Salted Nut Bars

The most difficult thing about this recipe is unwrapping all of the little caramels.  Other than that, this recipe is a breeze.  Three ingredients and about 20 minutes of your time and you are finished.  Of course you must wait about 2 hours to cut the bars.

The orginial Martha Stewart recipe called for dry roasted peanuts.  I used cocktail peanuts which are a lot more oily and do not have such a strong taste and I also added cashew pieces.  I was very happy with the results.  A double recipe of this makes a perfect 13x9 inch pan.  Make sure you are pouring the melted caramel into a well greased pan. These are ultra sticky!!  I cut them with a very large sharp knife that I sprayed the blade with Pam.  They sliced very easily and neatly.  I think I'm going to individually wrap mine in wax paper squares.  These photos show the nut bars cut into pretty large pieces but I think I'm going to cut them down into mouth size pieces. They are very sweet and rich and I think one big mouthful is perfect. Plus, when you do try and take a bite of the big bars, they streeeeeetch out really far!  There is no way to eat them daintily.  I can imagine that if it's warm at your place, these would need to be stored in the fridge.  The caramel is firm but still impressionable.

Salted Nut Bars
Based on a Martha Stewart Recipe - "Salted Peanut Bars"


2 1/4 cups coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts (I used cocktail peanuts & cashew pieces)

50 store bought soft caramel squares, unwrapped (14 oz)

1 cup mini marshmallows

Directions:

Lightly coat an 8 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Line with parchment & spray again. (I doubled the recipe and used a 13x9 inch pan with a foil lining, heavily sprayed). Cover with 1 1/4 cups peanuts.

Melt the caramels & the marshmallows with 1 tablespoon of water over medium heat until smooth. Immediately pour over the nuts in the pan. Then top with remaining nuts.

Let cool until set - about 2 hours. Then cut into bars. 
Store in an airtight container with parchment separating the layers for up to 2 days.

Oreo Fudge

Stephanie's Kitchen is responsible for this lovely recipe. I found it on her blog just last night. There are one million fudge recipes out there but for some reason, this one spoke to me. It was a little different than most of them. I liked the idea of pouring the hot milk/sugar mixture over the chocolate in my kitchen aid mixer and whipping it until smooth. Sweet! Even though my crappy photos do not capture it, this is the most creamy fudge I have ever made in my life. Really, it was. My photos make each piece look so shaggy and kind of lumpy. The problem was, I did not line my pan with a greased foil like I usually do when making fudge. When the pan is lined with foil, it's so easy to lift the whole thing out of the pan and have nice straight lines when cutting. I poured my hot fudge into a very lightly greased glass pan and struggled getting each piece out after it had cooled overnight. By the end of the pan, I was getting pretty darn impatient. Then my husband had to wander by and asked why I was cutting such "big honkin" pieces of fudge. Ahem. I gave him a look. I hate it when I spend so much time on something and it's just not looking right. But don't let my shaggy looking fudge discourage you from making this recipe. Like I said, this is the best fudge I have ever made. It was my dinner tonight and now I'm not feeling so well. I must have ate 5 big honkin pieces. I'm definitely going to make this fudge again but next time I will line my pan with foil. Maybe next time I will leave out the Oreos and add nuts instead? Or maybe just plain fudge - no additions? But the Oreos are absolutely wonderful in it. They are crunchy and creamy and so sweet and yummy.

So if you are looking for a Christmas fudge recipe.....I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Thanks Stephanie!

Oreo Fudge

1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 12 ounce package semi sweet chocolate chips
1 13 ounce jar marshmallow cream
4- 1.55 ounce Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, chopped
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups crushed Oreo cookies

1. In a large saucepan, heat the evaporated milk and sugar until boiling. Continue heating over medium-high heat and at a low boil for about 10-12 minutes, or until it has reached the soft ball stage. (Check this by adding a small drop to a bowl of cold water. If you can roll it into a soft ball, it is ready.)
2. In a mixer, add the butter, chocolate chips, marshmallow cream, and chocolate bar chunks. Pour in the milk and sugar mixture and whip until all the ingredients are melted and smooth. Add in vanilla extract. Stir in the Oreo’s.
3. Pour directly into a greased 9X13 pan and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.

Something Different - Tropical Bark

I found a recipe for Tropical White Chocolate Bark on a blog earlier this week (vanillakitchen.blogspot.com). It called for white chocolate, macadamia nuts, coconut & dried pineapple. I had everything to make this and it looked simple to put together. Well, I didn't have quite enough white chocolate so when I made the bark tonight, I used semisweet chocolate, mixed with milk chocolate but drizzled the little bit of melted white chocolate that I had on top of everything. I'm not too big on nuts but I know many many people who love nuts so I made this bark with the intention to sell it at work tomorrow. I think my co workers will go wild for this - I'm hoping! The macadamia nuts are toasted and I sprinkled some sea salt on them. I thought that would be a nice sweet/salty touch. I used half sweetened coconut & half unsweetened dessicated coconut. The semi sweet chocolate I used was the huge bar of Trader Joes dark chocolate. The milk chocolate I used was my favorite - Guittards. I wasn't so sure how the dried pineapple would fit in but I chopped into small pieces. It wasn't really hard and dry to begin with - it was fresh & soft. It was a nice touch but the flavor kind of got lost with all of the other strong flavors. This recipe would make a really nice gift. I can imagine finding a beautiful decorative tin to package it in.

Dried pineapple of course is...well, dried but fresh dried pineapple is soft & chewy and has some moistness to it. Stale dried pineapple is crusty and very dry. This bunch I had was so chewy and fresh. It was delicious. I bet it would be a good addition to add dried mango or papaya to this bark.

I often purchase the large bars of Trader Joes chocolate and I use it as baking chocolate. It comes in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and bittersweet & maybe semi sweet. It's a pretty good deal for this much chocolate. It's wonderful to eat out of hand too!

I slightly toasted the coconut.

I purchased unsalted toasted macadamia nuts at Trader Joes but I toasted them a little darker in the oven then sprinkled sea salt on them.

I evenly distributed the chopped pineapple & toasted coconut on a foil lined jelly roll pan then I poured the melted chocolate on top of that. Then I sprinkled the macadamia nuts on top of the melted chocolate and pressed them lightly into the chocolate.

I drizzled the melted white chocolate on top of the macadamia nuts then sprinkled the last of the toasted coconut on top of all that.

I placed the whole pan in the freezer to harden a little quicker. After it was hard, I broke it into rough pieces.

I packaged the finished bark in cellophane bags then tied a pretty ribbon on top!