Biscoff Fudge

There's a new love in my life, and it's called Biscoff Spread. I stumbled upon it in a nearby gourmet grocery store, and I grabbed it, regardless of the fact that I had promised myself I wouldn't impulse buy that day. Oh well; I had to have this stuff! What is it, you ask?



The best way I can think of to describe it is peanut butter meets a cookie, then they have a baby. This Biscoff Spread tastes just like Biscoff cookies and looks exactly like peanut butter, with pretty much the same consistency and texture. One taste (okay, I didn't stop at just one taste!) and I knew I'd be doing great things with this stuff. But where to begin?

Making fudge seemed like a great start to me. I found a very simple peanut butter fudge recipe, then adapted it slightly to substitute Biscoff Spread for the peanut butter. It worked absolutely beautifully, and this stuff turned out nothing short of addictive. It's evil and it must be stopped!

The recipe is extremely easy; there's only three ingredients, and it can pretty much be whipped up, start to finish, in about 15 minutes. The longest part is waiting until the fudge is cool to cut it into squares. Or you could just eat it straight from the pan. I wouldn't blame you.




Biscoff Fudge
adapted from Sugarbaby
makes about 30 squares

Ingredients
1 2/3 cup granulated sugar
5 ounces (10 Tbsp.) evaporated milk
5 Tbsp. Biscoff Spread (or smooth peanut butter)

Directions
1. Grease or line with foil an 8x8-inch square dish and set aside. Combine the sugar and milk in a large saucepan and place on low heat. Stir until the sugar melts, then turn the heat to high.

2. Stirring constantly, allow the mixture to come to a full boil. Reduce the heat to medium-high, still stirring, and cook until the mixture reaches 235 degrees on a candy thermometer (this takes about 5 minutes if you do not have a candy thermometer). Remove from the heat and add the Biscoff Spread to the saucepan in dollops. Leave the mixture alone (no more stirring) for 5 minutes.

3. Stir the Biscoff Spread vigorously into the milk mixture, working quickly to incorporate the ingredients before the fudge becomes too hard. Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared dish and spread to the edges.

4. Allow the fudge to cool completely (this can be done on the counter or in the fridge/freezer). Cut the fudge into squares and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Mexican Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

It's Cinco de Mayo, and it's time for dessert! Well, actually, it might not really be time for dessert yet, depending on when you are reading this. But since I have already blogged about a starter, a beverage, and a main course this week, clearly at this point you need a little something sweet to wash it all down with!

So I made this wonderful Mexican Chocolate Pistachio Fudge. We're big fudge fans, the husband and I. But I usually stick to my tried-and-true fudge recipe, and rarely branch out from that. There have been some pretty interesting results the few times I have strayed from what I know works. A certain time I made bacon fudge comes to mind...

Anyway, this fudge is a snap to make. I did use my regular recipe as a base, but I expanded on it and I'm really happy with the results. I made the chocolate more "Mexican"-tasting by adding ground cinnamon and cayenne pepper. I thought pistachios would be great in there, so I mixed in a bunch and then scattered even more over the top. The fudge turned out creamy, rich-tasting, and so interesting with that little bit of spice and heat. You don't really taste the cayenne pepper, but you know it's there because you get a nice little burn at the back of your throat after you've eaten a piece. You could leave it out, and the fudge would still be great, but I think it's necessary in there. It's a fiesta in fudge form (sorry, I couldn't resist)!

Mexican Chocolate Pistachio Fudge
adapted from about.com
makes 36-40 squares, depending on the size you cut them

Ingredients
2 Tbsp. butter
2/3 cup fat-free evaporated milk
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
12 oz. (1 bag) semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
6 oz. raw, shelled pistachios, divided

Directions
1. Line a square, 8x8 inch baking pan with nonstick foil, or regular foil that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. Combine the marshmallows and chocolate chips in a bowl and set aside.

