Today’s blog continues my holiday tradition of trying to make the holidays easier and sweeter for you. Everyone is very busy at this time of year and budgets are stretched, so my gift to you are these super simple recipes that are fairly inexpensive to make. Placed in colored cellophane, tied up with pretty ribbon or placed in a cute little basket lined with festive fabric or tissue paper, and you’ll have wonderful homemade holiday gifts for everyone from teachers to neighbors.

Super Easy Hard-Crack Candy

Ingredients

·         1 ½ C sugar

·         1 tsp flavored extract (I love cinnamon, but you could use peppermint or spearmint)

·         ½ C water

·         A couple drops of the appropriate color food coloring 

Note: Do not use essential oils to flavor candy. Use only food-safe food colorings and flavor extracts.

 Equipment

·         Small or medium-sized heavy gauge saucepan

·         8 or 9-inch pan lined with parchment paper; sides lightly coated with cooking spray

·         Candy thermometer  

Directions

Add sugar and water to your saucepan and secure your candy thermometer to the side using the attached clip. Over medium heat stir until sugar is dissolved. Keeping a close eye on the pan, continue to heat and occasionally stir until temperature reaches the hard-crack stage on your thermometer (310 degrees F). Turn off the heat and add flavoring and food coloring. Stir to combine. Pour finished mixture into your lined pan and place on a trivet or hot pad while it cools. Obviously, this mixture is extremely hot! Once candy reaches soft-set stage (5 to 10 minutes), if you like precision, lightly score with a knife to achieve uniform pieces later when completely cooled. I usually skip this stage and just wait until the candy is completely set and then break it apart into random size pieces.

Super-Simple Microwave Fudge

Ingredients

·         24-oz bag of chocolate chips (any flavor)

·         14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

·         2 Tbs butter (use peanut butter or almond butter to add a mild flavor to your fudge)

·         (Optional) Finely chopped peppermint candies or chopped nuts of your choice 

Equipment

·         8 or 9 inch pan lined with parchment paper, sides lightly coated with cooking spray

·         Microwave-safe bowl 

Directions

Add all ingredients to a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30-second increments until, when stirred, everything is melted and combined. If you’re adding additional ingredients like chopped nuts or peppermint, stir in now. Pour finished fudge into your lined and sprayed pan and set aside until cool. Cut into desired sized pieces. 

Yummy Chow-Mein Noodle/Peanut Butter Nests 

Ingredients

·         1 to 1 ½ C Chow-Mein noodles (dry, right out of the package)

·         ½ C sugar

·         ½ C corn syrup

·         (Optional) ½ C chocolate chips 

Equipment

·         Small, heavy gauge saucepan

·         Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 

Directions

Put sugar and syrup into saucepan and bring to full boil. Remove immediately from heat. Stir in peanut butter and noodles. Continue adding noodles until they hold together and are no longer soupy in consistency. Drop into small mounds on your cookie sheet. Allow to set up and cool completely. If you want to add a little chocolate (and quite frankly, who doesn’t?), after you drop the cookies onto the cookie sheet, sprinkle a few chocolate chips on the top of each one. Allow them to melt slightly and then lightly spread the chocolate with a butter knife or icing spatula. 

Homes always feel more homey when filled with holiday aromas and treats. These three recipes use very few ingredients, come together quickly, and don’t require baking. Most importantly, they taste yummy! I hope you try them and add one or more to your holiday traditions. 

Now, what will you do next to love where you live?

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