What a beautiful reason to stay snuggled in with the baby birds and a big mug of wassail.
Hmmmm…Such a good idea..
Winter Wassail
Into a slow cooker or stock pot add:
1 quart apple juice
1 quart apple cider
Wash and cut 8 oranges and 3-4 lemons into thin slices. Add them to the juice.
Add 6 cinnamon sticks and stir gently. Tie the following spices into a square of muslin and drop it into the juice mix.
We use to make this every winter and store it in a huge canister–so we could have wonderful wassail any time the mood struck. It also makes a lovely gift. Just seal it into a jar or storage container, tie a scoop, the instructions and a couple of cinnamon sticks around it and there you are.
Mix the following ingredients together and store in airtight container
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups presweetened lemonade crystals
1/2 cup Tang
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Stir 1 tablespoon of this mixture with 1 cup hot water.
Ok, this is a simple one. Please don’t be frustrated by the lack of exact amounts. Peppermint bark is a relative thing…
Peppermint Bark
Ingredients
Green or Pink melting chocolate–you can buy this in small amounts or 10lb bags.
Candy canes (crushed)
Melt your chocolate on low. Resist the urge to turn up the heat. Just let it melt slowly. You have plenty to do anyway.
Unwrap and crush the candy canes. Here is the best tip on how to do this that you’ll get all year…
For centuries, we have been dreading the “crushing of the candy canes” part of this adventure. We’ve used ziploc bags and rolling pins, bowls and heavy mugs and I believe there was even a year that the back porch and a hammer were involved. I know…yikes.
So, this year we found the perfect thing and our candy cane crushing woes turned to joy and singing. Well, at least the whining stopped. We discovered the food chopper from Pampered Chef. We just unwrapped the candy canes, snapped them in half and dropped them in the chopper. Oh, let me tell you–everyone wanted a turn to pound the daylights out of those things. It was great. No rolling pins, no punctured ziplocs and best of all no hammers.
You’ll want to crush the candy canes and still have some recognizable pieces left. That makes the bark pretty. When your chocolate is melted, pour in the candy canes and stir it up. You can add as much or little as you’d like. Seriously, you can’t do this wrong.
Now pour the chocolate onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and spread it around—not too thick, not too thin. It will set in about an hour–but you can speed it up by putting it in the fridge for a while. Once it is set, remove the wax paper and break it into pieces. Gobble it up.
And there you have it. The long winded approach to a very simple thing.
Warning…If you are a dark chocolate lover, or even a semi-sweet fiend, then I must tell you…keep moving on. This is not the recipe for you. However–if you love milk chocolate, soft, smooth delicate fudge…you have arrived. Clap if you’d like.
Now you may think to yourself, “Heyyy…this recipe looks a lot like Fantasy Fudge.” And you would be a little bit right. But you would also be a whole lot wrong. Many of the ingredients are the same, but a couple of things are different…vitally different. And for the milk chocolate lovers out there it makes all the difference. You must trust me on this…
Note: Don’t substitute any of the ingredients for something…not as good, unless of course, you want something…not as good.
In that case, any fudge recipe will do.
Milk Chocolate Fudge
Ingredients
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter (NOT margarine)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
13 oz. Symphony bar milk chocolate
7 oz Kraft Marshmallow creme
1 Tbsp vanilla
Combine sugar and milk in a 2-1/2 quart non-stick saucepan. Add butter and heat to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling for exactly 5 minutes.
While the mixture is boiling, combine marshmallow cream and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Mix on low for 30 seconds.
Remove sugar mixture from heat and add broken chocolate pieces one or two at a time–stirring until completely melted. Add to marshmallow and mix on medium for 2 minutes scraping the side and bottom as needed.
Pour into lightly buttered 9 x 13 pan. Keep tightly covered with foil.
Combine sugar and milk in a 2-1/2 quart non-stick saucepan.
Add butter and heat to a rolling boil.
Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling for exactly 5 minutes.
While the mixture is boiling, combine marshmallow cream and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
Mix on low for 30 seconds.
Remove sugar mixture from heat and add broken chocolate pieces one or two at a time--stirring until completely melted.
Add to marshmallow and mix on medium for 2 minutes scraping the side and bottom as needed.
Pour into lightly buttered 9 x 13 pan.
Keep tightly covered with foil.
2.1.7
If fudge starts to get dry around the edges in a few days–gather it into a large ziploc bag. It will moisten back up. It is also nice to store in the refrigerator. Tastes like a whole new treat when it’s cold.
For everyone looking for “Grampa’s” gingerbread house recipe–this is as close as we’ve been able to come and it works beautifully. The minced fruit and candied peel aren’t in here–but it was nasty anyway. So, your honey cake will probably NOT last until the Millennium…sorry. But dad also added things like powdered ammonia to some of his stuff and who even KNOWS what that was about? I can just hear him laughing his head off at us right now.
“Now, dear…it’s not gingerbread—it’s HONEYCAKE!”
I miss you, daddy. And all the secrets you took with you. 😀
Stir together first 6 ingredients. In 1-quart saucepan, bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil. Cool.
In a large bowl stir together corn syrup mixture, egg, and lemon juice. Gradually stir in flour mixture until well blended. Cover; chill 1 hour or until easy to handle.
Roll out dough 1/4 at a time to 1/4″ thickness onto a well greased cookie sheet. Bake in 400°F oven 6-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet immediately and place on rack. Cut into cookies or house pieces while it’s still warm.
If cutting into cookies, mix confectioners’ sugar and water. While still warm, brush with glaze. Cool.
May be stored in tightly covered container for a dang long time.