2. In a medium, heavy saucepan, combine the butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt. Turn the heat to medium-high, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Allow the mixture to come up to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Stir in the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and vanilla, and continue mixing until the marshmallows and chips have almost completely melted. Throw in about 3/4 of the pistachios and continue mixing well. Note: you should work quickly here, because the fudge starts to harden around this point and it becomes harder and harder to stir.

4. Spread the fudge into the prepared pan and even it out, smoothing the top. Before it has a chance to set, sprinkle the remaining pistachios over the top of the fudge and press down lightly so the nuts will stick. Place the pan in the fridge to allow the fudge to set completely before removing and cutting into squares.

200th Post!! Homemade Strawberry Marshmallows

I can't believe it! I have actually made it to 200 posts! When I first started blogging, I honestly never in my wildest dreams imagined I could make it this long, or this far. Back when I first began, it was sometimes hard for me to find the motivation just to write one blog post a month! Now I do at least 3-4 posts a week, have joined 3 different food blogging groups that I love participating in, and I have accomplished so much! I'm so excited to keep going, and to continue this crazy food journey I have been on!

I couldn't just post about any ol' thing for the 200th. No, I had to do something different. Something unexpected. Something like....Homemade Strawberry Marshmallows! Oh, how I have been wanting to make marshmallows from scratch. I'm always hearing, or reading, about them and how you haven't truly tasted a marshmallow until you've tasted one that's homemade. Then, a couple weeks ago, the family and I stopped into a local confectioner's shop, and they had homemade strawberry marshmallows that were out as samples. I think those marshmallows changed my life.

I know, I know. That's a bold claim to make. However, I can assure you that it was love at first bite. They are so perfect! They're pillowy-soft, sweet without being overly so, and they've got the prettiest pink hue from the real strawberries they're made with. Just blissful. From then on, I was impatiently waiting for an opportunity to make some of my own.

Just as though it was fated, I picked up an issue of Sauce Magazine the other day, and contained in its pages was a recipe for homemade Blackberry Marshmallows. In the St. Louis area, Sauce Magazine is a local food publication that you can find and pick up for free in many various food establishments all around the city. We read it every month; there's always a great tidbit or two in there about local food, and there's usually some mouthwatering recipes, too. I hit the jackpot with this particular recipe. I couldn't believe my luck. So, I finally got my chance, and I grabbed it. I made them! And they are every bit as wonderful as I imagined they'd be.

I was worried that they wouldn't turn out well, because sometimes it takes me a couple of tries before I get my candy-making right. But the instructions in the recipe are laid out very clearly, and I was patient and followed each step slowly and carefully. And it was easy! I was surprised at just how easy this was. Why have I waited so long to do this? Everybody should be making marshmallows at home! Why not?

By the way, the fruit-tinged variety is just sublime. Using fresh strawberry puree is such a brilliant idea. Any fruit puree, of course, would be fantastic, but I just really loved the strawberry. As indicated earlier in the article, you make your puree by blending about 20-24 oz. fresh or thawed frozen strawberries in a food processor or blender. Then, you pass the puree through a strainer to eliminate the seeds and chunks, and measure out the amount of puree you need from the strained liquid. Simple!

Thank you to everybody who reads this little blog. Thank you for listening to me for 200 posts! I love writing, I love cooking and baking, and I truly appreciate being able to share my thoughts and recipes with you. I hope you'll stick around for 200 more posts!

Homemade Strawberry Marshmallows

adapted from Sauce Magazine

makes 48-60 marshmallows (depending on the size you cut them)

Ingredients

4 Tbsp. unflavored gelatin

1 1/4 cups plus 2/3 cup strawberry puree, divided

1/2 cup water

1 1/4 cups light corn syrup

2 cups granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Prepare the "bloom" by placing the gelatin in a small bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups strawberry puree and stir well. The mixture will begin to thicken quickly. Set aside.

2. Mix the remaining 2/3 cup puree with the water, corn syrup, and granulated sugar in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Clip a candy thermometer onto the pot and cook until the mixture reaches 250 degrees, about 10 or so minutes.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the bloom. The mixture will foam up, so stir carefully until the bloom is completely incorporated. Pour the batter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on a low speed, then gradually increase the speed to medium-high. Let the mixture whip for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is fairly stiff but still spreadable. Immediately pour the mixture into a well-oiled 9x13-inch pan (I lined my pan with nonstick aluminum foil, then sprayed the foil, just to be safe).

