Tasty Holiday Treats

I love baking treats at Christmastime. When I was younger, I would make peanut brittle, chex muddy buddies, and the occasional fruit cake. The past couple of years I've been making bark and giving it out as gifts to friends and family. To me, it's a good way to give a little something to those you love who you usually wouldn't buy a gift for. I have two bark recipes that I love and one new one that I just found in this month's issue of Mississippi Magazine.

This bark is my favorite because of how festive it looks. The recipe comes from Food Network and can be found here. It's called White Chocolate Holiday Bark. The white chocolate with cranberries is so good! I've never been a big fan of pistachios, but they work so good with this recipe.

(photo from Food Network)

I tried this bark last year and it's the perfect combination of salty and sweet. The recipe comes from Southern Living and can be found here. It's called Salty Chocolate-Pecan Candy. At first, I was a little nervous about sprinkling salt on the chocolate, but it adds the perfect touch!

(photo from myrecipes.com)

The recipe I'll be trying this year is called Montana Candy and comes from Mississippi Magazine, as I mentioned earlier. Wish I had a picture to show you of this delightful looking treat. Here's the recipe.

2 1/2 bars Almond Roca or 1 large Hershey bar with almonds
3/4 cup pecans
2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar

Break up chocolate bars and place in bowl of a food processor.
Pulse several times. Remove from bowl and repeat process
with pecans. Butter a 9x13-inch pan and sprinkle 1/2 of
chopped nuts on the bottom. Top with 1/2 of chopped chocolate.
Meanwhile, bring butter and sugar to a boil in a
heavy-bottomed pan, stirring constantly for 10 minutes
or until coffee-colored. Start on high heat then gradually
reduce temperature. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate
and pecans. Using a metal spatula, press down over all of
candy to compress. Layer remaining chocolate and pecans over
top, pressing down again with metal spatula. When candy has
cooled completely, remove from pan and break into pieces.
Store candy in a tin with a well-fitting lid.

Yield: 24 (2 inch) pieces.

I love to package the bark in Chinese boxes or tins stuffed
with cute Christmas tissue paper.

Do you have special treats you like to make around Christmas?
I'd love to hear about them!