Truffles

I entered a bake-off at my summer job and decided to make these truffles. They're pretty easy, but this recipe makes A LOT of dough for the truffles (I actually refrigerated some of the dough because I got tired of making truffles) and no matter what you do, this is a really messy recipe. I recommend taking off any wedding/engagement rings and wearing an apron while making these. The recipe is from my good friend Shannon.

Ingredients:

(1) 1 bag of Dark Chocolate melts (candy making chocolate, you can buy it at Party City or Michaels). I had to use semi sweet chocolate chips because the recipe had to be nut free for work and the baking chocolate was made in a factory with peanuts. It worked just fine.
(2) 1 pound packages of Oreos
(3) 8 oz of Cream Cheese

Directions:

(1) Let the cream cheese sit out a little so it is soft

(2) Dump all the Oreos into a ziploc bag, seal the bag and then smash the oreos into crumbs (I used a heavy coffee mug to do the smashing). Be careful because my bag ripped in a few spots, so my counter got a bit messy. I think maybe smashing less Oreos at a time would be a good idea. I stuck both packages in the bag at the same time.

(3) In a large bowl mix the Cream Cheese and Oreo Crumbs with an electric mixer until no white is visible. That takes a lot of arm work and a lot of time to thoroughly blend them together. It will look like it is impossible when you start out, but stick with it. My mixer wasn't big enough to handle all of it at once, so I had to scoop some out and add it in again later. This step was annoying, messy, and took forever, but it was worth it!

(4) When you are done mixing put the dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

(5) Melt the chocolate melts in the microwave stopping to stir every 30 seconds until they are all melted.

Once the dough is cold enough and chocolate is melted, create 1 inch round balls with the dough (I do it the same way I made balls out of play doh when I was younger, just roll it around in your hands.)  Then dunk the ball into the chocolate and spoon out onto a tray that is covered with Parchment Paper (the chocolate will not stick to the paper and will just peel off). Once they are dry (I popped mine into the fridge for awhile to speed this up) peel them off and put them in a tupperware container. You should keep them in the fridge.

These truffles are really rich and chocolately, but sooo good! My personal opinion is that you can't have more than 1 or maybe 2 at a time, but everyone I know that has tried these loves them! I'll be sure to let you all know if I win the bake-off this week! :)

Homemade Candy!

I got this recipe from my friend Shannon, who I write about quite a bit on my main blog. I don't know if I ever mentioned it on here, but Shannon and I lived together for about 6 months before Jeff bought a house and asked me to move in. I came in one night and she was making this candy. I tried some, loved it, and asked her for the recipe! She said her sister used to make this during the holidays, and now that her sister is sadly no longer with us, she makes it to honor her. It's so good and such an easy recipe! I make a batch for my family and Jeff's family every Christmas and everyone loves it!

You need:

• 1 8 x 8 pan 1 stick of butter 
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar 
• 1 cup crushed nuts. I used walnuts, but you can use pecans of whatever you want! I also tend to just pour in almost the entire bag because 1 cup doesn't cover the bottom of the pan and I don't like that.
• 2 cups of chocolate chips. I used milk chocolate chips, but you can use semi sweet as well. I personally hate the taste of semi sweet.

Pour the nuts into the pan, making sure the entire bottom is covered.

Melt the butter on lowish heat. I tend to set it to the notch just below medium. DO NOT do it on high like I did the first time a couple years ago! The butter/sugar combo was black, burnt, smelled awful, and I set off the smoke alarm!

Once the butter is completely melted, add the brown sugar in and stir. You have to stir it constantly for 7 minutes with a fork which will make your arm tired, but it's important. The butter will kind of sit on top of the sugar until it's stirred for a few minutes.

This is about 6 minutes into stirring. I like to call this the "brain stage." This is how you can tell it's almost done! This mixture tastes like toffee.

Pour the butter/sugar combo onto the nuts. Try to get it somewhat evenly on all of the nuts (if you're not perfect, no worries.) It's trickier than it looks because the mixture tends to move in one huge piece.

Pour the chocolate chips on top. Be sure to spread them so the entire thing is covered.

Cover the pan for a couple minutes.

Use a spatula to spread the somewhat melted chocolate chips across the entire thing, then re-cover the pan.

Put the candy in the fridge for several hours so the chocolate hardens.

Cut the candy up into pieces. Sometimes it breaks on its own when you're cutting it. I suggest putting a cutting board under the pan if you used a foil one like I did. I learned the hard way that the knife will cut through the pan and onto your counter which makes some unattractive scratches! You may also notice some nuts that didn't stick to anything leftover in the pan. I like to eat them afterwards! :)

Wrap up in a cute container or just eat them and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Pie

I just made 2 of these to bring to Jeff's Aunt's house for Thanksgiving. My Aunt made one for Christmas once and my mom and I HAD to have the recipe. They're no bake and soooo yummy, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Cream Cheese Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 8oz. cream cheese
• 8oz. (1/2 pint) heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar
• 1 pie shell (I prefer Oreo or Nilla wafer)

Directions:

Gather all your ingredients

Combine everything except the vanilla extract

Beat everything together and add in the vanilla extract while beating.

You will need to beat the filling until it's REALLY thick. I'm not sure how good this picture will be in helping, but it needs to be super thick. So thick that you can make tracks in it and they will stay. If you don't beat it enough, the pie will be very runny.

Scoop the filling into the pie shell

Smooth over evenly, and you're done! You can sprinkle chocolate chips, heath bar, sprinkles, ect over the top if you'd like. I personally like it better plain. I think adding stuff makes the texture weird, but that's just my opinion.

While cooking, it never hurts to wear a super cute apron like this one I got at Williams-Sonoma this past summer!