Easiest Christmas candy. Ever.

I'm getting a post ready for the Friday Favorites on the Litfuse blog, so I thought I would share it here too!

I had one of those weeks last week when I was just about ready to dip everything in chocolate. Thankfully, my excuse was a Christmas party at my house. I spent most of my Saturday melting and dipping chocolate.

And believe me, I had plenty left over that I have been eating on all week.

I’ve had to pace myself on leftovers. But these treats can keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


First, I’ll share the absolute easiest Christmas candy ever. Really, seriously, ever.
  • You’ll need a microwavable mixing bowl, a spatula, big spoon and cookie sheet covered in wax paper. You may want two cookie sheets because you’ll probably run out of room. 
  • Pour 1 bag of chocolate chips (depending on your favorite: dark, semi-sweet, or milk) and 1 bag of butterscotch chips into the bowl and melt in the microwave for 1 minute. 
  • Stir the chips to make sure they are fully melted. If they aren’t, but them in for a little longer, (15 or 30 second increments). They will melt fast so, don’t scorch them by leaving them into long. 
  • This time, I dumped in a whole jar of roasted peanuts (salted or non-salted are fine). Mix together until the nuts are coated. One jar of peanuts did just right, but you may have a little bit too much chocolate at the end. (I love doing this with cashews and pecans too.) 
  • Spoon onto the cookie sheets and put into the fridge until the chocolate sets.

 That’s it. And they are addictive!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This year, I also made peanut butter balls. But I didn’t want any Rice Krispies in them. I adapted the recipe I found on Pinterest a little bit because I didn’t have shortening. Does anyone have shortening at their house anymore? And the instructions were like reading a book. Too much information.

Here’s what you’ll need:
  • 2 cups of creamy peanut butter (this is approximately one regular sized jar, so I just put in the whole jar)
  • 1/4 cup of butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt (optional)
  • 2 cups of powdered sugar
For the coating:
  • 1 bag of chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
And here’s what you do:
  • For the balls themselves, melt the peanut butter and butter in the microwave. Try a minute, then 30 seconds at a time until you can really stir the peanut butter in.
  • Add in the vanilla
  • With the peanut butter still warm, mix in the powdered sugar until a soft dough forms.
I got my peanut butter a little too hot, and figured I would have to add more powdered sugar if I mixed it in right when I got it out. I let it cool a little bit which was sort of a mistake. If you don’t mix it when it’s fairly warm, it doesn’t stick together really well.
  • Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl – start with 30 seconds and stir. Add time as needed.
  • Add in the vegetable oil. This helps make the coating a little shinier and the chocolate not melt quite as easily while they are setting out. I think you could actually leave it out.
  • Roll the peanut butter mixture into balls the desired size, and insert a toothpick to dip in the chocolate.
  • Let the extra chocolate dip off, then put on a wax paper covered cookie sheet.
  • Since it’s harder and takes longer to dip out the chocolate than just spooning it out of a bowl like the chocolate covered peanuts above, you may have to stick it back into the microwave to melt again.
  • Once you have all your balls dipped, you can pull out the toothpicks (or leave them in) and let them cool in the fridge until the chocolate sets.
This is not the easiest/cleanest process. I had chocolate EVERYWHERE. Up my arms, in between my fingers, all over the bowl. But the end product is so worth it!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And like I said, I was into melting and dipping. I really wanted the big pretzel rods (would have been so much easier), but the grocery store did not have them, so I did pretzel knots in white almond bark. I was running out of time, so they didn’t turn out pretty. I wanted some red and green too, but I was having trouble with getting it melted right. I put some peppermint extract in the red which turned out pretty good taste wise.

I have more white chocolate and pretzels left, so I’m going to have to try these again.




Oh yeah, and my gooey butter cake. It didn't turn out just right, but aren't the peanut butter balls pretty?



Comments