December Daily - Day Twenty Two & Twenty Three

Christmas is so close I can almost hear the jingle of bells from Santa's reindeer! :) Lovely time of year, isn't it? I was at my friend Audrey's house all day baking up a storm and had the best time! I want to bake with friends each Christmas since it is so much more fun to do together!

Here Audrey is holding a rather large piece of peanut brittle we made. We were pretty amazed that it came out of the pan in one piece! I'm holding a mixing bowl full of Snicker Cookie dough. They are sinful little cookies with a bite-size Snickers candy bar in the center. We decided that we would bake four kinds of goodies, two of my traditional recipes and two of Audrey's. Audrey showed me how to make the peanut brittle and some super easy and delicious chocolate covered pretzel rods. Wow, those are fun and you can get quite creative with the toppings if you like. Or not! ;) For the peanut brittle recipe, hop over to Audrey's blog.

The second recipe I shared didn't turn out quite as well as we had hoped. I like to make peppermint bark as it's also a very easy, festive and yummy. I think a lot of folks were making the same treat because the grocery store was out of white Ghiradelli chocolate so I bought a store brand. Please note that cheap white chocolate will NOT due! It tasted aweful!

Snicker Cookies

1 cup margarine

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

60 miniature (bite-size) Snickers candy bars

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream margarine, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to peanut butter mixture. Take 1 tablespoon of dough and flatten into a round shape in the palm of your hand. Place Snickers bar in center and fold dough around it. Roll in palms of your hands to form a smooth ball with the Snickers bar completely covered with dough. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool a little and then remove from cookie sheet and place on wire rack to cool completely.

Today, Christopher and I are making our annual gingerbread house. I'll have some pictures to share with you tomorrow. Hope you can drop by. Enjoy!