CONFETTI CRISPS

Confetti Crisps
We made these for New Year's Eve 2011. So yummy! Easy to eat :-)
http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/2011/12/confetti-crisps.html

40 square (about 2×2?) saltine crackers
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter (not margarine!)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup (or more) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup mini-twist or stick pretzels, broken into small pieces
1/3 cup chopped peanuts
1/2 cup Mini M&M’s (my friend used regular sized)
1/3 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange crackers side by side in single layer on large bar pan or jelly roll pan (used cookie sheet - didn't put crackers all the way to the edge) (make sure you use parchment paper, tin-foil or non-stick spray).

Combine brown sugar, butter and vanilla in 2-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk, until mixture comes to a full boil across the surface. Boil, stirring constantly 4 minutes.

Immediately pour sugar mixture over crackers and spread evenly with a spreader or rubber spatula. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack.

Immediately sprinkle baked crackers with chocolate morsels. Let stand 3 minutes, allowing morsels to soften, then spread evenly over surface. Sprinkle with pretzels, peanuts and mini M&M’s. Lightly press toppings into melted chocolate using back of a spatula. Let stand at room temperature to cool completely. Refrigerate 20 minutes to firm chocolate. Cut into squares or just break up.

Store in tightly covered container in a cool place at room temperature so they will stay crisp.

CHEWY CARAMEL MYSTERY COOKIES

CHEWY CARAMEL MYSTERY COOKIES

New favorite cookie - yum! I froze some - the caramel gets really hard, so sit them out for 1/2 hour or so before serving.

I was too lazy to type in the recipe so I swagbucks it and found this site (there is a link on her site for a printable recipe:

http://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2011/10/11/chewy-caramel-mystery-cookies.html

I agree with everything she said - except I only used snickers, but would like to use her combination next (all in bulk section??). I too found it was hard to get them off the cookie sheet and then when I did the caramel dripped. So I just transferred them directly on the cooling rack still on the parchment paper (whole sheet at once) or next time I would line the cooling rack with tin foil or more parchment paper. I only had big M&M's so that is what I used - worked fine. I also put too many on a cookie sheet and they ran into each other. They get a lot bigger. By reading her comments I should have only done 9 per cookie sheet. I did 12 cookies and then made one big cookie on the round stone.

I saw this recipe in Food Everyday: Martha Stewart Magazine and was intrigued by the "mystery" in the title. Mysteries are always exciting, right? I read through the recipe, and I loved what the mystery ingredient was. I made the cookies almost immediately! I ended up bringing most of these to work with me, and it was fun to hear what people thought the mystery ingredient was after they took a couple bites. I got all kinds of different guesses!

And here it is! The mystery ingredient. An assortment of miniature candy bars. Genius!

Coarsely chop 16 miniature candy bars. I used exactly what you see in the above photo: Twix (4), Milky Way (4), 3 Musketeers (4) and Snickers (4). I'm sure any kind and any combination would be just as wonderful. And these were wonderful.

Cut 20 caramels in half. Set the candy bars and caramels aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

Using an electric mixer, beat together in another large bowl:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat on high until fluffy and pale, about 3 minutes.

Beat in 2 large eggs.

With mixer on low, beat in the flour mixture in three additions until combined. Fold in caramels and candy bars.

On parchment-lined baking sheets, press cookie dough into 2-inch circles, 2 inches apart (9 cookies per baking sheet). Bake for 8 minutes in the preheated oven.

Remove from the oven and press M&M's candies onto cookies for decoration.

I'm not kidding you, I had this bowl of M&M's off of the counter for 1 second before a chubby hand scooped into it. This was not a staged photo. :)

Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 8 to 9 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely.

Getting the cookies off of the parchment paper without breaking them was a bit tricky. The caramel that seeped onto the bottoms of the cookies (uhh, yum!) liked to stick to my spatula. And then to the cooling rack. One thing that helped was using a metal spatula and loosening the perimeter of each cookie before trying to completely free it. I generously sprayed my wire rack with cooking spray before transferring them, as well.

I have to tell you that these were totally delicious little treats. I loved the different flavors from the different kinds of candy bars. It's 3 Musketeers! No, wait! It's Snickers! No, caramel!