4. Allow the pan to sit, uncovered, on the counter overnight. This is called curing and reduces some of the stickiness factor. Once you are ready to slice the marshmallows, sift a thin layer of the cornstarch mixed with the powdered sugar over top of the marshmallows. Invert the pan onto a cutting board, releasing the marshmallows. Sprinkle more of the cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture over the marshmallows, then coat a knife or pizza cutter with some of the sugar mixture.

5. Cut the slab into bite-sized pieces (I did 8 rows of 6 squares, for 48 total squares), then toss the pieces into a bowl with the remaining cornstarch/sugar mixture. Store the coated marshmallows between layers of waxed paper in an airtight container at room temperature. They should keep for several days, up to a week. Do not refrigerate!

Easy Oreo Bark

Okay, I promise that I will soon be all out of recipes for delicious Christmas treats very soon! I made a lot of stuff this year, and most of it was worth sharing on my blog, so that is why you are still seeing so much of it, even after New Year's has been long gone. This recipe is probably the very easiest one that was made the whole season....and I'm not technically the one who made it.

I wanted to make Oreo Cookie Bark for Christmas this year because my husband's family enjoys treats made with Oreo cookies. Last year I had made Oreo Truffles, but they are time-consuming and I needed something that I could make more quickly. When I discovered this recipe for Oreo Bark, I was immediately sold on it. It requires just two ingredients, Oreo cookies and white chocolate. Cinchy!



The bark comes together in just about zero time flat. I had my husband make it for me while I was out getting other things done one day. Just break the Oreos up, melt the white chocolate down, and mix the two together. Press it down flat in a pan, then refrigerate until firm enough to slice into pieces. Could not be simpler! I bought the fun, festive Winter Oreos for this, since I thought it would be way prettier, what with the red creme centers melting and swirling in with all the white chocolate and dark chocolate of the cookies. I was right; it looked very cool! I was afraid it would look a lot like peppermint bark, and that mint-fearing folk wouldn't even try it.

Turns out, I shouldn't have been worried. This bark disappeared in what seemed like seconds. It was by far the most popular candy I tried my hand at this year. I highly recommend it if you're trying to make something in a hurry that will impress people and look fantastic on a tray with other goodies. Just be sure to use good white chocolate for this; with only two ingredients in the whole recipe, they both really stand out. A poor-quality white chocolate would just ruin the whole thing. And that would be a real shame.

Oreo Cookie Bark

adapted from Allrecipes.com

makes about 2 pounds

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray

1 (16 oz.) Winter Oreos (with the red creme filling)
18 oz. good-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Line a 10x15 jellyroll pan with waxed paper (I recommend spraying the pan before lining it with waxed paper as well). Coat paper with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, break the cookies into coarse pieces with your fingers or the back of a wooden spoon.

3. Place the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Melt the white chocolate, stirring often, until almost completely smooth. Carefully remove the bowl from the heat and continue to stir until all the lumps have been smoothed. Working quickly, add the cookie pieces and gently fold them into the chocolate.

4. Spread mixture evenly in prepared pan, then refrigerate until solid, about 1 hour. Remove bark from pan, place on a cutting board, and carefully peel off waxed paper. Cut into large pieces with a sharp knife and store in an airtight container. I kept mine in the fridge; that seemed to work best for me.

Chipotle Maple Peanut Brittle

I hope you will excuse the presentation in the pictures here. I photographed my Chipotle Maple Peanut Brittle in my little Santa Claus bowl, because I made this stuff for the holidays and the Santa theme was totally relevant then. However, the Christmsa season took over quickly on me and I never got around to posting about the brittle until now. Believe me, it deserved a mention, late or not, so here is my blog entry on it, albeit a little late.



