Christmas Mice

Here is another cute goody idea. They are Christmas mice - you can give these as a gift with the 12 Days of Christmas poem - "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house; not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." I thought this was a fun idea.

• 24 double-stuffed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• 24 red maraschino cherries with stems, well drained
• 24 milk chocolate kisses
• 48 sliced almonds
• 1 small tube green decorative icing gel
• 1 small tube red decorative icing gel

Carefully twist cookies apart; set aside the halves with cream filling. Save plain halves for another use. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth. Holding each cherry by the stem, dip in melted chocolate, then press onto the bottom of a chocolate kiss. Place on the cream filling of cookie, with cherry stem extending beyond cookie edge. For ears, place slivered almonds between the cherry and kiss. Refrigerate until set. With green gel, pipe holly leaves on the cream. With red gel, pipe holly berries between leaves and pipe eyes on each chocolate kiss. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Some Cute Christmas Goody Ideas

I saw this on KSL today. They looked so cute. Rachel - this is like those snowmen mom had in that recipe book we saw. Sorry, I couldn't find pictures online for all of them.

Mini Christmas Stocking Cakes
Cut a Twinkie snack cake in half approximately 1/3 of the way up at a 45 degree angle. Cut another cake the same, cutting the angle down. (You will need to do this in pairs cutting one angle up and one down to have enough matching pieces.) Place the smaller cut piece of each Twinkie to the opposite cake pressing cut sides together. This will create a stocking shape. Frost entire cake. Frost the top edge of the stocking using a decorative icing cake decorating tip or use candy to decorate. Decorate stockings with tiny candies and sprinkles if desired. To use as a place card or favor, pipe the name of each guest at the top of the stockings.

Santa Face Cookies
For each cookie, dip one end of a Nutter Butter peanut shaped cookie almost halfway into melted white almond bark or candy coating to create the beard. Immediately sprinkle dipped end with shredded coconut and press gently into almond bark. Let set. Dip other end of cookie approximately ¼ of the way up in the white almond bark to create part of the hat and let set. Dip this hat end again into melted red candy melts leaving a small border of the white showing so it creates a red hat with white trim. Immediately press a miniature marshmallow to the right side of the cookie at the edge of the red to create the look of a ball at the end of the hat. Attach two mini chocolate chips with melted almond bark to middle of cookie to create eyes. Attach a small red hot cinnamon candy below eyes to form nose. (Tips: Roll mini marshmallow slightly to make more round and pliable before attaching to cookie. Also - if you do not want to use coconut on the beard white sprinkles can be used or simpy use a knife to swirl more almond bark on to make a textured and fluffy look.)

Rudolph the Reindeer Cupcakes
Bake chocolate cupcakes in plain or brown paper liners. Let cool. Melt chocolate almond bark and place in a pastry bag with a round decorating tip or in a heavy duty Zip-Loc bag and snip corner. Pipe almond bark to create antlers onto wax paper or a Silpat baking mat. Make antlers approximately three inches long with several branches making sure to make them thick so they will not be too fragile to handle. Let set completely. (These can be whimsical and each pair do not have to match exactly.) To assemble: Frost cupcakes with chocolate icing. Place a pair of antlers into top of cupcake by piercing hole with a skewer and gently inserting antlers. Place a red candy ball for the nose (red malt balls, Cadbury red candy balls, red sour ball candies, red foil-wrapped balls, red gumballs, or even a red gumdrop would work, etc.) Use tiny round candies, chocolate chips or use frosting for eyes. Add a holly leaf made from frosting or a pre-made accent at base of one antler if desired. Nestle cupcake in additional paper liner for nice presentation.

Frosty the Snowman Treats
(Recipe adapted from www.FamilyFun.com)
Use white or clear piping gel to attach a powdered sugar donut hole to a miniature powdered sugar donut. Unwrap a thin mint candy (such as a miniature York peppermint pattie) and attach to donut hole to become hat brim. Unwrap a miniature peanut butter cup candy or Rolo type candy and attach to top of mint to become the top of hat. Use icing to create a holly leaf and berries on hat brim if desired. Use black piping gel (or other colors) to add eyes, a mouth and buttons to the snowman. To make nose, slice a triangle shaped piece of orange gumdrop, roll slightly to shape and press in granulated sugar to cover any sticky side. Make a hole in donut hole face with a small wood skewer and insert nose. Serve on a plate sprinkled with shredded coconut or on white cotton candy sprinkled with edible glitter to resemble snow.

Rocky Road Candy

Another recipe from my ward. This sounds like it isn't too hard to make.

* 16 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

* 3 cups large or small marshmallows

* ¾ cup pecans (or other nuts of your choice). I prefer them whole.

Roast the pecans in the microwave:

Put 2 big fistfuls of pecans on a dinner plate, in approximately 1 layer. Cook on high for 3 minutes. (If you smell burning, take them out sooner than 3 minutes, depending on how hot your microwave cooks.) When they cool they’ll be crisp & delicious. Use the remainder for other recipes or snacking. You can cook whole almonds this way too; they start to pop & crack near the end of the cooking time.

In a medium sized saucepan heat the chocolate chips over LOW heat, stirring often, until smooth. Remove pan from heat & stir in marshmallows & ¾ cups whole pecans.

Scoop out onto a sheet of parchment paper. No need to butter it. You can use foil instead but it needs a little butter. You won’t have to spread the candy much as it will ooze out. Press more nuts into the top of it if you want it more nutty.

Let it cool a few hours; it’s amazing long it stays soft. It’s harder to cut unless it’s really cool. When cool, cut into 1” squares & enjoy.

This is a fun one to fiddle around with; you can add dried fruit or candied orange peel.