A Mouthful of Almonds

Yikes!  You know it has been a while when you go to your own blog page and they ask you to log in…

It seems like the busy spells are getting more and more frequent these days.  Where have I been and what have I been doing? I ask myself that everyday before bed.  If I have been ignoring you, please don’t be offended; I have been ignoring everyone.  While I haven’t been blogging, I have still been baking and eating and studying and working and complaining that I am not involved enough in Hanukkah celebrations and then burning the menorah to ash when I am finally included.  We’ve decided it’s best for me to tackle Judaism using baby steps…

I have been slowly easing my way into the magical world of Photoshop. And seriously, it is like magic.  I was also off to a slow start with gift-giving, which was depressing for a while because my favourite thing about the holidays is giving gifts.  Knowing I picked out a great gift makes my fingers and toes curl in excitement.  I am on track now.  My family is also annoyed that I refused to put forth a Christmas list this year.  I am pretty content with everything I have already…’cept if it is a bigger kitchen.  I was on a serious path to Debbie Downsville this season but I am turning it around!! I am not even going to share my opinion on the end of the world.

If you are stressed or having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit or have an impromptu Christmas party you need to go to and need a quick baking idea look no further.  2 ingredients. 2 minutes of hands-on time. 2 delish.

You need:

1) Roasted Salted Almonds. You could salt and roast the almonds yourself (Great tutorial here.) but for the two minute version you can let Bulk Barn’s magical Christmas elves do all that for you.

2) Good quality chocolate melting wafers (we use dark and white Belgium chocolate wafers)

{3} A hose for when you manage to get chocolate in your hair up you nose and parts of your body that were covered by clothes

A good ratio of almonds to chocolate is 1:2, i.e. if you have 1 cup of almonds mix with 2 cups of chocolate

Melt the chocolate in a microwave-proof bowl in intervals of 1 minute, stirring after each minute.  Keep an eye on the chocolate after around 3 minutes, you may want to move to 20 second intervals to avoid burning the chocolate. You do not want to burn the chocolate.  Place your almonds in a large mixing bowl.  Add chocolate to almonds and mix well until all of the almonds are coated.  Spread almonds onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  If you wanted to add fun decorations like sprinkles or crushed candy canes, do so now.  Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.  Remove bark from freezer and break into pieces.  Try to pawn that step off to someone else, it can sometimes hurt.

Hopefully this simply recipe primes your holiday baking spirit.  It is simple, quick and should leave you with a Christmas aftertaste!

Best,

Red