Christmas Baking & Candy Making

Soooo with everything going on recently there has not been much time for Christmas baking! While my mom was in town, we made some Mexican wedding cakes, molasses cookies, buckeyes, yankee doodle dandies, hot and spicy Chex Mix and puppy chow. This pales in comparison to what we normally bake. My mom and I usually bake for days and days and share all of our Christmas cookies. We were able to get the majority done in one day and I finished up the puppy chow especially for Drew on Saturday before mom left.

Below is a photo of the Mexican wedding cakes and molasses cookies:


Since my mom has left, I had some time this week to do a little more baking or I should say candy making. I have never been one to make Christmas candies. I always make peanut butter fudge but beyond that my candy making skills are zero!

Well let me tell you, I suck! I can bake anything but boiling and taking temperatures, etc... that's a different story!

I made buckeyes earlier in the week and I hated the way they tasted, they were not peanut buttery enough, so I found a new recipe and made some more. I also tackled peanut butter fudge and peanut brittle. The peanut butter fudge came out amazing because I have made it a lot of times before and it is super easy. My mom would beg to differ because one year she caught the stovetop on fire trying to make fudge! The peanut brittle was another story, I normally make the brittle with my great grandmother, but I was on my own in Louisville...

To start things off I couldn't find raw peanuts for the life of me, so I settled on some roasted and had to find a variation to the recipe. My candy thermometer has this safety on the bottom so the actual temperature ball does not touch to bottom of the pan, well the liquid could not touch it! I kept trying to take the temperature and I couldn't get it and before I knew it, it burnt! Well I didn't know it burnt, I thought it just looked a little dark, well it tasted disgusting! While throwing it in the trash, the brittle was so shard it cut me! It was so painful. Below is a photo of the brittle in the trash. After calling and bitching to my mom about my peanut brittle I decided to try again and make a double recipe so the liquid would touch the bottom of my thermometer...


Hot damn it worked! Below is a photo. I am so proud of it, it tasted just like it should, only the color is a bit off. I think this is because I didn't cook the peanuts in it since they were already roasted! I have been chowing down!!


Onto the second round buckeyes. These were also a disaster, this time there is too much peanut butter and they wouldn't hold their shape! I kept adding more and more powdered sugar. It was super annoying and I don't think I am making buckeyes ever again. If anyone has a tried and true recipe, please share it with me because both of the ones I tried off the internet sucked. They taste okay, but not the best I have had :(

I put together these little goody bags for AJ's department at work. I hope everyone enjoys them tomorrow!They get some puppy chow, buckeyes, peanut butter fudge and peanut brittle... Do you think we like peanut butter around here?!?!


Needless to say, I hate candy making, I think I will stick to baking!!