Homemade Christmas Candy

12/14/2013

No, I am not so on the ball that I have already made Christmas candy this year. I wish I was. I am actually feeling a little behind and still have some decorating and lots of cooking to do. At least the tree is up and full of star wars and star trek ornaments and homemade ornaments that the kids made in previous years. I let the boys decorate the tree last week and it looks cute with its mis-matched ornaments. I took these pictures last year with the intention of writing a blog post then. (...One year later)

We made some simple homemade candy for neighbor and teacher gifts. These are really easy to make and package into cute little gifts.

You can use almond bark or chocolate. Melt in a double boiler or in the microwave in short increments (stirring in-between) Melting discs work well too. There are often melting directions on the package.

These homemade candies are so easy to make. You just dip stuff in chocolate and let it dry on wax paper. Chocolate covered pretzels are one of our favorites.

Last year, we dipped marshmallows and the boys loved them.

Then dip in sprinkles...

Or crushed peppermint candy

Then let dry on wax paper.

Make peppermint bark by spreading white chocolate on waxed paper then sprinkling the chocolate with crushed peppermint. When it dries, break it into pieces.

Peppermint bark is always a favorite.

You can make your candy look festive with colored sugar sprinkles and edible glitter.

Turtles are easy to make too. Just microwave caramels for a few seconds. I think I microwaved these for 7-8 seconds. Then push a pecan into each softened caramel.

Dip in melted chocolate to make turtles. We also love nuts dipped in chocolate for nut clusters, caramels and coconut. Dried berries would be good too.

Use candy molds to make chocolate suckers or festive chocolate shapes. After pouring chocolate into the molds, freeze until firm. Then pop out of the molds.