Leftover Candy Canes?



 

I needed a cupcake to bring to a family gathering over the Christmas holidays and didn't want to do something expected like vanilla or chocolate. I love the combination of mint and chocolate together and also knew that I had an entire box of candy canes that I would like to incorporate somehow. So when I came across this recipe for Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes, I knew that I had to make them.

They are a wonderful chocolate-mocha cupcake topped with a smooth peppermint buttercream, drizzled with dark chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.

I made mini's because I would have more to share that way. They were a perfect end to a delicious pot luck meal! 

 

Croissants

Hot out of the oven! Flaky, buttery pastry perfect for a Sunday morning. These croissants took me 3 days to make. Yep, 3 days. They weren't difficult or really time consuming but they needed so many rests periods and overnight trips to the fridge that to eat them on a Sunday I needed to make the dough on a Friday.

At the end of all my folding, rolling and resting there were so many layers of dough that when baked they puffed up and had the perfect duo of a slightly crisp outside and a moist and light, soft and airy inside. 

 

 

 

 

Who doesn't like more bacon?

So I had Candied bacon in my fridge like a regular person and I wanted to find something else to do with it besides eat it all myself. I contemplated that. A lot. BUT I decided to do the right thing and share it with others so I found a recipe for Maple Bacon Cupcakes. A vanilla cupcake with diced bacon in the batter, covered in a smooth maple buttercream and topped with some shards of more bacon. This is what I have been missing in my life. They were delicious! I used homemade maple syrup in the butter cream which only took it higher on the yummy scale.

 

I took a dozen of these to work to share with my co-workers and they all got eaten up!

 

 

 

 

So this just happened...

While out doing the usual weekly grocery shop I came across a bacon sale. I find it hard to resist any type of sale, let alone a bacon sale. Obviously I had to partake. So I picked up two packs, one regular bacon with plans to eat with Sunday morning breakfast and one pack of a thicker cut, smoked bacon.

Now what could I do with the smoke bacon? I made bacon jam last month as part of my hubby's Christmas gifts, I've made bacon wrapped water chestnuts and already know I enjoy them. I knew I enjoyed the salty and sweet combination. I love peanut butter, I love chocolate covered pretzels, I figured I should try sugary bacon. What could go wrong? So I searched for a 'candied bacon' recipe and gave it a try.
The bacon came out with a wonderfully crisp caramel flavour. It was delicious. I couldn't help but snack on it. I was thinking about what else I could do with it when my eyes fell upon the bag a bag of chocolate chips. Why not? I melted the chocolate and after cutting the bacon slices in half, I dipped each piece half way into the chocolate and let it rest on wax paper to harden. Amazing. I would have never thought that chocolate covered bacon was going to be a hit, but please go try it because you will not regret it!