Tea with Mr. and Mrs. Claus

We are really into the Christmas spirit,

and Mr. Claus has arrived to help

get the season going.

Invitations had been sent out, inviting the

little ones to come to tea with Mr. and Mrs.

Claus, with chocolate dipping afterwards, with

the parents.

This would be happening at 

Mrs. Claus's Chocolate Factory.

Sometimes busy parents needs a reminder.

(Both invitations were made easy on Picmonkey.)

Mr. and Mrs. Claus were in the entry ready for 

their little guests.

(Notice my new boots I got last year.)

Everyone got their picture taken with Mr. Claus.

Then they all went into the kitchen to

write a letter to Papa Claus (Grandpa) with

their pens that we got from the Candy Cane Inn

last week at Disneyland.

Some of the letters were sooooo funny. One

darling granddaughter asked for him

to get his hair back for Christmas!!!

Then Papa Claus changed into Chef Claus for

the tea party.

There was an abundance of candy canes

and we showed off our hard to get

Candy Cane from Disneyland.

(Papa thought that standing in line to get

the wristband and then going back later

meant we got a free candy cane!!  Haha,

no, this is a giant handmade candy cane

that they charge $15 for, but we got two

and we were able to

see them making some.)

We used our same table setting from 

Mickey's 90th Birthday Party, 

but now we multiplied it to fit

11, and we swapped out goblets

for cocoa mugs.

The menu included turkey and cheese finger sandwiches,

PB&J finger sandwiches, raspberries, strawberries

and blueberries, meringues and macarons.

My stackable Chiavari chairs are more

slim-lined than my normal chairs,

so the table was able to fit everyone.
Were they excited or what?

After everyone ate, Chef Claus made mini

peppermint shakes that Mrs. Claus had

dipped in chocolate and sprinkles.

The chocolate dipping was a bit chaotic and

extremely messy, but the kids had a lot of fun.

(When in doubt, remove the clothes!)

I normally dip in the large mechanized

chocolate dipping machine, but we had so many

little hands in there, that I went back to the way

I learned to dip, with an electric fry pan, and I

did the serious dipping while they had fun.

My oldest daughter pictured here with

her oldest and youngest usually helps with

the serious dipping, but they were home

trying to get their new home ready for a

final inspection.  Little one sure wanted

to get her hands on some chocolate.

You can see Papa has switched into

another holiday outfit so that he didn't ruin

his Santa outfit.

It was quite the party!

Thanks for stopping by to visit us during

this wonderful Christmas season.

I will be posting with

Tablescapes Thursday

Dishing It and Digging It

Quick and Easy Butter Pecan Fudge

Craving some fudge this season?

This is the easiest fudge!

My sister Jean sent me this recipe a few years

ago and we always whip up a batch for Christmas.

We have been fudge fans since we were little when

we would go to the Wisconsin Dells, and see them

stirring huge batches of fudge in the copper kettles

and then cooling and working the fudge on marble slabs.

Fudge can be tricky though, so it is nice to find an easy

recipe that tastes great.

Butter Pecan Fudge Recipe

1/2 C. real butter (no substitutes)

1/2 C. white sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. heavy whipping cream

1/4 tsp. salt

2 C. powdered sugar

3/4 to 1 C. toasted and chopped pecans

In a medium sized saucepan, bring to boil the first five ingredients.

Wash down the sides with water, using a pastry brush to

dissolve any sugar that is clinging to the sides of the pan.  This

prevents the candy from turning to sugar.

Cook for 4 minutes.  

Take off the heat and pour over 2 C. powdered sugar in 

a medium sized bowl.  Mix with a spoon until creamy,

then stir in the pecans.

Pour into an 8x8 inch pan lined with parchment paper.

If you want thicker fudge, you can pour it into a loaf pan.

Let set up and cut.  Fudge improves with age, but it is

great right away too.

Leave out the pecans and you can have penuche.

We have substituted the brown sugar for more white

sugar and made peppermint fudge.  You could try just

about any flavor.

We made it home safely from Europe and are now 

spending time with our children in Salt Lake for two

nights.  I will finish showing the Christmas Marts to

you.  It was a marvelous adventure and we were blessed

to have weather in the high 40's and 50's each day.  We 

came home to days of snow, and I realized how lucky

we were to have such great weather.

How To Save Streaked Chocolates

It's that time of year again,

when Mrs. Claus gathers the family around

for chocolate dipping.

