Christmas baking 2012

Here it is. My somewhat ambitious Christmas baking plan. I'm not sure how I'm going to find the time to make everything or who on earth is going to eat it all, but these recipes looked like things I had to try this year. I'm incredibly flattered that anyone at all cares what I am baking, so thank you for visiting my blog (that I have somewhat abandoned as of late) and for your kind Facebook comments. 

Here we go!

1.  Chai Spiced Sugar Cookies. I like Chai. I like sugar cookies. Seems logical to make these.

2. Salted Caramel Frosted Kahula Brownies. This one seems a little intense. It involves making the salted caramel sauce, adding it to the frosting and also making the brownies. I love Starbucks' Salted Caramel Mocha, so if this recipe tastes anything like that I'm sure it will be worth it. 

3.  Avalanche Bark. Looks easy-pease. I'm a big fan of throwing a bunch of stuff into a pan and cutting it up into squares and voila it tastes great.  

4.  Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. Terry saw this recipe on my Pinterest page and demanded that I make them immediately. If you have ever met Terry you'll know that he can be super demanding. Ha. This recipe calls for Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix to be used, which I think is a bit like cheating. I would rather use made-from-scratch ingredients but those recipes didn't look as good as this one. I guess I can allow it just this once. Just for you, Terry. 

5.  Pecan Pie Bars.

6. Peanut Jim. This is an old family recipe, made by my Grandma Vermeulen. It is incredibly sweet and addicting. Because it has Cornflakes and Rice Krispies in it, we used to joke as kids that it was an acceptable breakfast. I'm sure she would approve. 

Peanut Jim

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup peanut butter 

2 cups Corn Flakes

1 cup Rice Krispies

Melt (do not boil) the above ingredients together in a small saucepan. In a large bowl, mix together Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies, then add melted ingredients. Mix well and put into a greased pan. 

For the icing:

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Boil the ingredients together for 3 minutes, cool completely and add 1 cup icing sugar. Pour into pan and spread over cornflake mixture. Cool in fridge then cut into squares. 

7. Butter tarts. With homemade pastry. I may be pushing it on this one by making my own tarts. I don't have a recipe for you for this one. I still need to get it from one of my old co-workers. I'll post when it's available but I'm sure there are tons of butter tart recipes out there. I just know that hers were to die for and I must get that recipe!!!

8. Lemon Snowdrops.

9.  Cookies n' Cream fudge. I've never made fudge before. Can't go wrong with anything with that many Oreos in it.

10. Reese's Krispies.

That's it. 10 things. A bit much I think. But I want to make them all, and I have about a month so I should get to all of them. I might throw in some cinnamon sugar pretzels or spiced nuts, and I'm sure I'll end up making Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares at some point.

I would love to hear what you are making!  Post some of your fave Christmas recipes in my comments, or on my Facebook page.

Happy Christmas baking!!!