Soft Caramels - Club Baked

As you're reading this, Tim and I are on our way to Florida. We're taking our first ever 10 day cruise! Even more awesome, I won this cruise. We attended a wine tasting at our local Hy Vee store last Spring. As we were leaving, there was a drawing to enter. We both looked at each other, shrugging and saying we never win anything but stopped to fill out the entry. Needless to say, I am so glad we did. I won't be stopping by to visit for the next couple of weeks. I am hoping to have some amazing sunsets as well as a recap of the Chef's Table to share with you after we return.

Caramels are one of my favorite candies. The movement towards salted caramels increases my love even more. Salty and sweet together are the best.

According to the Baked Explorations recipe, the caramels should take about 7 minutes to reach the desired temperature. Mine were there in about four minutes, causing me to scramble to warm the cream. When I make these again, I will warm the cream earlier. Otherwise, these were easy to make and came together nicely. I should have added the sea salt a little earlier. I waited until they were too cool and it was hard to get the salt to stick.



Thanks to Teri of The Freshman Cook for choosing a fantastic recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog and see the links to the other Club Baked members caramels here!

Rum Truffles - Sweet Melissa Sunday's

Coming back from vacation is always hard. It takes me a week or so to get back in the swing of things!!! I read through this week's SMS recipe earlier in the week and had planned to make them yesterday. Yesterday came and went and no truffles! I just couldn't get motivated to make them. Today after reading everyone's reviews on how delicious these were, I was motivated. Now to find the time. Finally at about 6:30, I made them! Truffles need to chill at least two hours before they can be formed, so I didn't quite make Sweet Melissa Sunday's. More like Sweet Melissa Monday's.

All of the truffle recipes I am familiar with contain cream. Melissa's recipe calls for egg yolks. Egg yolks, seriously? Concerned that if I left the egg yolk out, the truffles wouldn't turn out properly, I decided to go for it. I quartered the recipe and ended up with seven truffles. These have a rich chocolate flavor with just a hint of rum. The egg yolk? I couldn't tell it was in the truffles. If you like truffles, give these a try. They're easy to make and are a beautiful treat! You can find the recipe at Nina's Cupcakes. Thanks for a great pick this week, Nina! Check out the other SMS bakers truffles here!

Peanut Butter Balls

Don't forget to enter my CSN Stores Giveaway here!!!

Even though I start my Christmas shopping early in the year. I never seem to have enough time for making holiday treats. There's so many recipes I'd love to make, those in my own recipe box, not to mention all of the delicious recipes my fellow bloggers have posted. Unfortunately, this year I think my only treat is going to be these Peanut Butter Balls. I am reposting last year's post for these delicious treats!!

What Christmas treat are you known for? You know that recipe you make every year and everyone asks you for this recipe. For me, it's these decadent Peanut Butter Balls. It doesn't get any better than peanut butter and chocolate.

I've been making these at Christmas since Justin was small. My recipe is scratched onto a piece of notebook paper, it has my son's scribbles and a phone message he took for me on the back. Too sentimental to rewrite onto a recipe card!

Peanut Butter Balls
1/2 cup butter
3 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 pound powdered sugar
8 ounces Hershey's chocolate bar
6 ounces semi sweet chocolate bits
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cake paraffin

Melt butter, stir in peanut butter until smooth. In a large bowl, combine rice krispies and powdered sugar. Pour peanut butter mixture over rice krispie mixture. Stir until combined well. Chill for at least one hour. Roll rice krispie mixture into balls approximately the size of walnuts.

In a double boiler or a bowl over a pan of boiling water, combine chocolate bar, chocolate chips, paraffin and vanilla. Stir until melted and combined.

Dip balls into chocolate mixture, making sure to cover all sides. Place on waxed paper to dry.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tuesday's at the Table and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Peanut Brittle - SMS

Knowing we were going to be out of town this weekend, I made this recipe in advance. I always feel good when I have a SMS post ready to go before Sunday. Am I glad I made this in advance? Absolutely, this was one of those problem recipes.