This beautiful, complex, amazing candy is one of my new favorite things. I'm serious; this is majorly addictive, sweet, salty, spicy goodness in brittle form. It was simple to make with the use of my handy dandy candy thermometer, contained ingredients that you wouldn't necessarily think would work together so well (so it makes a great conversation piece!), and it keeps for a couple of weeks. The maple syrup gives the brittle a great edge of sweetness that makes it different from the standard candy. The chipotle powder is this fantastic stealth ingredient that doesn't instantly present itself. Instead, it hits you just after the second or third bite, out of nowhere. It's this great smoky heat that pairs so amazingly well with the nuts and the sugary goodness. It's something you just have to try for yourself if you like trying new and interesting foods. As far as different goes, this one is a doozy!

Chipotle Maple Peanut Brittle

from Culinary in the Desert (adapted from Cooking Light)

makes about 1 3/4 lbs. of brittle

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp. butter

2 1/2 cups (about 320 grams) roasted salted peanuts

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. chipotle chile powder

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup, and butter. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until a candy thermometer registers 275 degrees. Add peanuts and cook, stirring constantly, until a candy thermometers registers 295 degrees. Remove pan from the heat and stir in baking soda and chile powder.

2. Working quickly, but carefully, pour the mixture out onto a large baking sheet (preferably one that has open sides) lined with parchment paper and coated with cooking spray. Cover candy with another sheet of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to quickly roll mixture to an even thickness. Leave parchment paper on top for 5 minutes, then remove top sheet and set baking sheet onto a wire rack to let candy cool completely. Break into pieces; store in an airtight container, for up to 2 weeks.

Stained Glass Cookies

These festive cookies are what I would classify as fun for the whole family. Not only are they cool and pretty to look at, but they make a great collaborative activity for you to do with kids. I found these Stained Glass Cookies in my handy dandy Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook and knew I wanted to challenge myself with them this holiday season. Normally, I consider rolling out sugar cookies to be a very painful experience, but I wanted to at least try my hand at this. If it worked out well, I knew it would be worth it.



It sounds so simple in the directions in the book. Simply mix together an easy sugar cookie recipe, then roll out the dough to cut shapes. Once you have transferred the shapes to a baking sheet, you can cut out small triangles, rectangles, whatever you want inside each shape. Once you have cutouts in each cookie, you fill it with finely chopped Jolly Rancher candies. You bake the cookies in the oven, and the candies in the centers get melted and fill out the entire cutout. Once the baking is complete, the cookies cool and the candies get hard again. But now, you have cool "windows" in your cookies, with pretty stained glass effects inside!

Maybe I was just fearing the worst, but I actually found that this dough was very manageable to work with! True, you need to do plenty of chilling of the dough in between steps to ensure that it doesn't get too soft, but as long as you follow the directions carefully it really isn't so bad. I enlisted the help of my five year-old son for these, and he loved making them. The faces on the cookies above are courtesty of him!

The funny part, though, is that he really didn't enjoy eating them. They look adorable, but they are a bit difficult to handle. The Jolly Rancher centers do eventually resume their sort of unwieldy texture within the cookies, so it's sort of like eating a cookie with a hard candy in the middle. Not the easiest thing to do. Still, I love the way these cookies look! They're going to look fantastic on cookie trays this year. And hey, the five year-old may not love them, but the two year-old does! I tell you, if it contains sugar, you really can't go wrong with making the little guy happy.

Stained Glass Cookies

adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 tsp. coarse salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

7 ounces (about 30) assorted colored hard candies, such as Jolly Rancher, colors separated, and finely chopped with a chef's knife

Directions
1. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until smooth, 1 minute. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and mix until combined. Stir in vanilla. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate until cold, about 45 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F with racks in upper and lower thirds. Roll out chilled dough on a well-floured surface to a little more than 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes using an assortment of cookie cutters. Using a metal spatula, transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Using the tip of a paring knife, make a triangular shape (or any shape that you like) cutout in center of each cookie for candy filling. Reroll scraps, and cut.

