Crunch Bars (copycat)

These homemade Chocolate Crunch Bars capture the nostalgic flavors of the milk chocolate and puffed rice cereal candy bar we all love. 

With just three ingredients, you can recreate the flavor of one America's favorite chocolate candy bars. 

Peppermint Patty Brownie Bites

These Peppermint Patty Brownie Bites, stuffed with York Peppermint Patties, are such a fun treat!

Peppermint Patties are on my short list of favorite candies. After all, chocolate and mint are pretty much a perfect pairing. 

Coconut Brigadeiros

These creamy coconut brigadeiros are a traditional Brazilian candy. They are similar to a candy truffle, but they are somewhat softer. Brigadeiros are considered Brazil's national treat. 

These coconut brigadeiros are a tasty take on the traditional chocolate version, but they are made with coconut! They are swoon worthy. 

Chocolate Brigadeiros

Chocolate brigadeiros are the unofficial national candies of Brazil. They combine the elegance of truffles with the chewiness of chocolate fudge. Evidently, in Brazil, you can't have a birthday party or a wedding with out serving brigadeiros. 

In Brazil, they are sold both in fancy candy stores and also as a street food. Typically, they are rolled in chocolate sprinkles after shaping, but you can coat them in colorful sprinkles, finely chopped nuts, or even cocoa powder like truffles. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Spider Bites

These chocolate peanut butter spider bites are a fun, salty-sweet treat to serve at your next Halloween party. 

These chocolate and peanut butter pretzel spiders are made with just four ingredients and are great for making with kids. In fact, you could make these as an activity for kids to do during a family gathering. 

Homemade Salted Caramels

I am very excited about these homemade salted caramels. They are just as delicious as the caramels you'll find in a gourmet candy shop. They are so unbelievably tasty!

I've been totally intimidated about making candy. For example, what the heck is "hard ball stage?" How is it different than "soft crack stage?" How do these caramels end up chewy while this pecan brittle ends up crunchy?

Pecan Brittle

This pecan brittle is delicious and nostalgic. The toasted pecans combined with the caramelized sugar create such a delicious treat.

Making brittle takes me back to the days of experimenting with candy making when I was in high school. I wasn't much into cooking, but for some reason, the magic of candy making and all of the stages intrigued me.

Chocolate Pecan Butter Cups

These chocolate pecan butter cups take the peanut butter cup concept to a whole new level. 

I received chocolate from Divine Chocolate, one of our sponsors, but all opinions are my own. 

With just four ingredients, these mini semi-sweet chocolate pecan butter cups are so decadent and delicious. They are made with a sweet and salty toasted homemade pecan butter nestled in a premium semi-sweet chocolate coating.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups {Copycat}

These homemade Peanut Butter Cups, filled with a dough-like peanut butter filling, will pretty much blow your mind. 

The filling for these copycat Reese's peanut butter cups has a secret ingredient which takes the texture and flavor to a whole new level.

Sweet and Salty Popcorn Cookies

These sweet and salty popcorn cookies are so satisfyingly tasty. You get crunch, you get sweet, you get saltiness, and you get chocolate, all in the guise of a little mini popcorn ball of a cookie. 

The best part of these cookies is that you can have five or six of them, as opposed to one or two "regular" cookies. They are pretty much all air, right? That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Another advantage to making these cookies is that you don't have to fire up your oven! The only cooking involved is making browned butter and melting the marshmallows that hold the goodness together.

Chocolate Andes Mint Chip Cookies

These Chocolate Andes Mint Chip Cookies were so easy to make, and such a huge hit!

The little candy on top immediately drew in my grandkids, but what made them love, love, love these cookies were the bits of chopped up Andes Mints throughout every bite.

Candy Coated Marshmallow Pops

I had my grandsons over on Sunday and we made these cute little marshmallow pops.

I have a huge collection of sprinkles in my house for sprinkle emergencies. When my oldest grandson was about five, we would regularly bake a little five inch layer cake, frost it, and he would proceed to decorate it with sprinkles, M&Ms, and frosting swirls. I had one of those Easy Bake Decorating Pen Kits and he would have so much fun with it. In the end, the cake would have every single color and type of sprinkle available on top of it, and would be dripping with frosting swirls.

It's been a while since we've made treats together, so when I spied a big bag of marshmallows at the grocery store, I just knew I had to make these with "help" from the boys.

Of course, I let the boys loose on the rest of the sprinkle collection, and each one of them took home a box full of their own multicolored marshmallow pop creations (plus a bag of mixed sprinkles).

As much as I love to make complicated multi-step dishes that, as a good friend says, "require algorithms and graphs," these are so fun to make with kids, are adorable as part of a holiday table, and are actually pretty tasty. I have an Electric Chocolate Melting Pot (of course I do) that I used to keep the chocolate warm after melting it in the microwave, but it is not necessary (still, it's really convenient). And marshmallows are fat free!

Candy Coated Marshmallow Pops

Ingredients and Supplies

1 bag of marshmallows

1 12 ounce bar/bag of almond bark or candy melts in the color/flavor of your choice

Sprinkles

Shortening and/or paramount crystals

Lollipop sticks (can be found at craft stores)

Styrofoam blocks (for drying the pops)

Instructions

1. Melt the candy in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted. 
2. If the candy is too thick, add shortening or paramount crystals, 1 1/2 tsp to 1 T, until the candy reaches a consistency that is easy to work with. You can remelt the chocolate/candy melts as needed to keep it at the right consistency. 
3. Dip the sticks into the melted chocolate and stick them 3/4 the way through into the marshmallows. Allow the candy to harden. 
4. Swirl the marshmallows into the melted candy, and then tap the marshmallow over the bowl to shake off excess. 
5. Over a plate, sprinkle the pop with sprinkles. 
6. Place the stick into the styrofoam and allow the pops to harden, about 30 minutes. 

Toffee Candy, Butterscotch, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Trust me, you have to try these toffee candy, butterscotch, and chocolate chip cookies.They only take about 10 minutes to mix and then another few hours in the refrigerator to get ready to be sliced and baked.