Holiday Treats

These week I've been making a lot of holiday treats for various events.  I thought I'd fill you in on the two most popular.  We'll start out with the Santa Hat Brownies:

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They look good, huh?  They are!  Here's what you'll need:

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2 brownie mixes (unless you know how to make homemade brownies)

1 container of icing (or you can go with the homemade stuff)

Strawberries (I used 2 containers, but munched a little as I went)

Small circle cookie cutter

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Start out by baking your brownies.  I made mine a little thinner than usual so that my cookie cutter made it through.  Let them cool.  Use the cookie cutter to cut the brownies into small circles.  Put icing in a ziploc bag and cut the corner just enough to squeeze the icing through.  Squeeze a quarter sized amount of icing on the top of each brownie.  Wash and cut the tops off of the strawberries.  Place one strawberry on top of each brownie, lightly pushing down to push the icing out around the edges.  Place a small dot of icing on the top of the strawberry.

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Now let's move on to the S'mores Bars:

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For these you'll need:

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2 bags of milk chocolate chips

1 container of marshmellow fluff

1 box of graham crackers

Wax paper

Sprinkles (optional)

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Snap your graham crackers into fourths.  Spread marshmellow fluff on half of the graham crackers and place the uncovered graham crackers on top like a sandwich.  Try not to use too much fluff, or it will later explode out of the sides (My husband compared this to a baby who has a blow out in their diaper.  You can thank me later for the visual.).  Use a double-boiler (or you can be creative and make your own with two pots) and pour the chocolate in the top pot. Stir until the chocolate is melted.  Dip each "graham cracker sandwich" in the chocolate.  Place dipped "sandwiches" on wax paper to cool.  If you want to decorate them, let them cool slightly for a minute or two (not too much) before putting the sprinkles on.

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Hope you enjoy these.  They were both delish!  The only problem I had was that they were a little messy to make.  By the end of the night, I had chocolate all over my shirt and marshmellow fluff all in my freshly cut and styled hair.  But we did end up having some chocolate left over, so we dipped our left over strawberries in it for desert.  And all was right with the world!