Ideas for very impressive 'sweets' I can put in gift baskets?!
Answers: I'm not a pro at baking and definately not a pastry chef, so nothing extremely hard, but I have time to practice if a recipe is kind of hard. I'm going for taste and looks. Links to recipes with pics are great if you've made the recipe before; I like pics so I know how they will look in the end. Thanks!!
http://www.anoccasionalchocolate.com/dip...
These are gorgeous, quick, and inexpensive to make! They will be the talk of the town!
I'm assuming this is Christmasy stuff? Ok these look cool and are good.
large pretzel rods
chocolate chips (white, dark, or milk)
candy canes
Crush the candy canes. Melt the chocolate. Dip 3/4 of the pretzel into the chocolate. IMMEDIATELY coat with candy cane pieces. Refridgerate for at least 30 min.
Easy, festive, and sooo good!
this one looks kinda easy:
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/recipes/des...
chocolate pretzels
and
exspensive chocolates.
petit fours
mini cheesecakes
mini cupcakes
peanut brittle
chocolate truffles
candied walnuts
Gingerbread men
Baklava is not as hard as it seems. I use the recipe on allrecipes.com
Baklava
Submitted by: Donna Townsend
Rated: 5 out of 5 by 535 members Yields: 18 servings
"A Greek favorite that makes everyone think you are a master chef and is sooo easy to make!! I taught a Greek friend how to make apple pie and she taught me this fabulous recipe. The phyllo dough for this recipe is found in the freezer section of most grocery stores. Add a little lemon zest to the sugar sauce, if desired."
INGREDIENTS:
1 (16 ounce) package phyllo
dough
1 pound chopped nuts
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(175 degrees C). Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fit pan. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2 - 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Top with two sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layering as you go. The top layer should be about 6 - 8 sheets deep.
3. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. You may cut into 4 long rows the make diagonal cuts. Bake for about 50 minutes until baklava is golden and crisp.
4. Make sauce while baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
5. Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers. This freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.
I found this really cool quick cookie recipe someplace. they are called Christmas Pastels, but I call them Jello cookies. I wasn't sure if they would work for my Christmas cookies, so I made a batch last week and they were really good, I was impressed. I think I will drizzle white chocolate on them for Christmas. Here's the recipe:
3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup white sugar
1 (3 ounce) package fruit flavored gelatin mix (I used raspberry)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup white sugar for decoration
Preheat oven to 400 F. In a medium bowl, cream the shortening, sugar, and flavored gelatin. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Roll cookies into 1 inch balls, flatten and place them on an unprepared cookie sheet. Or you could flatten with a cookie stamp dipped in sugar or flatten cookies with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes , until set but not brown.