea how to go about doing it.  This is a trick I learned from Kevin.  There may be other tricks out there, but this is the one I know.  Using a spoon or any utensil carefully make a small hole in the top of the egg - make sure the hole is small enough that the yolk will not come through!  Once you have the hole, just tip the egg over and carefully shake it until no more egg white is coming out.  Easy as that!

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed cookies, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.

Nanaimo Bars











Bottom Layer

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (european style cultured)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 tbsp cocoa
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup coconut

1. Melt the unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of double boiler.
2. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken.  Remove from heat.
3. Stir in graham wafer crumbs, coconut and nuts.
4. Press firmly into an ungreased 8" x 8" pan.

Middle Layer

• 1/2 + 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp and 3 tsp cream
• 3 tbsp vanilla custard powder
• 3 cups icing sugar

1. Cream butter, cream, custard powder and icing sugar together well.
2. Beat until light.  Spread over bottom layer.

Top Layer

• 8 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz each)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. (I actually just use the microwave - works just as well)
2. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.  Another way to try them is frozen - it may sound strange, but they taste excellent!

Tips/Tricks/Notes

I originally found this recipe online, but have made some adjustments.  I found the original recipes middle and top layers amounts did not do enough to completely cover the layer below so I made the adjustments to solve this problem (the above recipe is the adjusted one).  Also note, with the bottom layer, stay right to the recipe with the butter amount otherwise the extra will run out of the mix.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed bars, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.