I couldn’t decide which of two sweet treats to share tonight in this Holiday Sweet Treats diary. One is an old favorite, first written out on an index card in my late teens. The other is a recipe that scrolled through my Facebook feed a few weeks ago and lived up to its billing. Since I forgot to take pictures of either during preparation, I’m going to share both recipes. Grab more of your favorite holiday beverage and join us below the fold (after a word from our sponsor) for some Christmas Crack and Cannoli Cheeseballs.
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First up is a favorite here at Casa Brillig, and from what we understand many other houses! When K1 brought a batch to her youth group last night she signed up to bring “Saltine Cookies”. Upon arrival, everyone saw them and exclaimed “Ooh, Christmas Crack!” And if you haven’t had them yet… they really are that good, so make sure you have someone to stage an eventual intervention by prying the container out of your hands and eating the remainder.
Christmas Crack:
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Line a rectangular 15½” x 10½” jelly roll pan (or other baking pan with sides, NOT a cookie sheet) with aluminum foil, then butter the bottom taking care not to rip the foil. Lay out saltine crackers to cover the bottom; it takes about one sleeve of a standard 4-sleeve box. It doesn’t matter if they are salted side up or down.
- In a small saucepan bring 2 sticks (1 cup) butter plus ½cup packed brown sugar to a boil then boil 3’, stirring often with a wooden spoon or something suitably long-handled, because boiling sugar burns hurt! Pour CAREFULLY over the saltines, then use the spoon to spread the toffee evenly over the top. Work quickly so the toffee doesn’t harden.
- Bake for 5’ in the oven; the toffee will be bubbly and have seeped into and below the crackers.
- Take out and immediately sprinkle one 12oz bag semisweet chips over the bubbling toffee. Return to oven for about one minute to melt the chips.
- Remove from oven and with the spoon or spatula, quickly spread the chocolate over the toffee. If you like, at this point sprinkle either ½cup chopped nuts or other topping all over. This batch had to be nut-free so we used candy peppermint sprinkles.
- Cool, then chill until cold. Break into pieces and store in a container in the fridge. They stay good for several days, allegedly. Ours don’t last that long.
Next up is a recipe I found here but which is originally from Rachael Ray. I needed a quick dessert to bring to a potluck full of hungry 12-13 year olds.
Cannoli Cheeseball:
- In a small bowl mix until smooth one 8oz block of cream cheese (at room temperature), ½cup ricotta cheese, ½cup powdered/confectioner sugar and 1tsp cinnamon.
- Stir in 1cup of semisweet mini-chocolate chips. Mixture will be soft. If you’re pressed for time, put this in a nice bowl and serve it as dip. Otherwise...
- Scrape onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form it into a ball covered with the wrap. Chill in the fridge at least an hour.
- Remove from fridge and unwrap the ball; coat with additional mini-chocolate chips. Put onto a plate, and serve with Nilla wafers, graham crackers, waffle cone pieces, or broken cannoli shells.
Several of the kids at the party thought the filling could be used inside two cookies instead of ice cream for sandwiches. Mr. Brillig thinks we should make little balls and dip them in dark chocolate. I will not admit anywhere Google crawls to having eaten a spoonful straight up earlier today.
After you get your fix of what you really come here for (the Trio of Tops, Comments Mojo and Pictures), I hope you’ll share YOUR favorite recipes, be they old favorites or newly discovered nuggets of culinary goodness, in the comments!
Thank BeninSC for his formatty goodness!! He deserves all the sweets!
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From indycam:
I am submitting this comment from AStranger, with its cautionary tale!
And, also … in this comment, nocynicism leaves no doubt about the magnitude of the consequences if we Democrats sabotage ourselves in 2016.
From Simplify:
In a thread beginning with one of my comments, vinny67 replied to a comment by Alice in Florida skeptical that anyone has really read the NGP/VAN contract in its entirety. vinny’s comment is a zinger!
From ZenTrainer:
I am nominating this hilarious comment by HeartPine to someone who missed the whole point of the diary.
Took me a while to stop laughing so I could submit it as a top comment.
From HeartPine’s own diary.
From peregrine kate:
Hi, TC crew--
In kos' diary today announcing his big deal, Bender Rodriguez made the perfect observation with this comment!
This deserves special notice as a signal event in the early history of Daily Kos. :)
Many thanks as always for all you do!
Kate
From yours truly, brillig:
kos’ diary explains his new financial state yet consistent philosophy. AfricanLived comments to explain party philosophy.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for Sunday December 20th 2015, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for Sunday December 20th 2015, courtesy of jotter!