Hershey Kiss, Pretzel, M & M Candies

Happy Holidays! 節日快樂! Bonnes vacances! Schöne Ferien! Καλές διακοπές! Happy Kapu! חג שמח! छुट्टियों की शुभकामनाएं! Selamat berlibur! Laethanta Saoire Happy! Buone vacanze! ハッピーホリデー！Felices fiestas! God jul! Boas festas! Счастливых праздников! ¡Felices vacaciones! 

(In countries such as Germany, Spain, etc. holidays means vacation so some translations up above mean, "Happy vacation!") :)

Hi everybody! Yesterday was Christmas! Yesterday my aunt had a big family gathering where aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, coworkers, will get to see each other and exchange gifts, my favorite part!

I usually bring some kind of dessert to the Christmas gathering so today I will be "gifting" you my favorite simple Holiday dessert/snack/unstoppable force you can't stop shoving in your face...These pretzel bites are the perfect combination between salty and sweet. They're cute, easy to make, and are sturdy enough to store in a ziplock bag, perfect for bringing to a Christmas gathering.

A butter snap pretzel (squares, flat), a Hershey kiss, and an M & M. That's it!! That's why I love these! Let's get started...

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Lay your pretzels on a sheet pan in a single layer, depicted above...

Place your M & M on top of the pretzel and pop them in the oven for 2-3 minutes or until Hershey Kiss is shiny at a 275 degree preheated oven. This part is easier with a helper! They can unwrap Hershey Kisses and place them on the single layer of pretzels.


Once the Hershey Kisses are slightly melted (shiny) and soft enough to push a M & M candy into, glently push a M &M into the smushy Kiss until the M & M is secure and the Hershey Kiss has formed a sort of nest around the M & M, holding it in place, as shown below...

Place the warm candies into the fridge to harden. Once Hershey Kiss is cold and hard, place the candies in a ziplock container/bag. These are a great gift and an all around season dessert saver! For Christmas, when I make these candies I usually use Peppermint Hershey Kisses and red and green M & M's. For Easter you can use pastel M &M'S with a white chocolate Kiss, etc. You can really experiment and find flavors you enjoy. These take 10 minutes and are a great gift or snack around the holiday season!

Happy Holidays and have a safe and healthy New Year!!

                   
                  "Mini Desserts From Your Mini Blogger..."

Food and Wine Festival

 If you don't know about the Food and Wine Festival you aren't a real foodie! :) It's when all the major Food Network stars come to a venue in California or New York. They give cooking demos, book signings, and you get to taste some delicious food. My mom surprised me over the summer with tickets and from then on I couldn't wait. Scroll down to see pictures of the fun time I had with my mom.

Celebrities that I met:

Geoffrey Zakarian

Marcus Samuelson

Andrew Zimmern

Scott Conant

Katie Lee

We had a nice breakfast in the City at Blue Dog. The food and service is great. Crunchy French Toast and an Omelette with Rosemary Potatoes and Salad.

  Time to wait on line to get into the venue. Surprisingly there weren't too many people because we arrived early. We found more and more people came the later we stayed. If you are going to go I recommend you go early and find a seat for the demos.

 Katie Lee demonstrating how to make pasta pie.

Geoffrey talking about how to make a perfect steak and his preferences towards meat.

Marcus Samuelson and his sous chefs.

Close  up of Marcus Samuelson.

Andrew Zimmern. He demonstrated how to make squirrel!!

Scott Conant, my mom's cooking crush... I love them all!

I got selfies/pictures with everyone I saw cook except Andrew Zimmern and Geoffrey Zakarian. Scott Conant pulled me onto the stage to take the picture with me. OMG! I was shaking after that because a TV Star in my eyes and the eyes of all foodies had touched me! My mom was jealous...

"Mini Desserts From Your Mini Blogger..."

Apple Crumble Muffins

Sweater weather's here! I absolutely love Fall... The smell of these muffins is enough to make my eyes water and nose run. To be honest, the baking is way better in the fall months. In August are you going to be sitting around the fire with family, eating a piece of Grandma's pumpkin pie and drinking chai tea... No! I guess you get my point.

Ingredients
2 cups of all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt1/2 cup of butter, room temperature 
1 cup of white sugar 
2 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of chopped apples 
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup of brown sugar (crumble)
1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour (crumble)
1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon (crumble)
1 tablespoon of butter (crumble)


Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin tray.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, white sugar, and eggs together until smooth. Mix in vanilla and cinnamon. Then, add in the chopped apples. Begin to gradually add in flour mixture, a spoonful at a time.
4. Spoon the batter into your greased muffin tray. DO NOT place in the oven just yet!
5. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter together until crumbly in texture.
6. Place the crumble on top of the muffins in the tray and place the muffins into the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the muffins cool and enjoy!