3. Sprinkle candy in a single layer in hole of each cookie, avoiding edges of the cutout. Refrigerate until dough is firm, about 15 minutes.

4. Bake cookies until candy has melted and completely filled cutout and cookie edges are just starting to turn pale golden brown, 11 to 12 minutes. Do not let the cookies brown, or the candy centers may become bubbly. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. Use a metal spatula to remove cookies from parchment. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Monster Cookies

In honor of my son's birthday party, which was Sesame Street-themed, I baked some Monster Cookies. Get it? Sesame Street's full of monsters, so I served cookies named after them! Oh well, I thought it was clever.

These cookies, like so many baked goods I have made lately, are straight out of my Baked: New Frontiers in Baking cookbook. Talk about a behemoth of a cookie! This one's got just about anything I could ever ask for in a cookie: chocolate chips, oats, peanut butter, M&Ms. And they are generously sized; the recipe indicates you should scoop 2-Tablespoons' worth of dough per cookie! The result? A big, chewy, delicious, hearty cookie that will please any crowd.



Now, one quick observation I made. Along with these cookies, I also baked the Chocolate Chip Cookies out of the same cookbook. These, while also delicious, turned out a bit differently than expected. Because the recipe calls for dark brown sugar, the cookies come out of the oven so dark one might think they had burned. I mean, I am only guessing here, but I believe that the dark brown sugar is the reason for this. Once you get past the way they look, you're pleasantly surprised at how flavorful they are. Plus, this recipe actually calls for an entire bag of chocolate chips, plus nearly half of another bag! I wasn't sure I would like the cookies that loaded down with chips, but they were very yummy. If you would ever like to attempt those Chocolate Chippers, I found the recipe on the How To Eat a Cupcake blog, here.

In the meantime, though, you should absolutely try these Monster Cookies! I'm already planning on making these a part of my Christmas cookies tray this year. One final note: I thought it was strange that this recipe called for cold butter, when normally you need softened butter for a cookie recipe that requires the creaming method. However, I saw why this worked after I had added all 5 (5!) eggs and the peanut butter to the mix. These two added ingredients make it so wet, I was glad the butter hadn't been super soft when I began. Anyway, I just wanted to say that the cold butter instruction was not a typo, as I had originally thought. It does work out great that way!





Monster Cookies
adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
makes about 24-36 cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
5 3/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1/4 tsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups creamy peanut butter (I used half creamy, half chunky)
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (6 ounces) M&Ms (Reese's Pieces would be a good idea here, too!

Directions
1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the oats and stir until the ingredients are evenly combined.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth and pale in color. Add the sugars and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth (about 20 seconds) and scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and beat until just incorporated.

3. Scrape down the bowl and add the peanut butter. Mix on low speed until just combined. Add the oat mixture in three additions, mixing on low speed until just incorporated. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to fold in the chocolate chips and M&Ms. Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for 5 hours.

4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to scoop out the dough in 2-Tbsp.-size balls onto the prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the cookies just begin to brown. Let cool on the pans for 8 to 10 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Candy Bar Cookies

I love this idea. This, to me, is just such a brilliant and creative use of leftover Halloween chocolate. Take all the candy bars your kids won't eat (because my kids are weirdos and do not eat chocolate bars), dump them in some cookie dough, bake them up, and send the cookies off to work with your husband! You don't have the candy staring at you every day on the kitchen counter, because it's gone! It's been baked into delicious treats that everyone can enjoy!

As I promised I would, I posted a picture of my boys dressed as Scooby-Doo and Shaggy this year. The greatest thing about their costumes is that they both truly loved their getup. In fact, my eldest even said he wants to be Shaggy again next year! We'll see if the costume still fits, or if he's really still into Scooby a year from now. Suffice it to say, though, they both had a really fun weekend. Lots of sugar!