I gathered all of the ingredients in advance, read the recipe a couple of times and began cooking the caramel. I've read about how challenging caramel can be. I was a little nevous about this recipe. I think that was my problem! The recipe is like an animal, it smells my fear. I've made caramel before without any problems. Not so lucky this time. This recipe calls for cooking the sugar and corn syrup on medium high. I wondered if that was too hot but did it anyway. The caramel mixture hadn't been on the stove very long and I noticed it was starting to smoke. Panic! Our smoke detector is wired into our alarm and I didn't want it to go off. I opened the kitchen windows and the backdoor. It started smoking even more. I grabbed the pan and wanted to run to take it outside to the deck. Knowing how my luck was going that particular day, I decided running wasn't a good plan. I walked as quickly as I could and let it smoke away outside. Time to start over but I used all of the corn syrup, so I will be starting over another night.

Never having made peanut brittle before, I didn't really know what to expect. I went to the internet and began reading recipes for peanut brittle. After reading a number of recipes, I decided two things. One, this recipe uses way too high of a temperature to cook the caramel. Second, most of the other recipes used a little water along with the sugar and corn syrup. When I made the second batch, I followed Melissa's recipe except I added 1/4 cup of water and cooked the caramel on medium. This time went much more smoothly, until the final step. One stick of butter is way too much butter. I couldn't get it to incorporate smoothly. As a result, my peanut brittle is a big greasy.

I've never been a big peanut brittle fan. Give me chocolate anything instead. :) I thought this tasted just okay. Tim said it was pretty good. I am anxious to read what the other SMS bakers thought of this recipe.


This week's recipe was chosen by JoVonn of the Givens Chronicles, you can find the recipe on her blog. If you'd like to check out the other SMS baker's peanut brittle, you can find them here.

Butterscotch Pralines - SMS

I've never made pralines before, probably because I've always found them too sweet. Making these was one of those frustrating kitchen experiences. I didn't feel great to begin with, either the 24 hour bug or a touch of food poisining. Then as I was gathering all of the ingredients, my candy thermometer rolls on to the floor. It didn't really break but it chipped on the bottom, so I was pretty sure I shouldn't use it. Off to the store to get another one.

Once I got back with the thermometer and gathered the ingredients, the recipe went together easily. I think my mixture was too thick. I went ahead and spooned them out onto the parchment paper. I don't really think they look like pralines. Tim said they're good but needed a few more nuts.



This week's SMS was chosen by Tess of Cooking Chemist. Check out her blog, she has some great recipe ideas. You can find the links to the other SMS gals here.

Peanut Butter Truffles

A couple of weeks ago I talked about how happy I was that I'd been able to get SMS completed and set up to post PRIOR to Sunday. Not this week! It's been a busy week! Yesterday was a beautiful Spring day and the opening of the Farmer's Market. After the long, cold winter we had, everyone seemed as thrilled as we were to enjoy the market. We picked up radishes, herb plants, tomato plants and asparagus. Last night for dinner, I tried a recipe for roasted radishes. Yum! I will share the recipe sometime in the near future.

Okay back to this week's SMS! One advantage to making the recipe on Sunday is you can read a few posts before making the recipe. I found a couple of great tips over at Karen's Cookies Cakes & More. She quartered the recipe which was my plan as well. Everyone had been commenting they thought the recipe needed more peanut butter. Karen used the amount of peanut butter for a full recipe. Also, she used her melon baller to scoop out the balls. Thanks, Karen!!!

I am trying to use ingredients I have on hand. I didn't have bittersweet chocolate but did have semi sweet. No peanuts either, so I rolled these in toffee bits.

The recipe is quick and easy to make! I had no issues putting it together or making the balls. These are delicious! I love chocolate and peanut butter together. I thought they had a nice peanut butter flavor. Maybe the semi sweet chocolate does not overpower the peanut butter as much as the bittersweet chocolate?

Thanks to Mara of Love Your Mother Earth for choosing this recipe. You can find the links to all of the other SMS gals here!

