Chocolate Kissed Snowballs

I love these cookies.

Really love them.

I love them so much that I can’t stop eating them.

But since I’ve jumped in the “bottomless pit of Christmas goodies” with both feet – I figured I might as well make these too! 🙂

A sweet friend and co-worker first served me some of these goodies way back in the olden days when we were both still in college. She brought them into work one cold December day and I was hooked! (Bless you Miss Donna!)

They often make it into our Christmas line-up and on our Christmas treat plates. They do freeze well – but are divine fresh from the oven when the chocolate inside is gooey and hot! <drooling>

These are perfect on a cold snowy day!

Chocolate Kissed Snowballs

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped pecans (I have substituted almonds)
5 ounce bag of Hershey Kisses (unwrapped)
powdered sugar for coating

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Add the flour, salt, and pecans. Mix well.

Shape about 1 teaspoon of dough around each candy kiss and put on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. Don’t let them get too brown!

Remove from the oven and place cookies on cooling racks. While still slightly warm, roll in powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

I’ll linked this post up with Tuesdays at the Table over at All the Small Stuff and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday over at At The Well.

Chocolate Fudge Pecan Pie Bars

I’m nuts about nuts.

This was not something that I was born with. When I was growing up the only nuts in our home were the peanuts in our Christmas bags from Santa Claus and the black walnuts that we got free from grandpa and grandma.

Peanuts I like, black walnuts are another story.

I remember well my first English walnut. So mild and delicious! Then I was introduced to pecans and almonds and even cashews! I was in love! There was an entire nutty world out there for me to discover!

This recipe includes both of my favorites – chocolate and nuts!

Chocolate Fudge Pecan Pie Bars

2 2/3 cups flour
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup butter or margarine
4 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (melted)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Mix together the flour with 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives in a scissors motion, cut in butter until the mixture has the texture of coarse crumbs.

Press into the bottom of a greased 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 15 minutes.

In a separate bowl beat eggs, corn syrup, 1 cup brown sugar, melted chocolate, vanilla and salt.

Stir in the nuts and pour the mixture over the warm crust.

Bake another 20-25 minutes or until the filling is set. Cool completely.

I didn’t have pecans, but substituted a mixture of walnuts and almonds.

Delicious!

Turtle Bars and Graduation

A very busy graduation season kicked off this weekend with my nephew’s college graduation. (Three more family graduations follow quickly in the coming weeks!)

The night before the big event my mom, my two older sisters and myself got together to finish up the preparations for the family party the next day. However our evening of work soon gave way to an evening of laughter and food.

It began with my mom’s homemade salsa and chips. (Oh, the fresh cilantro was wonderful!) Then we ordered Chinese take-out for supper (I just love cashew chicken!) and ended it all with some rich gooey turtle bars that I had brought.

What a combination: Mexican, Chinese, and chocolate!

The Turtle Bars were a new recipe that I had copied some time ago and never tried. This was the perfect opportunity to try them out on some very serious chocolate eaters, and they passed the test! They were given rave reviews.

Turtle Bars

Mix together: 2 cups flour, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup butter.

Press firmly into the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish.

Sprinkle the top with 1 cup of chopped pecans. Set aside.

In saucepan, combine 2/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute stirring constantly.

Pour over pecans and bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips on top. Let stand 3 minutes for the chocolate to melt. Then spread the melted chocolate all over the top of the bars.

For nice looking bars, let them cool completely before cutting so that they have a chance to set up. If you don’t care how they look, dig into them right away and enjoy the gooey melted chocolate, caramel and pecans! Yum!

This is a very rich, almost candy-like bar so you may want to cut the pieces small. You may also wish to hid them in the deepest, darkest corner of your cupboard because they are very delicious and you may not want to share them!