Despite years and years of dipping experience

(maybe even centuries, since it is Mrs. Claus)

on occasion, some of those would be gorgeous

chocolates develop ugly streaks or spots!  Although

they still taste the same with streaks and spots,

Mrs. Claus isn't about to serve those!!

It just wouldn't do for a beautiful presentation.

Streaking or graying, which can be called bloom, 

can happen right away when the

chocolates are cooling after dipping, or it can happen a day

later.  Generally the chocolate got too hot when melting, or

you didn't let the chocolate cool down enough before dipping.

You have all seen bloom on a bag of chocolate chips.  It doesn't

hurt the flavor just the look.

Of course this year, one batch of lemons developed

unsightly streaks - almost as bad as unsightly cellulite!!

So Santa's Elves came up with a quick and easy solution!

We used Wilton's edible Gold Color Mist to

cover the gray streaks.  Not only does it save them

from being the ugly chocolates in the box, but

it adds a fun flair to the box or dish of candy.

They also have it in silver, pearl and lots of fun colors.  

You could use it just to make your chocolates more elegant.

Raspberry Cream Chocolates

Watch your loved ones' eyes sparkle

as they indulge in these sparkling

Raspberry Cream Chocolates.

These have been Mrs. Claus' favorite

for years.  She loves the tart of the

raspberry with the richness of the dark

chocolate.  You can dip with either

milk or dark chocolate but I prefer

dark with fruit centers.

Raspberry Cream Fondant

1 C. whipping cream

3 T. light corn syrup

3 C. sugar

1/8 tsp salt

Pinch of baking soda

12 oz. frozen raspberries, thawed, pureed and put

through a sieve

1/4 tsp. citric acid

1/3 C. marshmallow cream

In a large heavy saucepan place the cream, corn syrup

sugar, salt and baking soda. Bring to a boil, stirring

constantly.  Wash down the sides of the pan with

water using a pastry brush.  Cook until about 200

degrees then add the pureed and sieved raspberries.

Now it is really important to stir, scraping the bottom

of the pan as any seeds might stick to the bottom and

scorch.  Bring the mixture to 239 degrees.  Be sure

and check to see where your thermometer boils.  It

should boil at 212, but here at our high 

altitude it boils at 200 so I have to subtract 12

degrees.

When it reaches temperature, pour into a 9x13

inch pan.  Don't scrape the pan and place it in

the fridge without moving the pan much.  Let

the pan cool about 15 minutes, then check

the bottom of the pan.  It should just be

slightly warm when you start to stir. 

For some reason, this fondant takes longer

to turn than most.  After you have stirred it

about 20 minutes, just keeping the mass moving,

add the citric acid and the marshmallow cream.

It will eventually turn from stringy to like

a stiff frosting.  This time I gave up after

over an hour of stirring and left it in the

pan overnight and it had turned into the

frosting like mass in the morning.  

Form into patties, using a little flour on hands

and pan if needed to keep it from sticking.

Dip in tempered chocolate.  To learn how click here.

Decorate as desired.

We used edible sparkle dust.  

These need a few days to ripen, or for the 

centers to soften.  They will keep several weeks

or you can refrigerate them.

You do know that women need chocolate 

once a day don't you?!!  These fit the bill.

I have to tell you that I always refer to 

myself as Mrs. Claus and I bought a cute

hoodie this year that looks like a Mrs. Claus

and this weekend I called myself Mrs. Claus

and my 4 1/2 year old granddaughter said, "You

are not Mrs. Claus, Grandma, that's just a

costume!"  We all had a good laugh over that.

I will be posting these with 

Foodie Friday

Key Lime Chocolates

Nummmmmm....

chocolate paired with creamy Key Lime -

what a perfect flavor combination for 

chocolates.  There is just something

about tart lime and chocolate!

Mrs. Claus included these on the menu

last year and this year at her chocolate

dipping factory.

(By the way, I have to thank Linda at

Life and Linda

for surprising me with that sassy

Mrs. Claus picture on my header.  What a

fun surprise to open my blog and see that!!)

This is one of our favorites

Key Lime Chocolates.

They are fashioned after

one of our favorites at

Condies, where I

had the chance to go and dip

a couple of years ago.  See that post here.

These I shaped into more of a flat 

patty and then decorated with some

chocolate jimmies and Christmas candy

toppers.

Mrs. Claus has been dipping chocolates

here at Purple Chocolat Home for 34

years now!!!  Wow, that's a lot of ten pound

blocks of chocolate that we have gone through.

