Friday, December 14, 2012

Making Christmas!

We've been busy making lots of sweet treats for the holidays! In an attempt to save some money this holdiday season in preparation for the arrival of our little one, we decided to make tubs of homemade goodies.
You might remember the marshmallows we made last year. They were so good & easy that we made two batches this year. The first batch was mint like last year but we scaled back from 1 1/2 tbsp of peppermint extract to just 3/4 tbsp. The results were a huge improvement! The second batch was vanilla for which I kept the original recommended 1 1/2 tbsp and, again, I think this is a little too much.
Paula Deen's Marshmallow Recipe

Next I made caramels. First and LAST time! They were delicious but a pain in the butt! I used this recipe from Taste of Home. Here's why I won't be making them again even though they were heavenly:

  1. They took FOREVER! My aching preggo back stood at the stove for 2 hours before the caramel finally reached hard ball stage. It seemed the more I stirred, the more the molten sugar refused to get any hotter but if I paused in stirring it threatened to boil over and/or burn to the bottom. Maybe my stove just stinks. 
  2. They took forever! Then I foolishly thought they would be firm enough to hold their own shape once cut. No such luck.After the caramel cooled I cut it up and piled it into my gift tubs. The next day I returned to find a giant gooey blob. So... cut again and the Mr and I spent the better part of an hour cutting little wax paper squares and individually wrapping each little caramel. 
  3. They are pricey. Obviously this is also true of the marshmallows we made but the marshmallows have the virtues of being quick, easy, and infinitely better than store bought. Of these qualities, the caramels were only marginally better than store bought and so in my opinion, not worth the time and expense. 
The last item in our holiday goody bins were gingersnaps made with Mr's grandmother's recipe. They rock! Everyone we watched open a bin immediately went for one of the cookies first.