Mom Of 4 Little Blessings: Christmas Goodies

All the kids love to help in the kitchen. The girls especially get into our Christmas goodie making. We usually spend part of a day and make a huge mess but have a ton of fun.

One thing the kids love to make are the pretzels with Rollo's on top and finished with a pecan. This year we also made pretzels with Hersey kisses and M&M's on top.

Shane thought he would do some taste testing!

They are putting on the finishing touches of pecans and M&M's after they came out of the oven. This is where Shane decided he was done with goodie making and would rather go play.

Alexa was excited when we decided to make Crispy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles. She loves peanut butter so decided to own the making of these fun treats. Her sister on the other hand is not a peanut butter fan so decided she really didn't want to participate in making these.

Crispy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles

makes about 50-60 balls, if teaspoon sized

2 cups creamy peanut butter

2 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup crisped rice cereal

2 1/2 – 3 cups milk chocolate chips

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat peanut butter and butter until creamy and smooth. Gradually add in vanilla extract and powdered sugar with the mixture on low, speeding up once it becomes more combined. At this point you should have a cookie “dough” (depending on your brand of peanut butter you may need a little more sugar – add it 1-2 tablespoons at a time while mixing). Using a spatula, gently fold in crisped rice cereal so it gets distributed through the batter, adding more is desired. Be careful not to crush all the cereal so it stays crispy.

Once combined, roll dough into balls (mine were slightly more than teaspoon-sized) and place on a parchment-covered baking sheet. Some of the balls will have crisped rice edges sticking out and some may be crumbly – that’s okay, just roll as smooth as you can occasionally squeezing the dough together if needed. Refrigerate for 60-90 minutes. Melt chocolate in either the microwave (I melt in 30 second increments while stirring) or in a double boiler. Remove peanut butter balls from fridge and dip in chocolate, then place back on parchment. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Store in the refrigerator!

After Alexa mixed up all the ingredients she got to work rolling all the balls to chill in the fridge for a while.

Emma decided the Fudge Kiss Cookies with peppermint kisses were more her style and she mixed up, flattened and added the finishing touches to these treats.

Fudge Kiss Cookies

ingredients:

1/3 cup butter or margarine

6 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

1 pouch (1 lb, 1.5 oz), Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

1 tsp ground cinnamon

60 Hershey's candy cane kisses

directions:

Heat oven to 350. In large microwaveable bowl, microwave butter and chocolate on high, 1 minute. Stir, microwave on high 1 minute longer or until butter is melted and chocolate can be stirred smooth. Stir condensed milk into chocolate mixture. Stir in cookie mix and cinnamon until well blended. Using 1 level tablespoon of dough for each cookie, shape into 60 balls. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart.

Bake 6 to 7 minutes or until edges lose their shiny look (do not over bake). Immediately press 1 candy into center of each cookie. Cool on cookie sheets 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Tap edge of candy lightly. Cool completely. Store at room temperature.