Click here to learn how to melt, temper and dip

chocolates.

Key Lime Centers

1 1/3 C. water

1/3 C. light Karo syrup

1/4 C. butter

4 C. sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 C. marshmallow cream

1/4 tsp. citric acid

Green food color

6 drops lime oil

4 drops lemon oil

In a heavy 4-5 quart saucepan place the

water, Karo, butter, sugar, cream of tartar

 and salt.  Place over high heat and bring to a

boil stirring constantly.  When the syrup reaches

a boil, wash down the sides of the pan with wet

pastry brush.  You want to make sure there are

no undissolved sugar crystals left on the side

of the pan or the mixture will crystalize and

be grainy rather than smooth.

While the mixture boils, bring a small

saucepan half full of water to a rolling

boil and test your candy thermometer.

Your altitude can affect the temperature

that water boils at.  Water should boil

at 212 and here in the mountain west

mine boils at 200 so I have to subtract

12 degrees off any recipe.

Boil to 239 degrees and then pour into

a 9x13 inch pan without stirring or

scraping out the pan.  Without moving

the pan too much place it in the fridge

for about 15-20 minutes or until the

bottom of the pan is just barely warm.

Begin stirring with a wooden spoon, just

making sure to move it around.  After about

10 minutes of stirring, stir in the marshmallow

cream and citric acid.

It will

take between 20-40 minutes of stirring

until the mixture thickens and becomes

like a thick frosting.  When it becomes 

thick, knead in the food coloring and 

flavoring oils.  

Form into patties and place on a 

parchment covered cookie sheet.  

Prepare your chocolate for dipping

and then dip the centers.  Top with 

jimmies and decorating sprinkles

when the chocolate is still wet.

These will keep for several weeks.

You can also cover them tightly 

and refrigerate.

They ripen or get creamier with time.

We always make a variety of

chocolates.  I like to make the centers the day

before and then dip and dip and dip!

We dipped a few really

quickly as my missionary son, Chase

asked for the Almond Rum Balls

and since they were going to Korea,

we had to get going.  The little ones stopped

by after school.  This is little Jacquelyn

who has grown up so much.

The smell of melted chocolate fills

the house - fantastic!

Yum, bet these won't last long

around here!

Thanks for sharing in all of the

Christmas joy and fun at 

Purple Chocolat Home.

I will be posting these with

Foodie Friday

It's A Chocolate Festival - Dipping Chocolates

Here at Purple Chocolat Home 

we have been busy little elves

dipping, dipping, dipping

(and quite a bit of tasting, tasting, tasting too!!)

This year Mrs. Claus insisted that if 

you were going to walk away with a box

of chocolates, you had to help by making

some centers, so we ended up with

quite a few centers.

My sister in law from Seattle

even flew in for the fun.

After several days of creating centers

we began to dip and in an 8 hour

period we dipped over 1200+ chocolates!

Today I am going to share with you 

the recipe for this new creation of mine

Lemon Dreams.

Light, luscious and creamy, these

have the perfect amount of lemon.

I topped them with white edible glitter

(rainbow disco dust)

and an edible pearl.

These are super, super

easy to make.  No one would

guess they could be this easy.

Lemon Dream Centers

1 C. butter softened

1 jar lemon curd (I used Trader Joe's but I

also like Richardsons)

4 C. Powdered sugar

Dipping Chocolate

Edible pearls (optional)

Disco Dust (optional)

In mixing bowl, place all of the above

ingredients and mix with the whip until

fluffy and well blended.  

Place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate

overnight or for several days.  This makes

the center a little stiffer so you can work with

it.  

Dust hands with a light coating of flour and

spoon about a teaspoonful of the centers into

your palm.  Roll into a ball.  Place on a baking

sheet that has been dusted with a light coating 

of flour so the centers won't stick.  

Cover with plastic wrap and place the pan

in the refrigerator overnight.

Melt your chocolate and then temper it

by stirring gently but constantly until it

reaches about 90 degrees.  Use an instant

read thermometer to test that.  The chocolate

should harden within 1 minute after being 

dipped or you will end up with steaks.

Remove the centers from the fridge and dip

in the cooled chocolate.  Top with a pearl

while still wet and dust with the disco dust.

(You can also use molding chocolate -

it is easier to use and a lot of it is 

really good now.)

I will share more with you later,

but right now I have to run off to prepare for 

another Christmas party!