Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Holiday recipes, 1 by hart

hart wrote:
Oh, good, someone posted this recipe online so I don't have to type all this in and I can include the picture. They are much cuter than the picture.

These are sooo cute and everyone loves them, both for the cuteness and the taste. Great little project for kids too.

You can place them on any already prepared cookie that's flat. I get round sugar cookies (you can use the refrigerated shaped cookies) and just cut them into quarters to make "cheese slices" to place the mice on.

I've made them with both white and regular chocolate. They're much cuter in the white, the details show up better.

The photo isn't the same as in my cookbook. You leave the stem on the maraschino cherries to make the tail. And I use an unmelted chocolate chip to make the face, much cuter because it really look like a mouse, with a dot of red frosting for the nose.

Walmart brand white chocolate chips are less than a dollar a bag - about half the price of Nestles.

One tip - work to get the chip nose and ears on quickly before the chocolate sets too much to work with.

CHRISTMAS MICE

Prep time: 30 minutes Makes 15

These whimsical critters can be placed atop cookies or served individually. They look especially cute when placed on wedges of shortbread. The recipe is from "Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook" (Wiley Publishing, $25.95, 352 pages).

Ingredients

15 maraschino cherries with stems

1 cup white vanilla baking chips or chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

30 sliced almonds

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Red food coloring

Instructions

Drain cherries and rinse them gently with water. Dry them thoroughly with paper towels. Reserve 15 vanilla chips to use as faces. (It's a good idea to reserve a few extras in case of mistakes.) Melt the remaining chips in the top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Hold one cherry by the stem and dip it into the melted chips, covering the cherry completely. Immediately place the cherry on a piece of waxed paper or a cookie, with the stem standing up. (The stem will be the mouse's tail.) Repeat with the remaining cherries.

Just as the white chocolate begins to set, press two sliced almonds against the front of each cherry to form mouse ears.

Using the remaining melted chips as glue, use a toothpick to spread melted chocolate on the flat base of each reserved chip and attach the chips to the base of the almonds to form the mouse heads. Chill the mice until the chocolate is firm.

Add one drop of red food color to the powdered sugar and blend it well. Add more powdered sugar or drops of water if necessary to form a frosting consistency. Use a toothpick to add a dab of red frosting to the tip of each mouse nose. Chill until set.

Per mouse: 88 cal.; 1 g pro.; 11 g carb.; 5 g fat (2 sat., 2 monounsat., 1 polyunsat.); 2 mg chol.; 10 mg sod.; 0 g fiber; 10 g sugar; 49 percent calories from fat.



This message was edited Dec 16, 2006 10:26 PM