Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites

Hello! Do I have an easy recipe for you. This recipe for Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites is actually a variation on a "classic" - Rolo Pretzel Bites. I've seen the Rolo ones quite often, and I've made them too but that was quite some time ago. Thankfully I recently remembered them though! A few weeks ago I wanted to make a super simple and yummy sweet treat to enjoy with friends as we watched the Super Bowl. I didn't have Rolos on hand, but I did have Hershey Kisses! And so, the Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites were born.

You can make these with the Snap pretzels like I have here, or you could just use regular mini pretzels.

Preheat your oven to about 300 degrees. Top each pretzel with one candy of your choice, a Hershey Kiss or a Rolo.

Bake in the oven for only 3 - 5 minutes, checking on them after 3 minutes. Basically you just want the candies to become slightly melty, like these kisses below.

While they're in the oven, make sure your "toppings" are all ready to go. A popular topping with Rolos is pecans, as you see here:

(photo source)

I decided to top mine with almonds and dark chocolate m&m's. I specifically picked out the red and blue ones from the bag since the Giants and Pats were playing in the Super Bowl! And on a side note, woohoo for the Giants winning!

Okay, back to business. Right when you take the pretzels out of the oven, immediately press one (or two) m&m's, or an almond, or whatever you're using, down in the center of the Hershey Kiss. And that's it! Let them cool completely, and store them in an airtight container. As you can see above, on some of these I put a pretzel m&m. :)

This would be a great recipe to involve the kids too! They could easily help with placing the kisses on the pretzels or the m&m's/nuts on top of the kisses once they're out of the oven. Be careful though as you eat these... You should know that it's really hard to eat just one.

:)

Homemade Beer Brittle

Beer brittle?? Do I hear you scratching your head over there?! :) I decided to try my hand at making brittle the other day...and not just any ordinary brittle, but beer brittle! I honestly don't remember what inspired me. Sometimes an idea just pops into your head and you go with it!

I have to say that this recipe was not necessarily difficult. It was really just a tad time consuming. It definitely took longer than I anticipated, but it was still fun. Check out the recipe I used here.

As you can see, there's just a teeny bit of sugar in this recipe. ;-) The most time consuming part was bringing the mixture to the temperature of 300 degrees fahrenheit. I thought it would never reach 300!! But I stuck with it, as did my candy thermometer. :) And speaking of "stuck with it," this is a sticky mixture! Once the mixture is ready, you have to pour it quickly into the prepared pan. It also sticks to your teeth a bit when you eat it, but don't worry, it's worth dealing with the sticky-ness, thanks to how yummy it is! And it actually doesn't stick to your teeth for long either, I promise.

Pictures!!

The recipe calls for peanuts, but I used sliced almonds because that's what I had. And I toasted them! I did it on the stove. Super easy! The toasting really brings out the flavor of the nut. Have you ever toasted or roasted nuts before? See how to do it here! You can toast them on the stove or in the oven.

Check out that roasty toasty brown color. ;-)

SUGAR!

I chose to use good ol' Sam Adams Cream Stout.

The recipe didn't call for the whole bottle, so I did my part to finish it....

Let the liquids cook!

So this is when I started to worry about whether I was doing this correctly. First of all, I kept having to adjust the gas on the stove. It kept wanting to boil over! So if you try this recipe, be sure to closely monitor it on the stove.

Woah, what's that?! After the mixture finally reached 300 degrees after taking a lot longer than I anticipated, it "blew up"! It was ready to go right over the edge of the pan...

So I quickly brought it over to the sink. Doesn't that look kinda cool though? :)

There, it calmed down. As soon as it did I poured the mixture into two prepared pans lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

Look at that leftover sticky goodness!

Don't worry; as messy as this looks, it actually cleans up very easily. I just let the pan sit full of hot water for several minutes, and voila, the sticky-ness vanished!

The brittle hardened very quickly. I took this piece off the pan to give it a taste. Yum!!

This recipe made a LOT of brittle!!!

All in all, I was happy I tried making this unique treat. It's not in my typical repertoire, so it was fun!

