Homemade for Christmas

Homemade peanut brittle in a cheery cellophane bag.

Christmas cookies take a lot of time and don’t mail well. Here are some ideas for easy Christmas candies that are relatively inexpensive, and you can ship. Some candy is expensive, time consuming, and tricky. These recipes can be whipped together in about a half hour. Included are my estimations of costs, and even some additional tips to make them more inexpensive and to present them beautifully.

Homemade Rockyroad candy in a clam shell - Cost to make $1.50

Rocky Road Fudge

2 pkgs of chocolate chips, (12 oz)  (I have used chocolate flavored chips from the Dollar Store and  it tastes almost as good)

1 recipe sweetened condensed milk (see below) or one can of sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups  mini-marshmallows

2 cups peanuts (buy these at the Dollar store too) dry-roasted works well, salted or unsalted are okay.

Watching carefully, melt chocolate and milk in a large glass bowl in the microwave for about 90 sec. Don’t wait for it all to melt, as soon as it starts melting, take it out and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon, adding vanilla.  It shouldn’t be really hot, because that will melt the marshmallows, just all melted together and smooth. If it’s not melted, put it back in, but watch it closely.

Then add marshmallows and nuts, folding them in. You don’t want the marshmallows to melt.

Put the whole mixture in a 9 inch buttered pan, depending on how big you want the pieces to be. Cool in fridge for 2 hours, then cut into the size you want. Using the homemade condensed milk, I can make a batch of this fudge for about $4.50.

To make your own sweetened condensed milk:

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK:

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