Chocolate is a good thing and anything covered in chocolate is even better!
These are chocolate covered cherries, with a chocolate kiss and sliced almonds. I use melted almond bark for the eyes with a green sprinkle for the eyeball. Some of the little mice I placed on half of an oreo cookie. The others I just dipped the cherry, with the stem, into the melted chocolate and placed on the wax paper to dry.
Next, I rolled several hundred peanut butter balls. The recipe I used called for smooth peanut butter. Why? I love nuts, so I used the extra crunchy peanut butter and had no problem.
Placing the balls in the freezer for a few minutes to make the balls firm is the trick. I then dipped them in chocolate, but left the top un-dipped to create a buckeye.
Some of the peanut butter balls I placed on a pretzel, topped it with a pretzel, and gently squeezed them together. I then placed the pretzel in the freezer for a few minutes before dipping them, half way, in the melted chocolate.
It seemed I was unwrapping kisses for days. Regular kisses. Mint kisses. Caramel filled kisses. Hug kisses. If I wasn't unwrapping the kiss, I was lining up pretzels on a baking sheet.
Place the pretzel and kiss in a 225 degree oven for 2-3 minutes. Just long enough to soften the chocolate kiss.
After I remove the baking sheet from the oven, I begin placing M&M's on the kiss and mashing it down slightly into the pretzel. There are several different kinds of M&M's. I use the peanut ones, because I love nuts! I also used the peanut butter filled ones this time too and they were delicious!
The hug kisses make an attractive desgn.
I also found some peppermint kisses and made some on a pretzel, but also made some on a cookie that was rolled in Christmas sprinkles.
I'm not a big fan of marshmallows, but they are easy to work with when baking and using for recipes. But as I said, anything dipped or covered in chocolate can't have a bad flavor.
The bottom are round crackers with extra crunchy peanut butter spread between them then covered with chocolate. I then dip half of the marshmallow in the melted chocolate and place on top of the cracker. After they are set, I decorate the marshmallow with sprinkles to create the holly. Actually, it is pretty simple!
I try to do things with the white almond bark and the dark chocolate.
Peppermint candy canes with melted chocolate and sprinkles added. The recipe said to place the candy canes in the oven for a few minutes to soften them so they could be formed into a heart. I did not do this, I just used the candy cane as it was in the package, place it around a kabob stick and filled the cane with the melted almond bark.
Most of my designs used pretzels, M&M's, chocolate, Oreos, and sprinkles. Why not add all that together and call it Christmas Bark?
I mixed all the ingredients together, poured the melted almond bark over it, sprinkled with Christmas M&M's and sprinkles. After the bark dries, I broke it into bite size pieces. Place the broken pieces in a candy dish to snack on.
Don't be surprised if you are filling up the candy dish all the time!
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