I make candy and give it away at Christmas. I do this because the more I make the less I eat. It’s not fair but people do like the candy.

I don’t want to sabbotage anyone’s diet so I give small portions of a few of my favorite recipes. I thought I’d share them with you. None are particulary hard to make but if you try to make all of these at once it takes a couple of days. Ask me how I know.

If you package an assortment of these goodies to give away be sure to wrap the ones that are aromatic in separate bags. That would be the peppermint truffles and the bourbon balls. In fact, I bag each item separately in cellophane bags and then put the bags in a bigger bag.

Chocolate Peppermint Truffles are new for me this year and I think they may be my new favorite candy. A friend suggested that I add the crushed candy canes to the tops – and that I do the crushing in my coffee grinder. She was right on both counts. She was here to spoon the peppermint on the damp chocolate as I was doing the dipping. The recipe makes 6-8 dozen truffles depending on the size you make them.

Download ChocPeppermintTruffles

A NOTE ABOUT DIPPING CHOCOLATE: I order bittersweet chocolate from King Arthur Flour because it works better for me than semi-sweet chocolate chips. And I think it tastes better. I have an old electric skillet that I put about an inch of water in. I put a stainless steel bowl in the water with chocolate in it. I can set the heat to just below 150º. It’s the perfect heat no matter what kind of chocolate you are melting. I only use this old skillet once a year and it’s worth storing it just for this job.

Also new for me this year is Cayenne Pecan Brittle. If you have any vegans in your life, they will love this.

Donna, who does my nails, gave me this recipe. It turned out differently than I thought it would but it is surprisingly tasty. I think I’d add a bit more cayenne next time. I made some notes in the recipe document.

 Download CayennePecanBrittle

My english Toffee is always a hit. The recipe came from the Junior League of Tulsa cookbook back in the 80s. I use sliced almonds rather than the pecans in the recipe. It’s better if you toast the almonds before you start.

Download EnglishToffee

Chocolate Bourbon Balls make my mouth water. They smell so good and they taste so good… I am always happy to see them packaged up so that I can’t get into them any more.  

Download ChocolateBourbonBalls

My Chocolate Raspberry Truffles are not lovely but I’ve made these for almost 20 years and they are a family favorite. I think I’ve posted this recipe when I wrote about cake balls because the base is a chocolate cake. But here you go again… Merry Christmas!

Download Truffles