candy Archives - Spindles Designs by Mary and Mags

20 Christmas Candy Recipes

December 17, 2014 by Margaret 3 Comments

Christmas is not Christmas without candy!

Try these 20 Favorite Christmas Candies.

Part of our family’s Christmas traditions has always been making yummy candy and cookies for friends, neighbors and ourselves.

I have have a huge sweet tooth. Christmas Candy is always my weakness. I have been known to eat candy for breakfast. My parents always did there best to make sure we had something semi-healthy to eat Christmas morning. As kids we had little boxes of cereal…cereal mom normally didn’t buy. As we got older and were not in such a hurry Christmas morning we would have warm cinnamon rolls.

Now I’m the parent and I need to set a good example for my kids. I really don’t want them eating candy for breakfast but …

oh well.

This is a little collection of 20 favorite Christmas Candies.

English Toffee by Made From Pinterest

Homemade Caramels by Tastes Better From Scratch

Homemade Peppermint Patties by The Gunny Sack

Holiday Peanut Brittle by Fifteen Spatulas

Cherry Divinity by Simply Gloria

Fanny Farmer’s Fudge by From This Kitchen Table

Homemade Caramel Corn by Gimme Some Oven

Crock Pot Peanut Clusters by Favorite Family Recipes

Oreo Peppermint Bark by Crazy for Crust

Christmas Cookie Dough Bites By Love to be in the Kitchen

Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Fudge by Just Us Four

Homemade Turtles by Happy Wife Happy Life

Snickers Fudge Bites by Creative Southern Home

Holiday Peppermint Bark by For The Love of Food

Rock Candy by Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Truffles by It Bakes Me Happy

Dirty Chai Spiced Fudge by Life Currents

Dark and White Chocolate Peppermint Bark by An Affair From the Heart

Cranberry Bliss Fudge by Delightful E Made

Graham Cracker Toffee by Six Sisters

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Last Minute Thanksgiving Favors: Pretzel Turkey’s and Cornucopia Cones

November 26, 2014 by Margaret Leave a Comment

Last Minute Ideas

Do you need an easy, cute Thanksgiving favor for your guests?

Do you need something to entertain busy youngsters?

Do you just want to make something fun?

I was in charge of the favor this year. So the kids and I got on Pinterest and started searching.

We decided on Pretzel Turkey’s and Cornucopia Cones.

They looked easy enough so we went to work.

Things you will need:

Candy eyes
Yellow or Orange M&M’s
Candy corns
Round pretzels
Chocolate Kisses or Rolos

We found a cute little video on how to make Turkey Preztels. Everything was going great until….

Disaster.

The chocolate did not melt… it crumbled. It was baked and tasted a little burnt.

The instructions on the video said to put chocolate on pretzel and place in the oven…

350 degrees for 5 min.

I thought it sounded too hot.

And it was.

Now to be fair… it could just be my oven. I had been baking so the oven was already warn and I think it is dying. It is not the most reliable when it comes to times and temperatures.

We didn’t give up however. Back to Pinterest I went to compare temperatures for softening chocolate.

Times were all different but…

I thought 200 degrees for 3 minutes was a good place to start.

It was perfect.

hint: do in small batches unless you have a couple of helpers. If you have too many turkeys to build the chocolate will set before you are finished adding the candy.

On to our Cornucopia Cones.

Things you will need:

Sugar or Waffle cones

Candy

I followed Paper Turtle instructions, using steam. It worked great! You can see in my picture…It took me a few times to get the shape I wanted.

Fill with you favorite fall candy and decorate your table.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Margaret

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Thanksgiving M&M Turkey Favors

November 17, 2014 by Margaret 6 Comments

Cute, easy craft for your Thanksgiving table. #turkeyfavors

I fell in love with these crazy looking turkeys when I saw them on Pinterest. I had to make them.

Gobble! Gobble!

We took the entire family and Thanksgiving to Great-Grandma’s house last year. My assignment was to create something fun for the table. I picked these Turkey favors. My kids had a blast helping me twist a cute pipe cleaner.

Jenn at Clean and Scentsible has a great tutorial on how to twist your pipe cleaner. She found circle netting for her turkeys. I wasn’t so lucky. I used brown mess netting cut into 12″ squares. I also closed these little beauties with a regular garbage bag twisty tie (I wanted to be able to get at them quickly).

I filled my little gobblers with regular M&M’s, Peanut M&M’s, and Peanut Butter M&M’s, because that’s what I like, but really any candy would work.

My original plan was to fill them with Fall colored M&M’s, but I couldn’t find any the week of Thanksgiving. So, if you ever plan on making these stock up on Fall colored M&M’s at Halloween.

Enjoy!

Margaret

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Snicker Cookie Bars

October 31, 2014 by Mary Ellen Stringham 10 Comments

I enjoy Snicker bars. Halloween is the only time of year that I buy enough candy to make this recipe. These Snicker cookie bars are kind of like short bread and not supper sweet.

Snickers Cookie Bars at www.spindlesdesigns.com

Recipe

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 bag fun sized Snicker bars, quartered

Cream together butter and brown sugar until light. Beat in eggs. Sift together dry ingredients and add just until blended. Stir in Snicker piece. Spread and press dough into a parchment paper lined 9″X 13″ baking dish. Be sure to leave extra paper up the side to remove when cool. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the pan. Cut into 32 pieces. Enjoy!

Snicker Cookie Bars at www.spindlesdesigns.com

We like to make them for our family Halloween party.

Mary Ellen

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Craft Day at Grandma’s House

August 1, 2014 by Margaret 8 Comments

It is fun to make crafts but even more so when make them with the kids.

I work in a dentist office and specialists offices bring in goodies and fun items as a thank you for our referrals. One such office brought in one of these faux gum ball dispensers. I fell in love and new my girls would too. I proceeded to call the office and find out where I could find the supplies in particular the glass bowls. What a surprise, the dollar store and even better it was the one close to my house. I stopped on my way home picked up three of bowls and then off to Home Depot for the rest.

When I told the girls that we were going to have a craft day with the kids and make gumball candy dishes. We decided on an evening. I brought out what spray paint colors I had and the girls did the same.

Supplies

1- 4″ terracotta pot with base
1- glass bowl
1- 11/8″ wood ball knob
1- large wing nut
Black paint or 1″ black circle sticker
Epoxy or super glue
Miscellaneous spray paint

We spread out cardboard on the back lawn and with the help of all the grand kids we began. They are great critics. You missed a spot grandma. Tyler, 6, was especially excited to get this project all finished.

It was close to the 4th of July so I made a star stencil and sponged on some stars with white paint. I went shopping hoping to find some red, white and blue M & M’s but not luck. Instead I found these great Mega M& M’s. They were perfect.