Kick Your Sweet Station Up A Notch!

With the holidays upon us you are probably thinking it's time to bake!  With all those goodies you are making, you may want to have a little get together to share all your hard work. Pulling together a Sweets Station is easy and just takes a little effort to take it from Good to Wow! If you watch this week's "What's InSTORE Fridays" segment, I'll show you how to make Candy Cane Reindeer and also how to up your cake cred with Reindeer Sugar Cookies! Watch it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUklRb6jBQw). For a good mix of sweets, you should offer cake, cookies and candy, with Hot Chocolate, punch or cider on the side.

I always love Christmastime, especially all the baked goodies that accumulate on the sideboard in the dining room! Two sweets we make every year are  Chunky Macadamia and White Chocolate Cookies and "The Candy". It has a real name I'm sure, but we just call it "The Candy".  Let me know what you bake each year and share a Christmas tradition with me. Below are the recipes for the cookies as well as "The Candy".  

Chunky Macadamia and White Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup butter softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 Tbls sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups All-Purpose flour

3/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup (6oz) vanilla-milk morsels or 1 (6 oz pkg) white chocolate flavored baking bars, cut into chunks

1 (7oz) jar Macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugars, beating well.  Add egg and vanilla, mixing well.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture, mixing well. Stir in morsels and nuts and drop by small rounded teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove to wire racks to cool..  

"The Candy"

1 stick butter softened

1 can Eagle condensed milk

2 lb 10x sugar

1 Tbls vanilla

1 tsp salt

Pecan halves

8 squares unsweet chocolate 

Work butter and milk until smooth. Add sugar gradually.  Stir and work hard until puffy and creamy.  Mix in salt and vanilla. Cover bowl and chill in refrigerator 1/2 hour.  Roll into 1" balls and place on cookie sheet. Return to refrigerator and chill 1/2 hour. While chilling, melt in a small pan the chocolate squares. Using a toothpick, teaspoon, or 2 forks, quickly roll ball into melted chocolate and put on waxed paper. Top with a pecan half.

Enjoy!