Caramel Popcorn with Chocolate and Nuts

Harry & David Moose Munch (a gourmet caramel popcorn with nuts and chocolate) was a favorite but rare treat of mine growing up. Each year, I'd get a Moose Munch bar from a family friend for Christmas, which I would try to ration but inevitably end up gobbling down. (Unfortunately, my food habits have not changed very much since then). The combination of flavors—sweet caramel, salty popcorn and nuts, creamy chocolate—always reminds me of the holidays.

This recipe makes a LOT of caramel corn (about 24 cups), but the recipe is easy to halve or quarter. I quartered it, since all we had on hand was a bag of popcorn that made about 1.5 quarts.

Gourmet Caramel Popcorn (Homemade Moose Munch)
Adapted from A Farm Girl's Dabbles

5 to 6 quarts popped corn (20 to 24 cups), from 1 cup unpopped corn
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups mixed nuts (I used peanuts and almonds, but cashews would be great too)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used a combination of dark and semi-sweet), melted

Preheat oven to 250°. Spread freshly popped corn in two large, shallow sheet pans. Put in the oven to keep warm and crisp.

Combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt in large saucepan. Place on medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue to boil to the firm ball stage (248°), or about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Syrup will foam.

Take popped corn from oven and pour hot caramel mixture over it, in a fine stream. Add in nuts, and stir to mix well. Return to oven for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring and scraping up caramel from pan bottom every 15 minutes. Cool the popcorn (I just stuck it outside for a few minutes). Melt chocolate and drizzle over caramel corn and nuts (use less chocolate if desired). Let cool completely, then serve or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

... or just eat it all in, like, an hour. (Did I mention I'm on a holiday-induced diet now?)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Lemon-Almond Biscotti

Oh man. I should have learned last time I did a post series that it's bad for my waistline. I'm currently posting a recipe-a-day for the newspaper I freelance for. Twelve days of holiday treats. Do you realize that requires me to make, taste-test and binge on sweets for almost two whole weeks?

In the words of Uncle Jesse... have mercy. 

Today I went to Target. I bought sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract... and sweatpants.

Regardless, biscotti is a great gift to give, because they're easy, they keep for over a week, and you can pair a batch with a cute mug, or homemade hot chocolate mix, and have an adorable gift for giving.

Lemon-Almond Biscotti
Adapted from Bon Appétit, December 1999
Makes about 3 dozen

3 1/4 c. flour
1 tbs. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1.5 c. sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon extract
1.5 tsp. almond extract
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 large egg white (optional)

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Mix sugar, melted butter, 3 eggs, vanilla extract, lemon extract and almond extract in large bowl. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir with wooden spoon until well blended. Mix in almonds.

Divide dough in half. Using floured hands, shape each dough half into 13 1/2-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-wide log. (Note: I found my dough to be very wet. I did not add in extra flour, but rather did my best to form it into the logs. The logs weren't perfectly shaped, but they spread and baked up just as they were supposed to, anyway.)

Transfer both logs to prepared baking sheet, spacing apart. Whisk egg white in small bowl until foamy; brush over top and sides of each dough log (I skipped this step and my biscotti are still great!).

Bake logs until golden brown (logs will spread), about 30 minutes. Cool logs completely on sheet on rack, about 25 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Transfer logs to work surface; discard parchment paper. Using serrated knife, cut logs on diagonal into 1/2-inch-wide slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, on same baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Turn biscotti over; bake until just beginning to color, about 8 minutes. (Note: If the biscotti doesn't seem completely crispy at the 8-minute mark, take them out anyway. Like other cookies, the biscotti need a bit of time to cool and solidify. You can always put them back in the oven later if they need to dry out a bit more.)

Transfer to rack and cool. Biscotti can be prepared one week ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, though you have better willpower than me if they last that long.

Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Bark

It's that time of the week again!

As an aside, I would recommend that if you are, perhaps, a person of less than existent willpower, that you should, perhaps, not purchase all your baking needs for the holidays in a single trip. And if you do make that mistake, don't leave a grocery bag full of chocolate, marshmallows and toffee bits next to your computer chair.

Because if you let that bag sit there for a week, you might end up gaining three pounds.

And if you do that...

... it is in your best interest to do this. Don't let me eat any more chocolate, people.

Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Bark with Sea Salt and Cinnamon
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli, 60%)
1/2 c. chopped hazelnuts
Sea salt and cinnamon, for sprinkling

Toast hazelnuts in a skillet over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, shaking skillet constantly, until aromatic and golden brown. Set aside. Mix semisweet and dark chocolate chips together and melt them. (I put them in a microwavable bowl for 2 minutes at 30% power, stirred and did 1 minute more. You can melt them on the stove if you prefer, but be careful not to burn them!) Pour melted chocolate onto a large sheet of wax paper (or parchment paper), then spread into a (relatively) thin layer with a spatula. Sprinkle hazelnuts on top and press into chocolate slightly. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and cinnamon, then place sheet in freezer for 15 minutes, or until hardened. Break or cut into pieces and enjoy!

This is a recipe that's easily adapted for whatever kind of chocolate and whatever kind of mix-ins you desire. I also made a yummy white chocolate and peanut butter version of chocolate bark which I'll post soon!