These cookies, though they are a genius way to utilize your unwanted candy, do have their limitations. Turns out, not every type of candy will work well in them. For example, I threw in two boxes' worth of Milk Duds. Guess what? Not the best idea. The melted caramel on the inside leaked and oozed out of the cookies onto the baking sheets, and then once they came out of the oven, the caramel hardened into little growths on the outside of my cookies. It was not attractive. It was, however, still delicious! Also not the best idea? Putting in the Milky Way. Again, melted caramel all over the place. But now I know. The things that worked very well were Butterfingers, M&Ms, Kit Kats, and my personal fave, the leftover salted pretzels that we were distributing this year. Mmm, salted pretzels in cookie dough! Just another genius idea, and one I will have to try sans leftover candy next time.

So, if you have anybody at your house that can't be bothered with all the remaining Halloween chocolate, give these a whirl. I am so impressed with how much emptier our candy bowl is after I whipped these up and shipped them out!

Candy Bar Cookies
adapted from Food.com
makes about 24-30 cookies

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
6-8 oz. Halloween candy, any non-caramel variety, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Mix in vanilla; scrape down the sides.

2. In three separate additions, add the dry ingredients with the mixer on low speed. Scrape down the bowl between each addition. Mix until just combined. With a flexible spatula, fold in the chopped Halloween candy. At this point, the dough can be chilled for an hour or so.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons (or more, if desired) about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until edges of cookies are just beginning to brown. Allow cookies to sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Almond and Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Happy Halloween! We're getting ready for a big night of trick-or-treating with the kids tonight. We've got our 5 year-old dressing up as Shaggy and our 23 month-old dressing as Scooby-Doo. Since both boys are huge fans of Scooby-Doo, this year's theme was a no-brainer. I hope to be able to get some picture of the boys in their costumes posted here in the next week or so. In the meantime, though, I offer you some lovely brittle!

Nothing screams Halloween more than candy and pumpkins. This Almond and Pumpkin Seed Brittle is a very tasty little treat that would make a great snack for the trick-or-treaters, or their parents. We served it at a Halloween party that we helped out with yesterday at my in-laws'. It's great finger food, and the guests seemed to enjoy it.

Now, I have to confess something. This is actually my second attempt at making this brittle. The first time I made it, I burned the candy and ended up with a very, very dark brittle. It was almost the color of a milk chocolate, but it sure didn't taste like chocolate! It had a salty, bitter taste (yes, I tried it, and yes, I actually ate way more of it than was rational, considering it was a flub!) and nobody else in my household would even touch the stuff.

I did use a candy thermometer, even though the recipe did not indicate that I had to. I read other brittle recipes online and was trying to go by what they were telling me to do, temperature-wise. I thought I needed to take the temp all the way up to 320-ish, although other recipes say to remove the candy from the heat at about 300. Plus, I think the thermometer was off, and I took the candy too far because I was relying on the temperature I was reading from it. Making this stuff is trickier than I thought it would be, mainly because there's such a fine line between perfect and burnt. Maybe in the future I should rely strictly on the recipe's instructions, and shouldn't depend on a thermometer to tell me what's right!

Though this second batch turned out much, much better, it's still pretty dark. Maybe I need to be removing the candy from the heat even sooner than the recipe says to? I dunno, but it really doesn't matter this time because this brittle is dee-licious! The pumpkin seeds I used were lightly salted, and then you add more salt to the candy before adding your nuts. This results in a delightfully sweet/salty combo, enhanced by a dash of cinnamon for extra spice. The cinnamon was something I threw in on a whim; it wasn't part of the original recipe. I'm glad I added it; I can never have enough cinnamon! I really think it works in the brittle.

Almond and Pumpkin Seed Brittle
adapted from The Craft of Baking
makes 1 1/2 pounds

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups sugar
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. kosher salt (the recipe called for 1 1/2 Tbsp., but my pumpkin seeds were salted so I cut down on that)
4 oz. (about 1 cup) pumpkin seeds, salted and toasted
4 oz. (about 1 cup) raw almonds, left whole or halved, toasted

Directions
1. Lightly coat a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set it aside (Nonstick aluminum foil worked great, too!). Mix together the salt and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Combine the sugar, butter, water, and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Stir together so that all of the sugar is wet. Cook the mixture over high heat without stirring until it turns a dark amber color, about 10 minutes. (I used my candy thermometer to bring the mixture up to about 320 degrees. In the future I would probably aim for between 300 and 320, just so that the brittle is a little bit lighter in color.) Remove from the heat.

