The Cookie List 2012

Remember The Cookie List?  And all my grandiose plans?  Here's what actually happened! 

First, a few people did get mugs along with the treats.  (See yesterday's post.)  My aunties got something special (yet to appear on this blog).  For everyone else, I stuck with pretty much the same recipes as last year.  No mini loaves of bread, biscotti, candles, or barks.  I had two baking days - although all of the projects are no-bake, so I'm not sure what the correct term would be. 

Day One was popcorns.  I made white chocolate popcorn and S'mores popcorn.  (I made the same changes to the recipes I did last year.)  Gosh the apartment smelled heavenly.  I let everything with melted chocolate set up in the fridge, and for days afterwards, anytime someone opened the fridge, the apartment was filled with the delicious smell of chocolate.  Anyway, I gathered my supplies:

ALDI popcorn (cheapest by far), marshmallows, M&Ms, pretzels, LOTS and LOTS of chocolate chips, lappy for instructions, and water!

I found it most expedient to empty the freshly popped bag into one bowl, then sort it into another.  That way, I had fewer unpopped kernels in the final product.  (And I could eat any piece that might be slightly burned.  Okay, I could eat lots of pieces that probably weren't burned at all.)

I made three batches of each recipe, washing the dishes in between.  

Two batches of white chocolate popcorn setting up in the fridge.  I couldn't free up four shelves (two pans a batch), so I improvised with some yogurt containers.  :)

S'mores popcorn setting up.

Once the chocolate was hardened, I broke the popcorn up and put it in bowls.  Once I started wrapping, though, I discovered I didn't have enough cellophane!  It was a few days before I got more, so I ended up filling up big pots and containers to keep in the fridge.

It's so pretty!

Now the wrapping process.  A square of cellophane, and dump some popcorn in the middle:

Grab all four corners:

Squinch*:

Tie off:  (I double knotted the ribbon to keep it tight)

And curl:

Blue ribbon for S'mores popcorn, and red for white chocolate.

Day Two was Truffle Day!  I made 149 truffles, which was far more than I needed, but then we got to eat some!  I made chocolate chip cookie dough truffles and cake batter truffles.

Cookie dough and cake batter balls waiting to be coated in chocolate.

I tried to keep things as neat and efficient as possible.  Once truffles were hardened, I put them in a container to save space.

I'm really proud of the way I decorated the cookie dough truffles.  I used the same chocolate, and drizzled it over with a fork.  It looks so cool!

These got wrapped up the same way as the popcorns, but before I curled the ribbon, I tied on a tag and an ornament:

 I bagged them up for friends on the Cookie List.  Everyone got at least one popcorn and one bag of truffles,  and more depending on their family size.  I got lots of raving reviews on everything.  And funny thing, though I remember feeling like the popcorns were kind of a filler thing last year, I loved them this year.  Maybe it was just because I had them around longer while I waited for cellophane, but I found myself eating lots of them!  They're really good!

Love and Sprinkles,

Leah Joy

*Technical term.