Candy Houses & Cocoa

It was a snowy day...just perfect for having some neighborhood kids over for

candy house constructing and lukewarm cocoa.  Oh what fun it was!!!

All the goodies for construction (and snacking, of course)

Frosting in the front right corner was perfection for 'glueing' the

graham crackers together and making drippy icicles.

Frosting:

1 c Marshmallow Fluff

3 c Confectioner's Sugar

1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla (in case you want to eat it, make it tasty!)

1/4 tsp sea salt (to balance out the fluffy sugar concoction)

Water (tablespoon at a time, just to thin out a tiny bit)

=

PERFECTION

My cheeky little monkey put on her 'holiday costume' before her

friends arrived (in my head I thought, 'more like your uniform...')

I put aluminum foil over paper plates for added stability, and because

the pattern on the plate was summery.

I made 'party favor' Rudolph cookies.  I saw a picture of these in a magazine at the

doctor's office, but there wasn't a recipe...so I decided on peanut butter cookies,

with pretzel 'antlers' (I couldn't remember if the picture shown was whole pretzels...

would have been much easier!!!  Will do that next year!)

chocolate chip 'eyes' and a peanut m&m 'Rudolph nose'.

Baked the cookie with pretzels and chocolate chips pressed in at 350 degrees

for 6 minutes, pressed the peanut m&m in and baked 2 more minutes. 

The m&m tended to crack if baked longer.

Contemplation! 

I want to live here.  A candy A-frame...get outta town!

This time of year, when I feel like cocoa is OFTEN NECESSARY,

I make up a small container of ganache and leave it in the fridge

for quick and easy cocoa making.

Ganache:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 

1 cup half & half

1 T unsweetened cocoa powder

 pinch of sea salt

(I made it with fat free half & half, because I had that on hand)

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of ganache per cup of milk in a saucepan.

It is delish!

Does it get any better than this, for a 3 year old? 

Finished product #1!  'Symettry'

Finished product #2! 'The Shack'

Finished product #3! 'The Camper'

Finished product #4! 'A-frame'

Good times for these little kiddos!  It was off for some sledding, after this

crazy rush of sugar.  Such a perfect, snowy day!!!