Christmas Candies: Homemade Tag-a-Longs, Reese's Bars, Divinity, Coconut Bon-Bons, Toffee, Tea Cakes & Chocolate-Covered Cherries

Christmas Goodies like these have always been THE gift to our favorite families. 

Everyone has their favorite. Bon-Bons are probably mine. I can remember Momma sometimes also dipped the Bon-Bons in melted butterscotch chips or cherry chips. This year I did almond bark and chocolate-covered ones. The toffee was a new candy for me to make this year. I followed the directions to sprinkle chocolate chips on top and let them melt and spread the chocolate. It didn't work out so well. The chips didn't melt right even when I popped it into the oven. So if there's  next time I will melt the chocolate and pour over the set toffee. It's still yummy.

Here's the link for the "Better than Lofthouse" Tea Cake recipe  which is my great grandmother's recipe. 

Chocolate-Covered Cherries directions are here.

The Tag-A-Longs are just 2 Ritz crackers with peanut butter spread in the middle, then dipped in chocolate. I like to mix chocolate almond bark or milk chocolate with semi-sweet chocolate.

Recipe for Bon-Bons will be here.

Reese's Bars recipe is here.

I did not use it, but this is the Toffee recipe from Pioneer Woman's site. I wanted the brown sugar one that I can't find. My recipe will be here eventually. It's only 1 c. brown sugar, 1 cup butter, dash salt.

Homemade Reese's like Bars

These are wonderful and can even be made a little healthier. Less butter, more peanut butter. Less sugar and sneak in some oat or flax flour. My guy said he notices when I make them healthier, but I notice that he eats them all up anyway. ;)

There's only 4 ingredients in the original recipe:

• 1 c. butter, softened
• 1 c. peanut butter
• 1 pkg. from a box of graham crackers, crushed
• 2 c. chocolate chips (I like to mix semi sweet & milk chocolate)   

Here's a link to other candy recipes I make.

Bon-Bons- A Coconut and Pecan Dream!

This is my favorite candy to make at Christmas. 

 I have started messing around a bit to make them less sugary by putting in some flour in place of some of the powdered sugar, also I don't try to make the dough too stiff, I just place the bowl in the fridge for awhile, roll them into balls and then freeze the balls before dipping in chocolate or almond bark. I make the "dough" or centers ahead of time, store in the freezer and then dip them as we have Christmas functions to attend. After dipping leave them in a cool, to room temperature place, and the centers will be gooey.

To make the centers you'll need:

• 1 can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 1/2 sticks Butter, softened, but not liquid
• 2 cups Bakers Coconut (It's nice and moist)
• 2 1/2 cups Pecans, chopped
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• Powdered Sugar and Flour to make a dough (original recipe says 2lbs. sugar. This is too sweet for me)

Mix all together and chill, covered, in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Roll the dough centers into small balls and place on waxed paper-lined cookie sheets and freeze. Once the balls are hardened melt your chocolate. I use semi-sweet and milk chocolate for the chocolate dipped ones and almond bark for the white ones. The swirl is melted almond bark that was put in a pastry bag and piped on with a plain pastry tip. When I dip chocolates I use 2 forks. Don't spear the item to be dipped, just throw it in the melted chocolate and fish it out by scooping up with one fork underneath. Tap, tap, tap the fork on the side of the pan to let all the excess go back into the pan and then use the other fork to scrape the ball off onto waxed paper.

Book Tree

This cute little tree is just a stack of open books, a little packing tape, paper wads, an empty tape roll, or sections of sturdy cardboard tubing.

Gather the books that you want to use. Large to small. You may be able to take it apart later, but probably not without some damage if you have to use the packing tape at the back, so pick books that aren't treasures to you. I may make a permanent tree with a rod or dowel down the center next time. I gathered greenish books.

Start with a sturdy roll of of tape, empty or not, and place your largest book open, face down, on top of the roll. My first thing was a roll of book mending tape. You could probably use a large wad of paper here, but whatever you use it needs to be sturdy to hold all the weight you will add. Add books and wads of paper or sections of sturdy cardboard tubing, under the spine areas as you stack to give support and height. You can experiment with turning each book slightly. As you add to the stack the tree will take on a life of it's own and get personality. It will likely tilt and you will have to add paper wads or exchange books to make it go the way you want. Use a little clear packing tape at the back as needed. Decorate with a little garland and a topper. The last touches are what really make you see that it's a tree!