(If you're a follower, you'll see that I still have not posted my sweet potato fries recipe. It's coming; I promise. Good things come to those who wait.)

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Mhm.

Recipe up tomorrow.*

*Okay, okay, I lied. But when your car window decides to spontaneously explode, you are allowed to miss a deadline! Soon and very soon, my friends.

I won! I won!

Oh, hi.

I'm currently hijacking some poor soul's wireless internet while sitting outside their house in my car. Apparently school boards speak in a different language, in which "the meeting* starts at 6:30" means "the meeting starts at 7:30; good luck finding us! MUAHAHA"

So in the meantime, I am updating my increasingly gigantic wishlist of cooking related items, for when, you know, I hit the lottery. Do you realize how many adorable and totally necessary cooking and baking supplies and goodies there are!?

In other news, I WON A COOKBOOK! I never win anything. Thanks to Food Wanderings for sponsoring the giveaway of this lovely cookbook, Domenica Marchetti's Big Night In. Can't wait to start blogging some recipes from it! Go say hello to both of them.

*No, I am not a PTA parent. I was covering the meeting for one of the papers I freelance for. Alas, it was either canceled, or changed to a super-covert location, as no one ever showed. I assuaged my sorrows with a soy chai latte from Starbz while catching up on my Reader posts.

Peanut Butter Biebers

I’m trying to trust that sometimes things do work out. Things like finding a full-time job; like being able to meet my loan payments next month; like finding something that I love to do.

I'm trying to be optimistic about it.

Today’s cookies were a small, and delicious lesson in learning that sometimes, things do work out.

I headed over to my second mom’s house with the intention of making peanut butter cup cookies to munch on while we put up her Christmas tree. Halfway through making the batter, I realized I had left my mini-muffin tins at home.

DISASTER!

I was kind of distraught at my ability to forget the one thing I’d needed to bring from home. This was the one opportunity I’d have to make these cookies in the next few days. It was finally sunny, and the lighting was great for pictures, I actually had time, I was craving chocolate and peanut butter, and therefore these cookies needed to be made. And they needed to be good.

But no mini-muffin tins!? What's a girl to do? How was this girl going to get her blessed chocolate and peanut butter fix? I told my friend Drew that if he really loved me, he would drive back to the store and buy me new tins: “Uhhh…” He politely declined.

I was put off that I needed to forego the adorable, traditional peanut butter cup cookie and use a larger muffin tin, but not only did these cookies turn out, we actually preferred the cookie-to-Reeses ratio of this version better than the original. And, the batter made a perfect two-dozen cookies without me even planning it.

Sometimes, things work out.

In honor of Drew, who told me to improvise, and in honor of his first love in life, Justin Bieber, I dub these cookies "Peanut Butter Biebers." Think about it, people: Bieber is cute, small, adorable and sweet. And the tan-brown-tan colors of the cookie are a perfect metaphor for the Bieb's weird occasional ghetto accent.

Peanut Butter Biebers
Makes 2 dozen

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
24 mini Reeses, unwrapped
Butter for greasing pans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine dry ingredients, whisk and set aside. Cream butter and peanut butter with sugars, then stir in egg, vanilla and milk, mixing until well-combined. Combine dry and wet ingredients and mix until combined. Butter (very, very well) two 12-cup muffin tins, and divide batter evenly among cups, rolling each portion of batter into a ball and placing it in the center of the cup. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until tops of cookies no longer look doughy and are beginning to turn golden brown. You want cookies that are solid enough to not fall apart when you try to remove them, but soft enough to place a Reeses in the center.

Remove cookies from oven, and push an unwrapped mini Reeses into the center of each cookie. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, at which point you can place the muffin tins in the fridge to quick the Reeses’ resolidifying process. To remove cookies from pan, wait until completely cool, then scrape knife around edges of each cup until cookies are loosened.

Enjoy with a glass of milk, and take solace in the fact that sometimes your mistakes turn out just fine. 

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge

I promise that I do make healthy recipes, too.

But December is gonna be pretty heavy on the insanely delicious, decadent, "how much butter is in this?" kind of recipes, given that many people will be receiving baked goods from me for their Christmas presents. I'll try to post at least one healthy recipe a week throughout December, though!

Today is the first of 5 "Festive Friday" posts this December. Each Friday, I'll post some kind of holiday treat to make for Christmas gift baskets, parties, or just something amazing to munch on this winter. Today's recipe is for rich, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter fudge. Thank you, Alton Brown, for creating a fudge that is not only delicious, easy and quick, but uses four ingredients that most of us already have in our kitchens!

...

Actually, that's more of a dangerous thing than a good thing, isn't it?

Easy Peanut Butter Fudge
From Alton Brown

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla (I used 2 tsp.)
1 lb. powdered sugar (which equals 3 3/4 c.)

Microwave butter and peanut butter in large bowl for 2 minutes on high. Stir and microwave on high for 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and powdered sugar to peanut butter mixture and stir to combine with a wooden spoon. Pour into a buttered 8 by 8-inch pan lined with waxed paper (I didn't do this, and it was fine). Place a second piece of waxed paper on the surface of the fudge (I didn't do this either) and refrigerate until cool. Cut into 1-inch pieces and store in an airtight container (preferably in the fridge) for up to a week. Like you're gonna make it that long.

What are your favorite holiday treats?