The taste was a bit nutty, caramel-y, and even a bit spicy! As you can see, the recipe calls for chili powder. I actually had just run out of chili powder before making this brittle, so I added a touch of cayenne pepper instead. And I really think you could taste it! It added a fun kick to it. ;-)

Talk to you again soon, hopefully!

Candy Pizza!

Yes, candy pizza...you read correctly! Apparently I like to make pizzas that are not your typical tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings... Remember my Breakfast Pizza post? Yummmm. Actually, I do love making regular pizza at home, but I just haven't blogged about it yet. I'll have to do that soon! In the meantime, I'll share with you a very fun recipe for a dessert-themed pizza. :)

My mom used to make a delicious candy pizza for us when we were younger, and that was my inspiration for this one. When I decided to make this the other day, I was not planning ahead very well and I did not have time to chat with my mom beforehand to get her recipe, so sadly this is not the same original recipe she used to make. However, it is very close in terms of its flavors, toppings, and overall deliciousness! You can read the recipe that I followed here. It's from good ol' Betty Crocker!

Now, the main difference between the recipe I used and the one my mom used to make is the crust...  Both pizzas have a peanut butter crust, but my mom's was from scratch, whereas I used the shortcut of Betty Crocker's peanut butter cookie mix, pictured below.

You can read the exact instructions in the link provided above, but essentially this recipe simply involves making the crust with the peanut butter cookie mix, oil, and an egg and pressing it into a pizza pan, after which you add whatever toppings your heart desires!

I added dry roasted peanuts and semi-sweet chocolate chips...

...and butterscotch chips and dark chocolate m&m's.

You bake those toppings for a while before adding the mini marshmallows (which I like to think of as the pizza's "cheese"!!).

The marshmallows only bake for the last 7-8 minutes or so.

Look at them all puffy and fluffy! :-D

For a fun touch at the end I drizzled on some chocolate syrup and caramel sauce...

And that's all there is to it, friends! This recipe literally takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. Sooo easy! I think it'd be such a super fun recipe for kids too. They'd love to pick out some of the yummy candy toppings and put them on the pizza themselves, I bet! I think it'd be tasty to add different types of candy bars or candies, chopped into smaller pieces... Reese's peanut butter cups? Snickers? Milky Way? Hello!! 

I've got a busy week, but I hope to post again before the weekend is here...we shall see! Stay tuned for more yummy Barbershop goodies. ;-)

Dessert Biscuit Puffs

This past week I stayed home for half a day for the delivery and installation of our new dishwasher. Yes, I realize that you're probably wondering what the heck this has to do with Dessert Biscuit Puffs! And you may also be wondering about the above picture at the beginning of this post. It doesn't exactly look like a "puff" of any kind! Well, let me explain so that you're not wondering much longer. :) When the guys were installing the dishwasher the other day, I actually got to sit and relax for a little bit, and I happened to be watching Good Morning America. I lucked out with my timing because a cooking segment came on that featured Taste of Home's editor sharing some yummy recipes from one of their new cookbooks, the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook. Several good recipes were shared, and they can all be found here under the title "Skinny Snacks Pack Loads of Flavor." Anywho, if you're looking for some light, yet delicious comfort food recipes, you should check out that site! A couple nights later I was making a homemade chicken noodle soup (blog post about the soup will be coming soon!), and I wanted to make an easy dessert to go with it. I recalled the segment I saw on GMA earlier in the week, and voila, there was my dessert!

This really is one of the simplest recipes, and the basic recipe where I got the idea can be found here. Taste of Home calls them Chocolate Biscuit Puffs, but I thought Dessert Biscuit Puffs was a more appropriate name since I changed the recipe slightly...as I typically do!

For the simplest version of this recipe, you really only need four ingredients, which are refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, chocolate, cinnamon, and sugar. As you can read in the recipe online, all you have to do is flatten each piece of the buttermilk biscuit dough, place a piece of chocolate in the center of the dough, and then bring up the edges of the dough and pinch them together to enclose the chocolate, as you can see in this picture below. That is all!!

The store-bought refrigerated biscuits that I bought contained 10 biscuits, so with a few of the biscuits I put a Hershey kiss inside each one. For some of the others, I used a combination of chocolate and butterscotch baking chips, and then for others I put in three or four thin slices of banana and about 1/2 tsp. of peanut butter.

