White Chocolate Peppermint Sticks were next on the list. I've made these before and I LOVE how beautiful they look. These were my WOW addition. They are super simple, but when packaged in a group they are stunning. Not to mention delicious.
You can do this with regular candy canes, but they are harder to package, in my opinion. I use these mint sticks I found at Cracker Barrel. They have a texture more like Butter Mints and a more mild peppermint flavor. We LOVE them! I used the Smooth and Melty White Chocolate and Wilton's white nonpareils from Michaels. Again, you just melt, dip, sprinkle and lay on foil until they are hard. Super simple, but check out how awesome they look!
Lastly I made Miss Lisa's Christmas Caramel Corn. This stuff is to DIE for. It's simple to make, but takes time and your attention. I will post the recipe at the end. We ate almost as much as we packaged (and that's A LOT)!
Everything got packaged up in cellophane bags I picked up at Zurchers. I like theirs because they have a gusseted bottom and are a heavier cellophane, so they are easier to work with for me.
I did two of each type of pretzel and tied the bag with a little bit of white cording and a hand stamped tag.
I made little toppers for the tops of the Peppermint Sticks and the Caramel Corn.
Over the last few weeks, I've bought two different size Martha Stewart snowflake punches at Michaels with my 40% Off coupon and I have been using them EVERY WHERE! Doesn't the smaller look great popped up on the Popcorn Topper?
Wal-mart had sets of gift boxes for $5 and I bought these to package all the goodies in. Each item got its own box and then I tied them all together with curling ribbon and tied on this aDorable gift tag.
I'm not sure that in the end these were EASIER, but they sure did turn out better than I imagined. I think our customers will feel appreciated-I know I would if someone dropped this off at my house! Here's a look at the whole package and the recipe for the Caramel Corn.
Miss Lisa's Caramel Corn
½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
12 cups air popped popcorn (sift out the kernels that didn't pop)
In a medium sauce pan, heat the butter, sugar, corn syrup and salt on medium heat until it begins bubbling around the edges. Once it is bubbly, let it cook for 5 minutes WITHOUT stirring. Then remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Pour the mixture over the popcorn and stir in until the popcorn is evenly coated. This will take some patience and at first it will look like it's not enough caramel, keep working at it, there's enough! Divide the corn between 2 cookie sheets and bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Turn out onto wax paper to cool.
Please forgive the funky spacing-blogger is driving me nuts tonight and I can't figure out why it keeps reverting to this weird stuff once I change it!
ReplyDeleteYou have outdone yourself yet once again! They are fantaastic and wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWOW!!! Those look amazing! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI am in awe of you. All these goodies look fantastic! I wish I were as creative as you!
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful Dori! Makes me wish I had more time to make pretty yummies before our sister Christmas Eve tea, but I think I will be settling for just a couple batches of cookies. And maybe some of those pretzels....
ReplyDeleteDid your peppermint sticks and pretzels! They were a hit and looked amazing on the Christmas brunch table! Thanks for the awesome idea, my cool, beautiful, creative BF! <3
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