Getting Ready for the Holidays

Good Monday Morning Friends,

I thought it might be fun to start sharing recipes and decorating ideas in order to get a head start on the upcoming holidays.
Working, traveling and speaking can make for a hectic season so this year I want to start early.
In the next few weeks my best friend and I are going to make home made fondant and roll hundreds of cherries.
We're going to freeze them, then in early December we're going to have a chocolate dipping party and hand dip all the frozen cherries.



Here's a new recipe for a dessert, mailman, paper boy or teacher gift.
I wonder if these would freeze well? If so you could make them now and freeze them for Christmas gift giving.


Peanut Butter Smore's Cups

Candy shells:
3-4 cups chocolate chips

Peanut butter filling
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract


S’mores filling
1 cup marshmallow fluff
2 graham crackers, broken in pieces
Candy wrappers
24 mini muffin liners - 6 regular muffin liners

Directions:
Melt the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Set the chocolate aside to cool.
Put the peanut butter and powdered sugar in a medium-sized bowl.
Stir until smooth and uniform.
Add the vanilla extract and stir until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.
When your chocolate is cool enough to handle, make the chocolate-coated cups.
Put a spoonful of chocolate in the middle of a muffin liner.
Using the back of your spoon, smoosh it around to completely coat the inside.
Set it aside on a sheet pan. Repeat until all liners are coated.
Refrigerate for at least 30 min., until the chocolate is solid.

Let the rest of the melted chocolate hang out on the counter at room temp.
When you’re ready to fill the cups, take them out of the fridge.
If your melted chocolate is too solid to work with, pop it back over a pot of warm water to loosen it up a little.
Put a small lump of peanut butter filling in one of the mini chocolate cups.
Fill them at least halfway up, so there’s a fairly even ratio of chocolate to filling.
With a finger, smoosh the filling down so that it’s flat.
Top with a spoonful of melted chocolate. Spread the chocolate around with the back of your spoon until the filling is completely sealed in.
Set the finished peanut butter cup on a sheet pan.
Repeat with the rest of the mini chocolate cups.
To make a s’mores cup, fill one of the larger chocolate-coated muffin liners a little more than halfway with marshmallow fluff.
Set a piece of a graham cracker on top of the fluff.
Press it down gently.
Top with melted chocolate and spread it around with the back of a spoon to seal it in.
Set aside on a plate or tray.
Repeat with the rest of the larger chocolate cups.
When all your cups are filled and topped with chocolate, pop them into the fridge to let the chocolate harden up.
Give them at least an hour depending on how thick your top layer of chocolate is.
Enjoy!

What recipes and or decorating ideas can you share with us?