3. Carefully whisk in the baking soda, followed by the salt and cinnamon; the caramel will rise and bubble. Using a wooden or metal spoon, fold in the pumpkin seeds and almonds. Pour the brittle onto the prepared baking sheet, and using the back of the spoon, spread it out into a layer about 1/2-inch thick. Let it cool completely.

4. Break the brittle into bite-sized pieces, using a mallet or the back of a heavy knife. The brittle can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Spicy Oatmeal Crisps (with Hershey's Kisses "Frosting")

The urge to do some baking that was somewhat fall-themed hit me big time recently. Among other things, I wanted to make some oatmeal cookies that had nice, warm, fall-ish spices in them. I had found an intriguing recipe some time ago in Cooking Light magazine that called for freshly ground black pepper as one of the ingredients.

Meanwhile, I had gone shopping at Target while I was brainstorming cookie ideas. There, I found some awesome Hershey's Kisses in a couple different fall flavors. Since I have a weakness for Hershey's Kisses, particularly the ones in unique flavors, I picked up a couple bags. After I got them home, though, I decided that I didn't really want all that candy just lying around the house. I needed to be able to do something with them that would use up a whole lot at once.

Suddenly, inspiration struck! I could make the oatmeal cookies, and then place a Kiss in the center of each, just like those yummy peanut butter cookies that you see a lot around the holidays. I was excited to see if it would work.

Well, it didn't turn out exactly as I had dreamed. Turns out that because the Kisses (in Pumpkin Spice and Caramel Apple flavors) were filled with a creamy center, they did not really hold up well to being placed on a freshly-baked cookie. I had taken plenty of pictures of the Kisses melting on top of the cookies, but....well, they actually looked a little bit offensive! These oatmeal cookies spread out a lot while they are baking, so just one Kiss on top of each cookie looked silly, considering how wide the cookies are. However, when I started putting two Kisses on top of each cookie, it just looked even funnier. Plus, they were melting into two little puddles and just generally not obeying my wishes at all! Sigh.

But then, I had a fantastic idea. If the Kisses were going to have a mind of their own, well, then I was just going to have to work with it. So I turned the Kisses into frosting! I just took out a little spatula and started spreading out the Kisses while they were still warm and gooey. The goo easily covered the surface of each cookie, and after a while the Kiss "frosting" hardened up enough that the cookies could be stacked on top of one another. Despite their shiny appearance, the finished cookies I photographed are completely dry.

As for the taste? Well, if I do say so myself, I came up with a pretty inspired pairing! The warm spices in the cookies were just a great foil for all the sweetness of the Kisses. Plus, the pumpkin and apple flavors of the candy were a perfect match for the cinnamon, and the cloves, and the allspice, and even the pepper! The cookies were fabulous on their own, as well. Just spicy enough to be interesting without being distracting. Plus, they're from Cooking Light! Bonus.

Spicy Oatmeal Crisps (with Hershey's Kisses "Frosting")
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 24-30 cookies


Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. grated whole nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (optional, but it makes such a difference)
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened (the original recipe called for 5 Tbsp.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup regular oats (I used quick oats)
24-30 Hershey's Kisses, any flavor (Pumpkin Spice and Caramel Apple work very well)


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (flour through pepper) in a medium bowl.

2. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Stir in flour mixture and oats.

3. Drop by level tablespoons two inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes, or until crisp (they will spread out a lot). Cool on pan 2-3 minutes, or until firm. Remove cookies from pan to a wire rack.

4. While the cookies are still warm, place two Hershey's Kisses on top of each. Allow them to melt and soften for about 5 minutes, then spread the Kisses all over the surface of the cookie. Allow cookies to cool completely, and for the Kisses to dry and harden. Store cookies at room temperature.