Desserts 4 Today

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Come one, come all! Yes, it is the cooking season, I mean holiday season, so get ready to get your money's worth out of your kitchen this Christmas with cooking your feasts for your family.

Everyone looks forward to the feast, but what I look forward to most is the obscene amount of sweets and pastry that will be placed in front of me and the little restraint that I must show towards them.

Desserts

Here are three of my favorite Christmas sweet specials that you should try this holiday season:

· Brownie Bonbons Recipe

· Candied Orange Peels Recipe

· Choco-Cherry Truffles Recipe

Brownie Bonbons

For making the perfect brownie "bonbons" you need a package of brownie mix (the more chocolately the better) and a half a cup of crushed candy canes. The first step is to make the brownies, just like any brownies before. Take them out of the oven a little before they are done and roll them into small balls. Then crush up the candy canes and roll the brownie balls into the candy canes, completely coating them. Let them cool and then serve!

Candied Orange Peels

To make candied orange peels you need the peels of three large oranges, a cup of water, two table spoons of corn syrup, and 3 cups of sugar. First take your peels and cut them into strips, about a quarter inch wide. Then boil a pot of water with the corn syrup, and sugar until completely dissolved. Simmer the orange peels for forty minutes, then let cool on a cookie sheet, and wait for them to cool. Enjoy!

Choco-Cherry Truffles

Just the word truffle makes me start to drool. Truffles are one of those foods that everyone loves, so you won't go wrong if you decide to try this recipe. Melt the semisweet chocolate in with the milk and salt in a saucepan (watch carefully as it tends to burn). Next, stir in the liquor, cherries, and nuts. Allow this mixture to cool and put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. The next part requires you to scoop out balls of chocolate. Then cover these balls of chocolate with melted white chocolate and sprinkles.

For More Information

If you would like more information about Christmas recipes, other recipes, or cooking tips contact www.cdkitchen.com today to make your kitchen a personal paradise!

Joseph Devine

The discovery of whipping cream is lost in obscurity. The process is easy enough to have been discovered by accident many times in many places. One likely scenario is where someone in a cool climate was making butter, but being in a hurry, whipped the cream rather than churning it. A common folk tale tells of a fast horse ride with a half filled container of cream.

The first well known reference to it was when the French chef, Vatel created a variation with sugar to serve at a reception to honor King Louis the XIV in 1661. The addition of sugar is taken for granted today, but many other flavors have been added over the years, vanilla being the most common. Other popular flavorings include brandies or liqueurs and orange.

Desserts

In the 1930's, British scientists started developing aeration systems for use in the food industry. They soon developed a working system using pressurized N2O (Nitrous Oxide). N2O immerses fully into dairy products such as cream, causing instant whipped cream when the pressure is released. Hand held units suitable for home use were developed as well as larger commercial systems.

After World War II, American companies began manufacturing whipped cream dispensers. Many never developed quality systems and some companies discontinued production. The introduction of disposable, one use cans in the 50's caused the closing of most of those that were left.

The waste from disposable cans has always been considered undesirable, even in the wasteful time period it was developed. The nature of the system always left some cream in the can when the N2O had been used up. The waste of the can itself was hardly an issue at that time. The convenience was considered to far outweigh the disadvantage of waste.

In today's ecologically aware society, many of us are no longer willing to contribute to the waste of disposable cans. There are many quality alternatives available. Making whipped cream at home with a whipped cream dispenser is fun, ecologically safer, and less expensive than disposable pressurized cans.

http://www.creamright.com specializes in quality tools for food and bar. Nitrous Oxide whip cream chargers, whip cream dispensers, glass and metal carbon dioxide siphons and chargers are our main line of kitchen tools.

Candy bouquets make wonderful gifts for all sorts of occasions. Of course you can always order one over the internet. However, to make your gift more special and memorable, you can make one yourself. It's really not that difficult and you'll see that it won't cost as much as the commercial ones. If you are game on making your own candy bouquet gift, here are some basic instructions to help guide you.

PLANNING:

• What is the occasion? - You want the candy arrangement to suit the occasion and also reflect your feelings and thoughts. So, making a birthday candy bouquet will have a different look from a Valentine's candy bouquet. You can use a fun theme for the former and a more romantic theme for the latter. Choose an appropriate theme to guide your design.


• Who is it for? - Consider the recipients favorite candies. There are so many types of candy you can use. Will you be using hard candies, gummies, candy bars, lollipops, chocolates or even retro candies? You may even have to consider sugar-free candies for those that have certain health problems or are following a healthy lifestyle. Don't forget to check if they have any food allergies too.


• All candy bouquet or a floral candy bouquet? - Your bouquet can be made up entirely of candies or you can add some floral touches to it. If you decide to go floral, you can add silk flowers and leaves to your design. Another option is to be a bit crafty and make the candies look like flowers.


• What container are you going to use? - There is no hard and fast rule as to what you must use as a base for your candy bouquet. You can always use a glass vase or a small basket. Some people have used flower pots, coffee mugs and sundae glasses. You can use any container and decorate it to your whim and fancy. The important thing is to make sure your container is heavy enough so your candy bouquet don't topple over. You can weight it down by filling it up with candies.


• How are you going to make your candy bouquet dazzle? - Just poking sticks of candy into a floral foam will not create a big impression. Liven it up with curling ribbons, colored tissue, ribbons, garlands, little mementoes, shredded paper, sparkling tinsel or cellophane wrap.

Candy

Basically, all you need are floral foam, wire, tape, scissors, wire cutters, low-temp hot glue gun with glue sticks and bamboo skewers.

If you are using candy bars, just use the hot glue gun to attach the skewer to the backside of the candy bar. Hold it down for a while to make sure it's secure. Make sure you first wrap the bamboo skewer with floral tape to give it a nicer look. Tie a small bow or curling ribbon to the base of the candy.

If you are using chocolates, you just poke the pointed end of the skewer into the chocolate. Then wrap the skewer with floral tape.

For wrapped hard candies, attach one end of the wrapper to the wire. Wrap wire around the base of each candy. Cover with floral tape.

ARRANGING YOUR CANDY FLOWERS:

When arranging your candy bouquet, you want to achieve a sense of symmetry and balance. How you arrange will also depend on the size of your candy. For example, if you just have lollipop flowers, you could pack them into an oval shape. For different size candies, you can vary the height by snipping the skewers or wires. Let your own creative inspiration be your guide. If you need ideas, you can draw upon basic floral arrangement shapes such as the fan, circular, triangular and vertical arrangement. Don't forget to add fillers or foliage to give your candy bouquet a more pleasant look. One more thing to note is that your candy arrangement should suit the type of container you're using. Once again, balance and symmetry is what you are aiming for.

If you want to make candy bouquets without thinking too hard, get these candy bouquet instruction books that you can download instantly. Step-by-step illustrations that will help you create professional looking candy bouquets even if you've never had any experience before. You might even decide to start a candy bouquet business to earn some extra bucks.