Chocolate for the Holidays

It's time to start that Christmas and Holiday baking. It can be so much work and it doesn't make sense to use bad or fake chocolate when making all your goodies.

Take a step up and pick really good ingredients. Use real butter, fresh nuts, high quality chocolate....don't use margarine or those "chocolate" melts. I guess my best suggestion is to READ ALL THE LABELS. If you can't pronounce it ..don't eat it or feed it to your family.

Learn how to temper chocolate...don't add wax or parrafin to your candy. Check out this one of many websites: http://candy.about.com/od/candybasics/ht/temperchoc.htm for the how to..

Instead of bagged Chocolate Chips, chop up a bar of really good chocolate. My latest venture is making meringue drops dipped in Dark Dove Chocolate. They are awesome.

Here is the recipe:

4 Egg Whites
1/4 Tsp Cider Vinegar
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 tsp White Vanilla
1/3 Cup Holiday Sprinkles

Whip egg whites to stiff peaks, add Vinegar, Salt and Vanilla
Fold in 2 Tbsps. Sprinkles

Put into a large pastry bag with large star tip and pipe onto parchment lined sheets
Sprinkle remaining Holiday Sprinkles onto piped cookies

Bake at 250 degrees for 40 minutes, turn off oven and let sit in oven with door closed for 2 hours to dry out meringue (hint if you only have one over, place a cooling rack over the pan on the bottom shelf and place another sheet on the rack, this gives you more options)Melt 8 oz Dove Chocolate Baking Bits (the Mint is awesome)in the microwave. Be careful not to overheat (30 seconds at a time is the way to go)(You can also melt Dark, Milk or White Chocolate bars as the dipping chocolate)

Dip bottom of each meringue into the melted chocolate and place on parchment paper sheets to set. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to completely set chocolate.

Keep in a cool dry place in an air tight container.

Variations: Substitute Peppermint Flavoring for the Vanilla, use Green Sprinkles
Use Coconut Flavoring or any flavoring of your choice. All gives a special taste.

You can also fold in crushed pecans and spoon onto the sheets. May clog up the pastry bag if you add nuts to the batter.

These make about 4 to 5 dozen cookies

ENJOY and Happy Thanksgiving