a Holiday Baking Disaster & a Plan B

Yesterday I did a little Holiday Baking for my Neighbors.

 A While back I found these cookies on Pinterest from here.  They looked so cute and festive and way easy. So I decided that was what I would make for my neighbors this year.

And then Jake was having some major cravings for Chocolate Popcorn, so I had planned to whip some of that up too.

I went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients.  And I was looking forward to a fun day of baking.

I even found me a little helper

Seriously, what little boy wouldn’t enjoy hammering some Candy Canes.

 He took his job very serious.

(when making these, remember to double bag your candy canes, then wrap a towel around the bags).

Then they should look pretty like this.

You can melt your chocolate in the microwave or a double boiler. But this is what I do; Put a small amount of water in a saucepan, and bring it to a low boil.  Put the chocolate in a metal bowl and lay it on top of the saucepan. 

Stirring constantly.

So far so good….And then it’s time to dip in the Oreo cookies.  (By the way I have always had difficulties when I’ve tried to dip anything into chocolate).

So they ended up looking like this.

 Ba Ha Ha!  What a Freak’n Hot Mess! 

 First the cookies kept breaking.  Then they just weren’t covering right.  I tried spoons, forks, tongs…Nothing was helping. 

I like to compare mine to the picture on Pinterest. I’m guessing she has a few secrets she wasn’t sharing.

So I gave up on the cookies and moved on to the chocolate popcorn.

Which I burned the first bag, forgot to listen to the pops. I’m pretty sure at this point I was busy licking the chocolate spoon.

Anyway,  I made more popcorn, melted some dark chocolate, mixed it all together, then tasted it.

Ewww!  Looked at the package.  UNSWEETENED!

Googled what to do when you have accidentally bought unsweetened chocolate.  You would think add sugar, right,? Nope,  milk!

So I added some milk,  But that only made it into a thick frosting like mixture.

Tossed it!

And then we come to Plan B

Mix all remaining ingredients together!

Success!

So the final recipe goes like this:

White and Dark Chocolate Covered Popcorn with Oreos

Pop 2 bags of microwave popcorn,  Place in a large bowl.

Crush up 6 Oreo cookies, add to popcorn.

Melt 1 package of dark chocolate chips (Sweetened), Pour over popcorn.

Lay out on to Wax paper.

Now pop another 2 bags of popcorn, Place in a large bowl.

Crush up 6 Oreo cookies, add to popcorn.

Melt 1 Package of White Chocolate chips, Pour over Popcorn.

Lay out onto Wax Paper.

now Mix both white and dark popcorn together.

Eat/Share/Enjoy!

This is a no fail recipe,  I am not holding out any special tips or secrets on you.

Time to package!

I found these cute Popcorn bags at the dollar store.

I filled the bags half way full with the popcorn.

Then folded over the tops of the bags and hole punched.

Tied up with string, a tag and on some I added my homemade cardboard flowers.

I made the flowers out of paper towel rolls and blogged about it here in my last post about gift wrapping.

 I spray painted these ones silver.

 I came across the tags last year.  They are just a free printable you can find here. There are a few other cute ones too.

I was happy with the way they all turned out.

 And it was also so good to get out of the house to deliver them. 

After being cooped up for hours, totally Chocolate Waisted!  Seriously,  I may not eat anymore chocolate until valentines day.

And Then……

After all that,  I was on Pinterest last night and found this:

My blessed life used Almond bark instead of chocolate,  and has a few helpful tips.

I just may need to give them another shot.

I’m sure this will be my last post before Christmas.

So I want to wish you all and your families a

Very Merry Christmas!

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6 Comments

  1. Bronwyn
    December 22, 2011 / 7:45 pm

    I am so glad you blogged about this. This is "Reality Blogging" at its best and more of us need to do it! I bet your neighbours loved their gifts – and you had a funny story to go with them!

  2. Ange
    December 22, 2011 / 8:49 pm

    Emily, I made the oreo truffles that were dipped in white chocolate and mine looked like your dipped cookies, horrible. Then I too learned that it was almond bark not white chocolate chips. We ate the ugly ones and they tasted good, just didn't look so good. Happy Baking to you if you try again, it really is MUCH better with almond bark as I just tried the truffles again last week. Merry Christmas!

  3. PCovi
    December 23, 2011 / 12:11 am

    Bless your heart! That was a fun read 🙂
    Now of course I have a sweet tooth!

  4. Suzanne@Meridian Road
    December 23, 2011 / 5:36 pm

    Good recovery! The popcorn sounds awesome, and the bags are adorable! Have a Merry Christmas, Emily!

  5. Sunny Simple Life
    January 3, 2012 / 3:01 pm

    This little popcorn bags are just darling. Bummer about the cookies because it costs so much to make baked goods. Melted chocolate can be hard to work with I know from experience.

  6. Chris
    January 3, 2012 / 6:48 pm

    Hi Emily, thanks so much for the chuckle. I know how it feels when a recipe doesn't turn out exactly as you expect, but as the old saying goes, when life hands you lemons you make lemonade and that's just what you did and just look at the pretty end result. I bet your neighbours and friends didn't even guess that you had a hard time. Live and learn, eh? Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
    chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.com/