Muffins, ready to eat

Raw muffins with no crumble

Crumble for the top of the muffins

"Mini Desserts From Your Mini Blogger..."

The Basics

This month has been a whirlwind between school starting and dance/clubs/after school activities beginning. Below are three recipes for a simple fruit coulis, whipped cream, and glaze that you can use to customize future recipes on this blog or recipes from other sites.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fruit Coulis: A coulis is a pureed fruit sauce that is delicious on ice cream and waffles.

*A coulis can be made with any fruit you'd like, such as peaches or raspberries.

1. Put your chosen fruit into a pot with a splash of juice/water and turn the heat up to medium low. Once the fruit looks soft and mushy add a tablespoon of white sugar into the pot and stir it in. 

2. Once the sugar is stirred in and the fruit is mushy and soft pour the fruit into a blender and puree the compote until the compote forms a thick silky sauce. If you don't want seeds in your sauce strain the puree until all seeds have fled the sauce.
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Whipped Cream: You can jazz up your whipped cream by adding an exciting extract or a citrus zest. You also can add a couple of drops of your fruit coulis to make a fruity whipped cream.

1. Put 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of white sugar, and 1 tablespoon of extract into a bowl and begin to mix it using a electric hand mixer/stand mixer. Once the cream forms peaks stop mixing and place in the fridge until ready to use.
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Glaze: You can jazz up your glaze by substituting water with juice.

1. Mix juice/water and powdered sugar until you start to form a semi-thick silky sauce.

Mini S'mores

My dad is currently building a tiny house and I love seeing my bedroom (the size of my bed), our kitchen where I hope to eventually cook and bake, and the overall progress of the house itself. The tiny house inspired me to make these mini s'mores! Instead of going all the way up to the tiny house to make s'mores on the campfire here's a recipe you can make right in your own kitchen... 

Ingredients

1 cup of milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1 package of graham crackers

1/2 cup of marshmallow fluff

And that's it! :)

Directions

1. Put your chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat your cream until just boiling and pour the hot cream over your chocolate chips. Mix the cream and chocolate together until combined and let sit until it is a spreadable consistency.*Ganache.

2. While your chocolate is sitting, break your graham crackers into fourths. *You may need more than one package of graham crackers if all of the crackers in your pack are broken.

3. Start to build your mini s'mores... 4. Spread your chocolate ganache on one of your two graham crackers. 5. On the other graham cracker spread the marshmallow fluff. 6. Place the two graham crackers together and set the finished s'mores on a baking sheet to cool for 5 minutes. 7. When the 5 minutes are up, dip the bottoms of your s'mores into your chocolate spread you made earlier. 6. Let the chocolate spread cool before serving.

"Mini Desserts from your Mini Blogger..."

Blueberry Cobbler Tartlets

Blueberries are New Jersey's State Fruit, my home. Sweet, tart, and juicy, they are perfect for desserts. Ironically I wasn't in New Jersey when I first picked them. I wasn't even in the country! I was in Germany visiting my grandparents. I remember the blueberries being enormous and my grandmother making a delicious cake from them.

I tried to recreate the feeling of blueberry picking with my grandparents in one bite. Graham cracker crust, blueberry raspberry compote filling, and sweet crumble on top, these Blueberry Cobbler inspired tartlets remind me of the beautiful scenery of Germany.

Ingredients

1/2 pound of blueberries

1/2 pound of raspberries

3 teaspoons of white sugar (compote)

1 tablespoon of fruit juice

3 cups of crushed graham crackers

1/2 cup white sugar (crust)

12 tablespoons of butter, melted (crust)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar (crumble)

4 tablespoons of butter, diced (crumble)

Directions

To make filling: 1. Put berries in a pot on the stove with your fruit juice (I use orange) on medium low heat.

2. Stir until berries become soft and then take the pot off the heat to cool.

3. Puree the filling and cool in fridge.

To make the crust: 1.Crush graham crackers in a plastic bag until there are no big pieces and put into a bowl.

2. Add in the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Stir until all combined.

To make the crumble: 1. Mix flour and sugar.2. Fork in your cold diced butter.
Assembling: Press graham cracker crumbs firmly into muffin tins to form a crust. Bake for 5 minutes at a 350 degree oven. Once cooled, fill your baked crusts with your compote filling and top with crumble. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool before taking the pies out of the muffin tin.

You can serve this pie hot or cold. Delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

"Mini Desserts from your Mini Blogger..."