Popcorn Chocolate Clusters
These quick and easy Popcorn Chocolate Clusters are dressed up with the simple addition of pretty paper muffin cups and a sprinkling of colorful chocolate sunflower seeds. This should come as no surprise to people, but I always like to pump my candies with a little more Get the recipes:
Popcorn Chocolate Clusters
Caramel Popcorn
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Popcorn Chocolate Clusters Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Packed Popcorn Balls
I call these "Packed Popcorn Balls" because they are jam-packed with goodies! Popcorn, nuts, marshmallows, rice crispies, and M&Ms are all crammed into these big, soft popcorn balls. Everything is held together with a chewy vanilla-scented syrup, which is sticky enough to keep the balls ball-ish, but never so hard that it sticks to your teeth. These popcorn balls may be packed, but there's still room for you to add your favorites, like dried cranberries, coconut, or trail mix. If you're adding chocolate candies like M&Ms, make sure you add them at the VERY end, otherwise the heat from the syrup will start to melt them and you'll end up with a mess! A delicious mess, but a mess nonetheless.
Get the recipe: Packed Popcorn Balls
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Packed Popcorn Balls Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Dulce de Leche Chocolate Cups
It's hard to improve upon dulce de leche, the sweet, rich caramel made from condensed milk. Just eating it plain, with a spoon, is pretty darn satisfying. But I think this recipe for Dulce de Leche Chocolate Cups comes close to rivaling the pure dulce de leche experience. These chocolate cups are filled with a mix of dulce de leche and toasted pecans, so they're both sweet and savory, gooey and crunchy. I top them with a few more pecans and a bit of sea salt, to ensure they're not too sweet. You can use storebought or homemade dulce de leche for these ridiculously good candy cups.
Get the recipe: Dulce de Leche Chocolate Cups
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Dulce de Leche Chocolate Cups Photo ©2012 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
S'mores Candy Cups
There's a lot I've never understood about marshmallow creme. For instance, why is it such a popular ice cream topping? It doesn't have a lot of flavor by itself, and I don't think the texture is improved by pairing it with freezing-cold ice cream. And what about fluffernutter sandwiches? My sweet tooth is pretty substantial, but I don't know that a sandwich is an appropriate place for marshmallow creme. And yet, this mysterious fluffy white substance does have its uses. It's an essential ingredient in lots of fudge recipes, and it can make a good cupcake, cookie, or candy filling, like in this recipe for S'mores Candy Cups. These easy treats give you a taste of the campfire classic, without the need to pitch a tent, start a fire, or even leave your house. Chocolate cups are filled with marshmallow creme and crushed graham crackers, and then are topped with additional crackers and miniature marshmallows. You could also add a little flavoring extract to the creme to make different varieties of S'mores Candy Cups: mint, almond, and orange are all delicious variations!
Get the recipe: S'mores Candy Cups
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Photo ©2012 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Crispy Almond Cups
I know I've talked before about my nut butter addiction. Basically, I have a ridiculously large collection of nut butters in my fridge and cupboards because I'm unable to walk past a display and not grab a jar to take home and sample. Sunflower seed, cashew, almond, peanut...I love them all. My latest obsession is chocolate nut butters, where the manufacturers save me the trouble of adding chocolate chips to my sandwiches (true fact) and mix cocoa right into the nut butter itself! I've experimented with chocolate peanut, chocolate almond, and chocolate hazelnut, and they're all pretty amazing. I first came up with this recipe for Crispy Almond Cups using chocolate almond butter and crispy rice cereal in the filling. It was as simple as that: just mix the two ingredients together, and go! But I realized that most people probably don't share my love of impulse-buying nut butters (I hope not, at least. It's an expensive hobby!) so I tweaked the recipe so that it calls for regular almond butter instead--but you can substitute any nut butter of your choice with good results. The butter is mixed with melted chocolate, a little powdered sugar, and crispy rice cereal to produce a crunchy, rich filling with lots of nutty taste and a hint of chocolate. Use your newfound abilities to make chocolate cups and whip up a batch of these today!
