Brigadeiros

Brigadeiros are a traditional Brazilian dessert that are similar to fudge or a truffle. They are a powerhouse of richness because the base ingredient is sweetened condensed milk. From there, you can make all sorts of variations! They are great for parties because one can of milk can easily produce 40 tiny bon bons. I experimented with three different recipes for a get-together: matcha (green tea) rolled in coconut flakes, chocolate rolled in sprinkles, and dulce de leche rolled in cookie crumbs.

Sweet Seashell Candy

Presents are sweet, especially when they're for no reason, thoughtful.... and for baking! Special thanks to my SB2 (yes yes, I'm SB1). He gave me two really cool molds: seashells and an igloo. He found them on Kitchen Krafts, a site I've never seen before and has a ton of stuff.

In honor of Costa Rica, I decided to use the seashells for a dinner party this past Saturday hosted by one my traveling companions. I didn't want to make tea cakes, not everything can be a cupcake, so I decided to make candy. It's extremely easy to make and hella cute!

I made two batches, one from AllRecipes.com with some minor adjustments and the other was purely melted chocolate.

Chocolate Marshmallow Candy

1/2 cup butter
1 (12 ounce) semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds
1 (10.5 ounce) bag of mini marshmallows
1 teaspoon vanilla

Prep the pan! Use some solid vegetable oil (Crisco) and lightly coat molds. Dust with flour. If you don't do this with this pan- good luck. We didn't' do this the 1st round and it was a struggle to get the candy out.

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter, vanilla, and marshmallows. Stir until it becomes a guey paste. Add in chocolate chips. Finally add nuts. Dab about a tablespoon in. Lightly tap against counter to make sure the filling is distributed evenly. Place in refrigerator for 45 minutes or in freezer for 20 (until candy hardens).

To remove from pan, either gently tap out of pan or use a toothpick for a lil nudge. Dust with confectioner's sugar (optional).

The fun with this recipe is you can mix and match. Don't like almonds? Swap it out. Want more then just chocolate? Throw in 6 ounces of peanut butter chips or swap out the chocolate chips for butterscotch! This made 2 batches out of the pan. These were amazingly yummy and oh so easy to make!

Simple Candy

Melt the candy your choice (via double boiler or microwave; if you use the microwave use 30 second increments and stir in between) and pour into prepped molds.

Freeze until hardened. Bam! I used semi sweet and white chocolate and mixed them around. I also used some sugar pearls to add that beach look.