Rustic Bread and Spinach Artichoke Dip

Rustic Bread and Spinach Artichoke Dip

The Spinach Dip recipe is at the bottom because you should make the bread first. The starter is made the night before, so get crackin'!

 

How to make Rustic Bread using a starter from the day before:

The day before making the bread make the starter: 
Into your bread machine put 3/4 cup filtered water, 1/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast and 1 3/4 cup flour on the dough cycle let it knead for about 5 minutes. Stop machine and let rise overnight.

The next day: Reserve 1/3 cup of the starter for this recipe and refrigerate remainder to use another day. Or just make three!
In a large bowl, mix together:

• 1/3 cup reserved starter from above 
• 1 cup filtered water 
• 1/2 teaspoon yeast 
• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. salt. 

Select Dough Cycle and Start. After 10 minutes, pour dough from machine into an oiled bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours. Punch down dough and let rise again until doubled, about 1 hour.Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form into a round loaf. Place loaf on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Spray loaf with water and place in preheated oven. Directions sometimes say to continue spraying loaf  during the first 10 minutes of baking.
 

 I placed a muffin tin with water in the oven instead to keep up the humidity. Bake for 40 minutes, until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Let it cool before thinly slicing for dipping. This is a great bread for a busy day at home because you don't have to watch it like a hawk. It doesn't matter if it rises a little longer.

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

This yummy dip is a remake of a recipe I got from my friend JH and my sweet daughter. It's just like me to combine different recipes.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil or butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• One container frozen spinach thawed & drained
• One whole jar of artichokes chopped.
• 1/2 cup from a jar of roasted red peppers chopped
• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 3 dashes hot sauce
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella 
• 1 cup of Asagio/Parmesan/Romano grated mix
• Salt and ground pepper

 Heat the oil or butter in a large skillet and saute the onion and garlic. Add the drained spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes and peppers, cooking until good and hot. In a large bowl melt the cream cheese (or add it to the skillet if there's room) and combine everything else. Pour into a buttered casserole dish, sprinkle a little more cheese on top and bake at about 375 until bubbling and starting to brown. Serve with pretzel crackers or the thinly sliced rustic bread.

Christmas Trees From Old Book Pages

I love the little trees I made from old book pages! 

I've seen the idea a couple of places.

Kayla Aimee She shows how to fold & Creative "Try" als

The metal candle holders I already owned, 

and Dollar Store ornament toppers made them just right! 

These are decorations that didn't cost much at all. 

You'll need: 

• Old Paperbacks. I found a so-called "classic" that I hated. I recently tried to read it and I made myself finish it, but it was absolutely awful! Rambling writing, partially inside the head of a mentally ill person, and there was no real plot. So it became a couple of nice little trees. Yea! That makes me happy.
•  Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
• Ornament or Topper
• Candle holders Or something to stand trees on.
• Glue & Glitter Optional for the page edges. I didn't use any.

Take the cover off carefully, taking only the paper cover, and leaving as much original glue on the spine as you can. 

Count out 2 sets of 30 pages. If you go by page numbers just remember if you cut out at page 30 you will only have 15 pages! I couldn't figure out why my first tree had to be filled in so much. It was because I'm silly and only had 30 pages total! So go to page 60 and cut the first section out. Then to page 120 or so. I added a few more on each side after that first sparse tree.

Fold each set of 30 pages as follows:

With the spine edge of the first 30 pages to your left grasp the top right corner and fold down to the edge as shown above.

Then fold the same page down again sort of like a paper airplane. I used a pencil or Popsicle stick to smooth down and make a sharp edge.

Repeat with all thirty pages. 

Sometimes curling a little as you go gets the page down in there where it needs to go.

REPEAT with the other 30 pages only start them out with the spine to the right.

I cut off the extra tabs that hung down. You can fold them up. I didn't like that. 
You can also trim the height once you get each half done. 
Trimming off the same amount from the bottom of each side. 

