Chocolate Covered Strawberries is something on our “must have” list for basically every holiday. During the Christmas season however, we really go all out. We love thinking of new and inventive ways to use them, and different kinds of toppings to roll them in. This year we tried rolling them in the most popular Christmas candy…Candy Canes. We’ve come up with several uses for candy canes in our recipes throughout the years during the holidays, but never actually tried combining them with our chocolate covered fruit.
Well, we always like to taste test before our Christmas Eve party. So we crushed up a bunch of candy canes into a bowl to transform them into tiny little peppermint pieces. We decided to not only dip Strawberries this year, but Plump Juicy Bing Cherries as well. After dipping the fruit into the melted chocolate, we rolled our strawberries and dipped the cherries into the bowl of crushed candy canes. We found the cherries much easier to dip by just holding onto the stems.
We had some melted chocolate leftover and didn’t want to let it go to waste. So we took plastic spoons we had lying around in the kitchen and dunked them into the bowl of chocolate. Then we dipped them into a variety of our favorite toppings, making sure the spoon was covered well. We tried Baker’s Coconut, Diamond Chopped Walnuts, sprinkles, crushed candy canes and Keebler Graham Cracker Crumbs. We laid them down on a cookie sheet that was covered with a piece of wax paper. Then we put them in the fridge to harden.
Take an ordinary lollipop and turn it into Rudolph! We stopped by a craft store and picked up gold pipe cleaners for antlers, small red pom poms for the nose, googly eyes, tiny bells and some ribbon. Unwrap the lollipop and tightly cover with saran wrap. Tie a bow around the base of the pop with the ribbon. Using a little dab of super glue, attach the eyes and nose to the pop to create the face. Lastly, use the pipe cleaners to create the antlers. They’re a great activity to do with the kids and they make fun decorations. We picked up a green Styrofoam cone while we were at the craft store and turned it into a Christmas Tree. We stuck the Reindeer pops into the cone for a festive centerpiece to place on our table.
Take your favorite round cookie and dip into melted white chocolate. Before the chocolate hardens, quickly dip into a bowl of Baker’s Coconut Flakes. Place on a sheet of wax paper and repeat process two more times. Placing the cookies one right next to the other to form the shape of a snowman. Take two Nestle Chocolate Morsels to place on the top cookie for Frosty’s eyes. Use Cake Mate Gels to decorate him. Dip a square shaped cookie into dark chocolate for the hat.
We frequently make Rice Krispies Treats at our house. Turn these square shaped snacks into round balls to turn them into festive ornaments. Place a mini marshmallow on top of the ball and take a tiny piece of red licorice to insert into the marshmallow.
Remember to bake cookies in time for Santa! If there’s no time to bake them yourself, pick up a bag of Fresh Baked Sugar Cookies from our Bakery department.
Take a trip down memory lane with us. One of our favorite childhood memories is making our very own fried dough. In the interest of time, we used Pizza Dough rather than making our own from scratch. We passed this method of making fried dough down to the younger generation in our family. Now we’d like to share Nonno’s Fried Dough Fritters with you, so that you may enjoy the same delicious taste with your family.
Try making little “presents” with Jell-O Gelatins. Pick up all different flavors and use a mold that has a cube shape to form the gelatin into your gift. Remove the Jell-O squares from the mold and place on top of a graham cracker with some white icing (to make some “snow”). Decorate your gift with a bow using Cake Mate Gels. They more you make, the greater the presentation. Try using a few different shaped molds if you have any at your house. Not every gift comes in the same size package!
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