Get the recipe: Crispy Almond Cups
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Crispy Almond Cups Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter (boy, do I!) but I don't particularly like store-bought peanut butter cups. The peanut butter filling always seems too dry and crumbly, and the flavor of the chocolate and peanut butter always seems too artificial. So what's a candy lover to do but make her own? Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups are easy to make and include a handy step-by-step guide with pictures, so you can see how your candies should look at every step. The resulting cups have a strong peanut and chocolate taste, with a creamy filling that melds perfectly with the chocolate.
If the photo tutorial still leaves you with questions, check out this video with step-by-step instructions for Making Peanut Butter Cups. The recipe in the video adds graham cracker crumbs for a crunchy, crispy candy cup.
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Peanut Butter Cups Photo Tutorial
Peanut Butter Cups Video.
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Peanut Butter Cups Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Chocolate Cups
Attention, candy cohorts! This week's recipe are all based around chocolate cups--those adorable, edible candy delivery devices most commonly seen containing peanut butter filling. We will be tackling peanut butter cups soon--oh yes, we will--but before we get there, we need to start with the foundational skill of making the cups themselves. To get started, refer to this chocolate cup recipe or the chocolate cup photo tutorial.Chocolate cups are not just used for making candies. They can also be filled with whipped cream, mousse, small scoops of ice cream, ganache, and any other soft and tasty filling you can think of. You can definitely buy chocolate cups--kitchen supply stores, Cost Plus, and even many liquor stores carry them--but it's several dollars for a dozen and I find mine are frequently broken, bloomed, or both when I open the package. So when I have the time, I save myself some frustration and money and make my own. It is a little time consuming, but they can be made in advance and stored for weeks before you use them, so with some advanced planning you can be rollin' in chocolate cups whenever you want!
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Chocolate Cups
Chocolate Cups Photo Tutorial
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Chocolate Cups Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Mint Meltaways
Earlier this year, I featured a week of copycat candy recipes, and afterward I took an informal poll asking what other knockoff recipes I should tackle. One reader suggested Frango mints, which are chocolate candies with a firm chocolate-mint center. It took a few months, but I finally got around to trying my hand at a recipe! May I present: Mint Meltaways. There are lots of chocolate-mint candies out there, but these are unique to me because the texture changes so much depending on how they're served. When they are fresh from the refrigerator the filling is firm, almost like a hard fudge, but once they come to at room temperature it's soft, almost like a mousse or frosting. I can't decide which taste I like better, but fortunately I don't really have to choose. Since the recipe makes 4 dozen candies, I can enjoy some cold, and some at room temperature, until--like Goldilocks--I find the texture that is juuuust right for me.
Get the recipe: Mint Meltaways
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Mint Meltaways Photo ©2012 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Inside-Out Peppermint Patties
Traditional peppermint patties are so last year. Embrace the future with Inside-Out Peppermint Patties! I'm sure you're familiar with old-school peppermint patties, consisting of a creamy peppermint center covered with chocolate. This recipe flips that idea around and instead has the peppermint candy on the outside, and a filling of rich chocolate ganache inside each peppermint disc. The taste is the same, but the appearance is what sets these creative candies apart. Try coloring the peppermint creams different colors to go along with holidays or party themes, or add different extracts instead of peppermint (coconut! almond!) to create fun new inside-out candies.
Get the recipe: Inside-Out Peppermint Patties
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Inside-Out Peppermint Patties Photo ©2012 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Grasshopper Truffles
Here are three reasons why you should make these Grasshopper Truffles today:
- They have an awesome mint-chocolate taste. Mint and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations, and it should be one of yours, too!
- They are ridiculously, supremely, stupidly easy to make. Can you crush cookies? Can you mash cookies and frosting together in a bowl? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you can make these truffles. (And if you are thinking these sound a bit like Oreo truffles, you're right. They're not made with Oreos or cream cheese, but the concept of cookie crumbs forming the truffle base is the same. And isn't that a concept we can all get behind?)
- They allow you the opportunity to make many truly groan-worthy jokes about "patience, young grasshopper" while making and eating these cookies.
Get the recipe: Grasshopper Truffles
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Grasshopper Truffles Photo ©2011 Elizabeth LaBau, licensed to About.com, Inc.