 This is what the bottom of one half should look like after folding. At the top middle you can still see some of the original spine. You will need 2 halves like this before you heat up the glue gun.

Put a bead of hot glue all the way down that original spine area and 
quickly press both halves together.

Touch up with a little more glue if needed. 

Here's where you can glue glitter to the page edges if you like.

Then glue on the topper.

Christmas Wreath From Old Book Pages

 

I love to recycle or re-purpose. I've been doing it my whole life.  I've been wanting to make some crafts from old book pages for some time. These wreaths were fun. 

I've made a few of them now.
  

 The two above are from regular sized paperback pages. Pre-aged.The one below is from an old encyclopaedia annual. The thinner pages allowed more free-formed shapes.

You'll need a foam board, or cardboard for backing, a razor knife, a glue gun, ornaments or natural items like pinecones and nuts, a pencil or stick to keep your fingers from getting burnt pushing the pieces onto the foam, 
and an old book.
 
Find a book you don't want, or get one at a old book store or garage sale. This is a 1985 annual of the encyclopedia. Some of the pages where off white already, but not aged. 

We can take care of that!

Use a razor for hard-backs, just tear out the paperback pages carefully. No need for a razor.
You will need around 60-90 sheets
Boring statistics look fun now! 
I'd like to find some old sheet music.

 

 Here's how I aged the pages:
(If they need it)

While the pages are baking you can cut your foam board.

You could also use a foam wreath, but you'd have no spot for the ornaments later. 

I will get 2 wreaths out of one 20x30 foam board

 

While you are baking and rolling paper you can also enjoy some tea and cake truffles 

(sort of like cake pops without a stick.)

Green, whole leaf tea mit blumen (flowers) from my sweet daughter.

German chocolate cake truffles. Recipe to come for these yummy yummies.

Back to business!

Roll cones, s-shapes, or double roses. Roll everything the same or not. Roll uniformly tight 

or loosey goosey. I made all of mine rounded, but not identical.

I rolled some of my pieces while watching TV.

 As I neared the center I used the double ones as shown above so they would be shorter. Or you can tear them off shorter.

You can draw a circle if you like.
The next ones I made I actually pulled the paper cones further down and so more of the paper was on the board.

 I used the little container to give height to the spot I would glue the ornament cluster. You could use wads of paper glued in there instead. Once you work your way to the center check for spots that need filled in, then start gluing and piling ornaments or pinecones and ornaments into the center area.

 I used a large paperclip for a hanger.

Chocolate-Covered Cherries

Chocolate-Covered Cherries for Valentine's Day

My honey LOVES these. Store bought are just not the same. These are a surprise, so shhhhh, don't tell.

Ingredients:

• 2 jars of maraschino cherries, drained and dried on layers of paper towel (aprox. 60)
• 4 Tab. butter
• 4 Tab. light corn syrup or honey
• 3 c. or more of powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 lbs. chocolate, either a mixture of dark and white chocolate chips or other quality  chocolate, melted.

Keep the drained cherries on paper towels drying while you work.

In a largish bowl:

Don't be afraid to use your hands.

Make CERTAIN that your cherries are nice and dry before the next step.
Even if you have to hand dry each one individually.

While cherries are getting firm you can melt the chocolate in a double boiler. If you are like me, who has NEVER owned a double boiler use a small saucepan sitting inside a larger pan with a small amount of almost boiling water. DO NOT let even one speck of water get in the chocolate. It will cause the chocolate to seize, which is sort of like when milk clots. Then all it will be good for is to pour out on waxed paper and chop up for putting in cookies.

You may have a few weepy ones when you take them out to dip, and that's okay. Storing in the fridge will keep them from getting too messy.

After they are all dipped and starting to harden, loosen them and see if the undersides are sealed with chocolate. If not put a little dollop of chocolate on the naked spots and let set. Store in the refrigerator for a week or so to ripen. That means they will get a little more gooey on the inside the longer you can hold out from eating them, but your family will wonder why you have a recent love affair with the fridge if you try to sneak in and snag one too often for taste testing just to "check and see if they are ready".