One Year Ago...Mrs. Flint's Banana Bread!

Chocolate Creme Caramels - SMS

When I read the Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipes for January, I was thrilled. January is going to be a crazy month for me. I am traveling on business and we are going on a cruise!! I knew I needed to have these posts done in advance. I decided to make the Chocolate Creme Caramels for the holiday treat bag for my staff at work!

I was a little nervous because I'd heard how tricky caramel could be. Even as I was making these, I heard Sandy Gluck on Martha Stewart Living Radio talk about the challenges she'd had when making caramel. EEEKKKKK! I hope these turn out!!

There are two recipes in the cookbook for Carmels. The base recipe is Honey Creme Caramels and to make the Chocolate Creme Caramels, you just add...Chocolate. The carmel mixture is the most beautiful honey brown color while it is cooking.

Well turn out, they did! These are the most delicious caramels and remind me of one you might purchase at a fine candy store. Now with that said, don't make this recipe if you are in a hurry, it's not a quick one. The caramel took about an hour to get to 248 degrees. It seemed like it took forever to get from 225 to 248!!! I didn't have an 8 x 8 pan, so I'd planned to use a 7 x 7. I ended up with enough caramel for for two 7 x 7 pans.

These caramels made a wonderful addition to the treat bags for my staff. Thanks to Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake for choosing this fabulous recipe. You can find the recipe on her site and links to all of the other Sweet Melissa Sunday's members here!

Next up...Chocolate Pie Crust and Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie.

Peanut Butter Balls

What Christmas treat are you known for? You know that recipe you make every year and everyone asks you for this recipe. For me, it's these decadent Peanut Butter Balls. It doesn't get any better than peanut butter and chocolate.

I've been making these at Christmas since Justin was small. My recipe is scratched onto a piece of notebook paper, it has my son's scribbles and a phone message he took for me on the back. Too sentimental to rewrite onto a recipe card!

Peanut Butter Balls
1/2 cup butter
3 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups smooth peanut butter
1 pound powdered sugar
8 ounces Hershey's chocolate bar
6 ounces semi sweet chocolate bits
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cake paraffin

Melt butter, stir in peanut butter until smooth. In a large bowl, combine rice krispies and powdered sugar. Pour peanut butter mixture over rice krispie mixture. Stir until combined well. Chill for at least one hour. Roll rice krispie mixture into balls approximately the size of walnuts.

In a double boiler or a bowl over a pan of boiling water, combine chocolate bar, chocolate chips, paraffin and vanilla. Stir until melted and combined.

Dip balls into chocolate mixture, making sure to cover all sides. Place on waxed paper to dry.

Christmas Treats

I decided to make homemade treats for my staff this year. Instead of making one thing, I decided to make a variety of treats. My often requested Peanut Butter Balls, mini loaves of Mrs. Flint's Banana Bread and a third treat to be revealed in January. You see it's the January 3rd Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe.

Hopefully they will all enjoy some sweet holiday treats. They're a great bunch and I am lucky to have them all on my team!

Butter Toffee Crunch - Sweet Melissa Sundays

Considering my sweet tooth, when I read this recipe makes 3 pounds, I decided to cut it in half. Cutting recipes in half always reminds me of grade school...converting fractions. I decided to take advantage of the internet and find a recipe converter. I found a great site that allows you to enter the entire recipe, directions and all and even print it if you like.



Cavities or no cavities, I am so sorry I didn't make the full recipe! This toffee is absolutely delicious and so easy to make. The mixture reached the 290 degree temperature much quicker than I expected. Don't take your eyes off that thermometer or you will overcook it. When you purchase toffee, you see it in those nice little triangle shapes. So how do the candy makers do that? I used the wooden end of my meat mallet and some pieces are nice shapes but others are small crumbles? Maybe the candy makers have eat all the leftovers? Kind of like that one unforgettable I Love Lucy episode?

This recipe would be great for holiday gift giving. Thanks to Kaitlin of Kait's Place for choosing such a wonderful recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog and links to all of the other Sweet Melissa baker's here.