Category: Christmas treats

The Best Rum Balls in the World!

This is probably my favourite sweet treat in the whole world!  My mom usually makes them at Christmas, but not  this year . . . so it’s up to me to save the day!

The original recipe is actually twice as big, but this makes a big bowlful, and several dozen rum balls.

What you need:

4 cups crushed vanilla wafers (Mr. Christie’s Nilla wafers work well, about 1 & 1/2 boxes)

1 & 1/2 cups icing sugar

3/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup cocoa

3/4 cup white rum

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1/4 cup almond paste (grind your own almonds if you don’t have this)

1/2 cup sour cream

pinch salt

What you do:

1.  Combine the wafer crumbs, icing sugar, butter, cocoa, rum and pecans in a large bowl.

2.  In another bowl, combine melted chocolate, almond paste, sour cream and salt.

3.  Add the melted chocolate mixture to the ingredients in the large bowl and mix well.  You may want to knead it with your hands so everything gets mixed together completely.

4.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it is firm enough to form the balls.  I usually leave it over night, but it doesn’t need that long.

5.  After you have formed the balls you may want to roll them in chocolate shot or cocoa – I never do this, though.  They are so good on their own.

These rum balls need to be stored in the fridge!  They also freeze well.

Amazing Pecan Shortbread

I’ve been making this one for so long I can’t remember where I got the recipe from.  Probably Martha; she’s always good for Christmas cookies.

It’s easy, it’s delicious.  Need I say more?

What you need:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (no substitutions!)

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 drops almond extract

1 & 3/4 cup flour

pinch salt

1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

What you do:

1.   Cream the butter, then beat in the sugar.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat until light in colour.

2.  Add flour, salt and pecans and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

3.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.  (If you make the dough ahead of time you can refrigerate it, but make sure you take it out of the fridge about an hour before you want to roll it out or it will be rock hard!)

4.  Roll dough to about 3/4 of a centimetre thickness, on a floured table.  Use floured cookie cutters to cut shapes, then place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

5.  Sprinkle lightly with sugar, then bake at 325 F for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Enjoy, and impress your friends!

Fleur de Sel Caramels

These are to die for – sweetness balanced perfectly with saltiness.  I made some plain, just caramels and fleur de sel, wrapped in parchment paper.  The others were dark chocolate-covered, with a sprinkling of fleur de sel.  It’s hard to choose a favourite . . . but I’d have to say the chocolate ones win out.  Try it and see – it takes a bit of patience, as the cooking process can’t be rushed, but if you’ve got the time and some good music to listen to while you’re stirring, it’s totally worth it.

Listening pairing: Luluc’s album ‘Dear Hamlyn.’  Sweet and smooth like the treats you’re making!

What you need:

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 & 1/2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

fleur se sel

3 oz chocolate (I used 2 oz semi-sweet and 1 oz bitter-sweet)

parchment paper

candy thermometer – helpful but not essential (you can test the accuracy of your thermometer by placing it in boiling water – it should read 212F)

What you do:

1.  Line a bread pan with lightly buttered parchment paper.

2.  Combine the sugar, syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and half a cup of the cream in a pot.  Place on medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until it boils.  This may take a while, but make sure you don’t raise the heat to hurry it up – it needs to stay on medium.

3.  While it boils, add the cream slowly, continuing to stir.  Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to boil for 5-6 minutes, stirring little.  Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, and stir until melted.

4.  For the next steps you need to have patience, as you will be stirring for about 30-40 minutes.  Continue boiling over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.  You will begin to see the mixture turn a more caramel-brown colour.  If you’ve got a candy thermometer, you want it to read 250F.  If you don’t have one, you can get a bowl of ice water and place a drop of the mixture into it.  When it forms a “firm ball” in the ice water, take it off the heat right away.

5.  After removing from the heat, stir in the vanilla.

6.  Pour immediately into the parchment-lined pan.  Just pour it in and don’t scrape the caramel from the bottom of the pot, to avoid crystallization.  Of course you can scrape it out into another container and eat it up!

7.  Allow the caramel to cool, then remove it from the pan by pulling up the parchment paper.

8.  With a lightly buttered knife, cut into desired shapes.  Sprinkle the fleur de sel on the ones that you won’t be dipping in chocolate.

9. Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler, or place a bowl on top of a pot of water.  Melt the chocolate, or read here for the more complicated process of tempering chocolate.

10.  Dip caramels in the melted chocolate, then sprinkle with a little fleur de sel.

11.  The caramel will stick to almost everything.  Parchment paper, however, is like magic when it comes to caramel. you can line your plate with it, or use it for wrapping the individual caramels.

I found this recipe on Not So Humble Pie.  I’ve just halved the recipe, as it was too much for me.  But it takes a long time to make, so you might want to double it – it’s not double the work until you get to the cutting and dipping.

Gingerbread Men with Candy Hearts

These are so cute, and fun to make!  I don’t actually like eating gingerbread – but I enjoy making them, and people love to get them.  They are a bit of work, so you can make them one day when it’s c-c-cold out and you want to stay in, or in three steps: 1. make the dough 2. roll and bake the cookies 3. have fun with the icing.

Recommended listening pairing: Over the Rhine‘s ‘Snow Angels’ album.

What you need:

2 & 3/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup unsalted butter or substitute (margarine or vegan “butter”)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

3/4 cup molasses

red candies

parchment paper

gingerbread man cutter

small heart cutter

for the icing:

2 & 2/3 cups icing sugar

2 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

just less than 1/4 cup of water

icing bag or ziplock baggie

What you do:

1.  Whisk together dry ingredients  (flour to nutmeg).

2.  In a large bowl beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy, then beat in the molasses.

3.  Gradually add the flour mixture until it is just combined.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour, or do this ahead of time.

4.  Smash up the candies into little bits.  I bought candies that were wrapped, then smashed them in their wrappers with a hammer on my wooden cutting board.

5.  Roll dough out on a floured surface to 1/2 to 3/4 of a centimetre.  I rolled onto parchment paper, then put them in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting, and they came out all in one piece.

6.  Cut the hearts out and place them, along with the men, on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Fill the hearts with some candy shards.  If you don’t use parchment the candy will stick to your pan – not good!

7.  Bake at 350 F for 6 minutes, then take them out and tap the pan on the counter, and put them back in the oven to bake for 6-8 more minutes.  Let them cool on the pan for about 10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack; this will give the candy time to harden.

8.  To make the icing, first sift the icing sugar.  Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar, then gradually add the icing sugar.  Add a little water at a time, but make sure it doesn’t get too runny.

9.  Fill icing bag part way with icing.  Place a damp cloth over the top of the icing bowl so the part you aren’t using doesn’t dry up.  If you don’t have an icing bag, put the icing in a ziplock baggie, then cut a very small hole in one of the corners.  Pipe the icing on in any designs you wish!