Christmas Nieghbor Plates

Here are my Christmas neighbor plates I made this year. The candy I make every year, it just reminds me of Christmas. My mom made them every year for Christmas and now I'm making it a Christmas tradition with my own kids. The reindeer cookies are new and were super cute! Just a little heads up I got really busy while making these and I forgot to take as many pictures.

We'll start with the peanut balls. You melt some butter or margarine. I'm a margarine girl personally.

 Add a little peanut butter.

 Some powder sugar and blend it all together.

 Once it's all together you roll them into small balls. The smaller the easier to eat.

 My army of peanut butter balls. Put the peanut butter balls in the fridge for an hour so they're easier to dip.

 Melt some chocolate and dip the chilled peanut butter balls in.

Here they are! My husband is a huge fan of peanut butter and loves these. I added a little white chocolate on top by melting some white chocolate in a sandwich bag and then snipping the corner of the bag and squeezing it on top.

Next I started on my almond joys, these are my favorite because they're fantastic. Start with some coconut.

Make some instant mashed potatoes, add some powder sugar and some almond extract then mix them all together. Form balls (this part for me is always sticky and messy so be prepared) and put an almond on each one. Let them sit for an hour then dip them in chocolate. I only ate a few and was disappointed I didn't have very many left over. I'm tempted to make more.

For the reindeer cookies I started off with dipping the pretzels in chocolate. This was hard for me since I wanted to have wholes in the tops, these are the reindeer's antlers so they had to look nice. Once I had what I thought was enough of them I started on the cookies.
I made some peanut butter ones but you could do ginger bread as well. Once they were cooked I put the face and antlers on. For the nose I used red hots that I bought in the bulk section of WINCO and some mini chocolate chips. You're welcome to use anything that would work. I found it easier to put everything on while the cookies were still on the cookie sheet. They cooled too quickly on the rack and things didn't stick as nicely.

 

I hope you have a great holiday and that they recipes inspire you to get out there and bake!

Almond Joy Candy

3/4 cup mashed potatoes
4 cups coconut (unsweetened)

4 1/2 cups powder sugar

1 teaspoon almond flavoring

Let stand one hour in covered bowl. Make into balls and dip in chocolate. Put whole almost on top.

Peanut Butter Balls
2 cups powder sugar
1 1/2 cups peanut butter

3 tablespoons melted butter

Mix together and make into balls and chill for an hour. Dip in chocolate.