Christmas Treats

Every year I make the same three Christmas Treats to give away. They're very simple (a little time consuming) but very delicious, and they look pretty impressive (well two of them do, the other one a baby could make, but it's still delicious!). 

The Easiest- Pretzel hugs with M&Ms. I like these the MOST with hugs, you can use plain chocolate, or the peppermint white chocolate (those are my second favorite). Preheat your oven to 250. get some cookie sheets and put parchment paper down. Unwrap all your hugs, place them on a whole pretzel. Pop them in the oven for about 3-5 minutes (you don't want the chocolate completely melted, but you don't want it too hard, experiment a little). Remove from oven, and place an M&M in center. I love these because kids can help, and they are difficult to mess up! 

 A Bit More Difficult (but still easy!)- Peppermint bark. I love to make this because I love how it looks! It's so festive, and Christmasy. First cover the back of a cookie sheet with foil. Then melt 15 oz of white chocolate in a double broiler and spread 1/3 onto your tin foil in a rectangle pattern. Crush up peppermint candies and spread over white chocolate. Chill for 15 minutes. Mix 8 oz of dark chocolate, (I like guitard brand) with 6 TBSP heavy cream, and 2 tsp peppermint oil (I like to use the oil, but you can use extract), in saucepan over medium heat until melted and combined. Pour over white chocolate quickly (it's going to try and melt your white chocolate!) and spread to cover. Chill for 25 minutes. Reheat remaining white chocolate, pour on top of dark chocolate, spread evenly, and sprinkle with remaining crushed peppermint candy. Chill, chill, chill (I chilled overnight). Remove cookie sheet, use pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut into squares. Looks SO pretty! 

 Sort of Difficult but Mostly Time Consuming- TRUFFLES! This is a recipe I use from THE PIONEER WOMAN, I have made these for the last 4 years, and every time I make them, I am amazed at how WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS they are... It's like I forget or something.... I'm not going to copy and paste the recipe, but I will tell you my modifications. I use Guitard semi sweet chocolate for the coating instead of milk chocolate (I don't care for milk chocolate). I also add about 1 TBSP of coconut oil to the dipping chocolate (not the truffle ball chocolate). I've made these in numerous flavors! Orange Chocolate, Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Hazelnut, Chocolate Pistachio (it's good, trust me), Chocolate mint, but my favorite is always the dark chocolate sea salt.... I love the mixture of sweet and salty.. These are literally SO DELICIOUS! You must make them!! You must!! Just don't complain when you gain 5 lbs from eating an entire cookie sheet of truffles (these barely make it out my door to give away). 

What are you favorite Christmas Treats to make? 

What other flavors of truffles should I try?