Sweet Pink Designs

Here are the Christmas Gifts for my Girl's teacher's.

Christmas Colored Carmel PopCorn- This tasted so good that my family begged me to make some more to leave at home.

3 bags butters and salted popcorn, popped (remove any kernels) unpopped

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/4 + 1/8 cup light corn syrup

1/4 + 1/8 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

red and green food coloring

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium saucepan, melt together the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil, sitting frequently. Boil over low heat for five minutes. Remove from heat and add the baking soda and vanilla

Place each bag of popcorn in a 9x13 pan coated with cooking spray. Pour approximately 1/3 the caramel over one pan of popcorn. Toss to coat.

Place half of remaining carmel in medium bowl and add red food coloring until you reach the desired shade of red. Immediately pour over second pan of popcorn. Toss to coat.

Add green food coloring to the remaining caramel until you reach desired shade of green. Immediately pour over third pan of popcorn. Toss to coat.

Bake for 45 minutes, rotating pans and stirring each pan with a spatula coated with cooking spray every 15 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Cute Christmas Mug filled with my absolute favorite- Lindt Chocolates!

And something else to go in the mug- Hot Chocolate on a stick!!! With cute red and green straws too!

Aren't these super cute!!??

These are very yummy. I never want hot chocolate from a package again. Simply drop them in your hot milk and stir until there melted. And I love marshmallows so I like to put a extra one on top. And homemade marshmallows taste so much better than store bought ones. And they are so very easy to make. I promise you, once you make them, you will never want them from a bag again!

Hot Chocolate Blocks:

1/2 cup heavy cream
One 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped or in chips (Jane note: I actually used 1 cup 60% cacao chips, 1 cup semi-sweet chips, and 1 cup milk chocolate chips)
One 4-oz bar unsweetened chocolate (broken or chopped into smaller pieces)
Wooden or cookie/lollipop sticks
8″x8″ pan, lined with parchment paper

Heat the cream and sweetened condensed milk over medium-low heat until it starts steaming, stirring periodically. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir and let sit for 10 minutes, then put back on medium-low heat and stir with a whisk until chocolate is completely melted and shiny. (At this point you could add some flavoring…vanilla, hazelnut, peppermint, whatever fits your fancy!)
Pour chocolate into prepared pan and spread chocolate as level as you possibly can. Let sit overnight (12 hours or so).

Remove chocolate from pan and cut, top side face down, into squares. Divide the block into sixths each direction, so your squares will be a bit larger than 1″ x 1″. Use a long, thin knife. Heat the knife under hot water, wipe dry with a towel or paper towel, make a few cuts, then repeat the knife-heating procedure. Makes 36 squares, although those corner squares are shaped a little funny…you might just want to eat those straight up while you’re cooking.

For both the marshmallows and the chocolate squares, feel free to get creative with flavorings and/or rolling them in peppermint pieces, cocoa, etc. I just used a little vanilla in the chocolate and kept it simple. And they are still mighty delicious! One stick is good for about 4 – 8 ounces of hot milk…depending on how chocolatey you like it.

Marshmallows:

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer set up with the whisk attachment along with 1/2 cup of the water.
In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.
Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows.
Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.
When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

And I made these printable cards to go along with my hot chocolate on a stick gifts:

Cookies and Cream Fudge:

3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) Evaporated Milk
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) White Chocolate Chips
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow crème
1/2 cup finely crushed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup crumbled cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies

Line a 9-inch-square baking pan with foil.

Combine sugar, butter and evaporated milk in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Stir in white chocolate chips, marshmallow crème, finely crushed cookies and vanilla extract. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle crumbled cookies on top. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.