It’s Valentine’s Day. Or, well, it will be soon. As I say every year, I am not really into the whole Hallmark “manufactured” holiday, but it is always a good excuse to make some sweet thing. This yea, I mad these Winter Bliss Chocolates. I just made up the name … there is nothing particularly wintry about them. They do have orange and pistachios, which give them a lovely nuance. They are very very dark chocolate, my favorite. Delicious!
candy
Aaaand here is another stocking stuffer idea: Buckeyes! Yes, just another excuse to make sweets really. And these are sweets with a kick. If you’ve never heard of Eliot’s Adult Nut Butters, you should definitely seek them out. Peanut butter, Almond butter and Sunflower seed butter with a kick — they make honey sriacha, garam marsala and the type I used here, chocolate chili. Very yummy. I added a little bit of additional chili powder and sprinkled on some sea salt to round out the sweet and salty combo. Very yummy!
Every year, right around the holidays, I try my hand at making another variety of chocolate truffles or fudge. Fudge is my old standby though, as I have a great base recipe that I have been using since high school and it is very easy to adapt with some new flavors. This year, I made Winter Spice Fudge, which has a lot of gingerbread and cinnamon flavors and Irish Cream Coffee Fudge, which isn’t very boozy but ended up very yummy. Very easy to make and very foolproof with just a few ingredients.
While I am throwing M&Ms into treats, I thought I would make some “Don’t Call it Chex” Snack Mix. It is Chex Mix though. But yummier, imo, than your standard stuff. The honey and Worcestershire sauce give it a nice tangy sweetness. The almonds and peanut M&Ms a nutty crunch. Great for nibbling. Obviously I used the springtime / Easter M&Ms, given the season, but go for the regular colors the rest of the year.
Holiday Chocolate Combo:
Dark Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Fudge and Toffee Crunch Fudge
Long time followers of my website know that the other thing that I have a tendency to make around Christmas Time (in addition to the mountains of cookies) is candy or chocolate. Sometimes Caramels, sometimes Fudge, sometimes Truffles. So this year, I went with another couple of types of fudge: Dark Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Fudge and Toffee Crunch Fudge. It’s a super-simply, absolutely foolproof fudge recipe that turns out great every time. And ready in a very short time frame. Try it!