According to the recipe, you sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on each one and then bake in a 450 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes. I, however, did not do the cinnamon sugar step until after baking, and for the baking, I actually only had the oven at 400 degrees. They probably took about 7 or 8 minutes until they were lightly golden brown on top, at which point I removed them from the oven. While they were still warm, I used a pastry brush to brush on a tad of melted margarine and on top of that, I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar. So darn easy! From start to finish, these did not take more than 15 or 20 minutes. Below is a picture of the puffs right after I took them out of the oven and then another picture after I brushed them with margarine and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on them. The cinnamon sugar touch is really key, I found. Yummmm!!

As I was making these, I was thinking that they would be a super easy treat for kids to help create. I bet they would love choosing different fun fillings to put inside! They might also like flattening the biscuits. Since the biscuits are so small (compared to something like a pie crust!), it would definitely be something that a young child could do. I obviously don't have kids of my own, but someday I look forward to having little ones baking in the kitchen with me! I have to say that the peanut butter and banana combination was by far my favorite with these. Since I didn't eat all of them right out of the oven when they were warm (although, believe me, I could have), when I had one later on, I would zap it in the microwave for just 10 seconds or so. Deeelish!

Here are a couple more ideas for tasty fillings inside the dessert "puffs"..... :)

-your favorite candy bar

-peanut butter and jelly or jam

-nutella (with anything really!)

-small pieces of fruit and jam (e.g., fresh blueberries and raspberry jam)

-small pieces of fruit and chocolate (e.g., strawberries!)

-apple pieces coated in cinnamon/sugar (with the dough around this filling, it would be like a mini bite of apple pie!)

-raisins and peanut butter

-banana slices and honey

-banana slices and chocolate chips (oooh, what about these two things and peanut butter)

Do you have any fun ideas to share? If so, feel free to comment below!

Also, as aforementioned, this recipe is from a Comfort Foods Diet cookbook too, which means less guilt...and ya gotta love that! The recipe says that each one of these treats is 78 calories. Of course, if you're loading the insides with a very rich and caloric chocolate or candy, that number of calories will vary... But, I still think these are an a-okay dessert to have when all you need is just that little something sweet at the end of a meal! Try them out the next time you're craving sweets, don't have much time on your hands, and want to avoid the guilt that often accompanies a tasty treat!

Holiday Candies

For the past few years now, I've been joining my coworker Marge, candy maker extraordinaire, in her annual "Willy Wonka" day, as I like to call it. Before I joined Marge in making the candy, I used to be a recipient of a box of beautiful homemade candies each year from her. Now, I help her make them and I give them out to my family and friends as a "from the heart" gift for the holidays. :)

Today we made all sorts of candies...chocolate covered oreos (plain and mint flavored!), chocolate covered toffee with almonds, chocolate covered caramels, chocolate covered creme-filled nutter butter squares (woah!), etc... Phew, that was a lot of chocolate covered items! There's also peppermint bark, plain milk, white, and dark chocolates in various shaped molds - and a few others. I can't remember them all! Marge makes several of the candy items ahead of time too. If she didn't, this would surely be a two day affair as opposed to just one 8 or 9 hour day! One item that I made from start to finish today was the toffee covered in chocolate and crushed almonds, pictured below.

Toffee is actually pretty easy to make even though it actually feels rather intimidating (at least I thought it did at first). I didn't take any pictures of the process today, but you can find out exactly out to make toffee here. You make the actual sticky toffee part only with sugar and butter - 1 cup of each. Easy! It's important to monitor it the whole time while on the stove though. If you let it cook just a tad too long, it's no good! I did that last year - oops. I learned my lesson last year, and it came out well this time around. :) Before the toffee hardens completely, it's important to score it so that it's easier to break into squares later on. Once I had the individual squares, I dipped each one in melted milk chocolate and then immediately sprinkled (liberally) crushed almonds on each one. Voila! Nothing to it.

I am sworn to secrecy and can't give out all the essential secrets to making delicious

homemade candies, unfortunately. But, I can show you a picture of what a finished box looks like... So pretty! If you're lucky enough, you may even get a box of your own someday. ;-)