CrockPot Chocolate Frito Candy Recipe

Day 158.

We went on a road trip over the weekend, and road trips mean Fritos. When we were first diagnosed with celiac, we were pleased to discover that good ol' Fritos were gluten free. It's so nice to know that they are THERE---at every gas station, and in every vending machine.

When we returned home, I still had half a bag left, and they were awfully squished after being in the backseat for 2 days. The best thing to do with crushed Fritos? Make candy! I saw this recipe posted on the Cookie Madness site, and knew we had to make it. We just had to.

The Ingredients.

--1 stick of butter

--12 oz bag of chocolate chips

--2 T peanut butter (optional if you have allergies)

--1/2 cup brown sugar

--1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional--we used honey roasted because that's what we had)

--2 cups Fritos

--2 cups Pretzels (I used Glutino)

The Directions.

Put the Fritos and the pretzels in a large Ziploc and smash until crumby. Set aside.

Line a 9 x 13 or so cookie sheet with Release foil or parchment paper. Set that aside, too.

Put the butter, the brown sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate chips into your crockpot and set on high for 1-2 hours or until everything is really melty and you can mix it well.

It took 1 hour, 15 minutes to melt nicely for me in a 6qt Smart Pot.

Stir in your pretzel and Frito pieces. Anna at Cookie Madness did it differently. You can read what she does, here.

Using oven mits (use them! The crock is hot!) dump the hot candy out onto your lined cookie sheet and spread out with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle the peanut pieces on top.

Put the pan in the refrigerator for about an hour, or until candy has set completely. Break into pieces.

The Verdict.

Woah, mama! Man, these are amazing and wonderful and so scary in that they are SO good you want to take them all into a corner of the garage and eat them all by yourself.

Amazing. You must make them.

Thank you, Anna!

CrockPot Peanut (Not Brittle) Candy

Day 237.

I made some really good candy the other day, with all of the ingredients you would use to make peanut brittle. But the crockpot doesn't really get hot enough to make peanut brittle, so you get this awesome chewy fudgey peanut wonderfulness which is an awful lot like a Payday candy bar.

The Ingredients.

There's a lot of sugar here. Because it's CANDY.

--3 cups of sugar (Baker's sugar has finer granules and will dissolve well)
--1 cup light corn syrup
--4 cups of your favorite nuts (I used 3 cups dry roasted lightly salted peanuts and 1 cup raw almonds. because I care about health.)
--4 Tbl butter
--2 tsp vanilla extract
--2 tsp baking soda

--parchment paper or Release foil

The Directions.

I used my 6 quart Smart Set crockpot for this. I like the Smart Set because I can set it for 30 minute intervals and it will beep for me when the 30 minutes is done. And I seem to need the beeps, because I tend to wander off if I find something shiny.

Drop the 4 tablespoons of butter into your crockpot. Add the sugar and the corn syrup on top of the butter. Pour in the vanilla.

Cover your crockpot and turn to high for one hour.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or release foil.

After an hour, stir well to mix everything around. Add the baking soda. It will sizzle and make fun noises.
Your sugar mixture will be kind of milky-yellow and the sugar might still look granulated.

Cover again and cook on high for another 30 minutes. Check and stir in nuts.
Cover and cook again for another 15-30 minutes, or until the sugar mixture is brown and looks the color of peanut brittle. Or a payday candy bar.

Stir in your nuts.

Then, USING OVEN MITTS, carefully (CAREFULLY! seriously---use the oven mitts) pour half of the pot onto each cookie sheet and spread out with a spatula.
It will be lumpy.
that's because there are nuts.

Let cool at room temperature for about an hour, then tear into pieces.

Prepare to be amazed.

The Verdict.

This makes about 3 pounds of candy. Everyone who tried it (10 of us, minus my cousin who for some reason doesn't care for nuts) couldn't get enough. It's quite tasty.

I'd like to make it again, but melt semi-sweet or dark chocolate in the mini 1.5 quart crock to pour out and then layer the candied nuts on top. mmm.

Little Dipper CrockPot Chocolate Fondue

Day 298.

It's Friday Fondue Fun Day! You can not not have fun while dipping stuff in chocolate. If you don't have fun dipping stuff in chocolate there is something wrong with you.

Go seek help.

I'll wait.

I needed a basic chocolate fondue recipe that was tried-and-true and perfect. So I turned to the mecca: Simply Recipes. I found exactly what I was looking for. Elise rocks. Garrett from Vanilla Garlic is who actually posted this for her, but I still stand by her rockingness.

The Ingredients.

--1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, dark, milk, or white. Your choice.)
--1/2 cup heavy cream
--1 tsp vanilla

optional
you can doctor this up with:
--1 T Grand Marnier
--1 T rum
--1 T Peppermint Schnapps
--1 T Bailey's Irish Cream
--1 tsp peppermint, orange, coconut, etc. extract
--pinch of espresso powder

The Directions.

The proportions here fit into a Little Dipper. Although the booklet that comes with the Little Dipper says that it only holds 1 cup of contents, I proved this wrong with my earth-shattering discovery that a whole can of Progresso Clam Chowder fits perfectly.

If you do not have a Little Dipper (psst. the holidays are coming...) you can put an oven-safe dish inside of a larger crockpot. Do not add water. There's no need to create a water bath for melting chocolate in the crockpot. It melts nice and slow. Or! you can quintuple the recipe and have a good ol' time.

Put chocolate chips in the crockpot. Add the heavy cream and teaspoon of vanilla. Cover. Plug in and cook on low (or the ON setting for the LD) for about an hour. Stir.

Serve with apple chunks, banana slices, cubes of pound cake, strawberries, or marshmallows. Or all of them and invite me over.

The Verdict.

Simple and easy and wonderful and amazing.

The kids liked the marshmallows the best, surprise, surprise.

Fondue Friday is becoming a favorite in our house (even though I really do it on Thursday, but whatever. The things I do for you people...) :-D

Making Fudge in the CrockPot

Day 339.

You can't make fudge in a crockpot. I've tried. Twice.

It just doesn't work.

I'm pretty disappointed.

When I started this year, I took it for granted that I'd be able to make fudge (a few different kinds!) in the crockpot. I even dreamt about it (I'm thinking this sounds weird, but I dream and day dream a lot---so it's really not weird if you know me. Eh. I guess maybe it is a bit weird. Whatever.)

We make fudge every year in our house, and it always works----but that's because Adam does it and he follows the directions and uses a candy thermometer. I hate following directions. But I also am quite bummed about this soupy fudge that I just fed to the garbage disposal.

Again.

Out of the 13 flops I've had this year, this one is the toughest for me. I really wanted this to work.

sigh.

I did find a totally awesome fudge recipe board, however: Skaarup Fudge.

Here's the Maple Ginger Fudge I was hoping would work:

--4 cups sugar (Baker's Sugar is great because the fine granules melt easily)
--1/2 cup butter
--3/4 cup maple syrup
--1 cup milk
--1 cup mini marshmallows
--1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
--1 tsp vanilla extract
--1/4 tsp ground ginger

Instead of cooking this in the crockpot, cook it on the stove. Stir it around until it forms threads and reaches whatever temperature fudge is supposed to reach that evidently can't be reached in the crockpot.

Pour it into a prepared 9 x 9 pan (line your pan with parchment paper or Release foil. Pam doesn't seem to work well enough on fudge.)

Let it sit on the counter for about an hour to cool, then cool completely in the refgrigerator before cutting into 1-inch cubes.

The chocolate fudge recipe we always use is on the back of the jar of marshmallow fluff.

The Verdict.

I am so impressed with my kids. They've really put up with a lot this year, and have had a great sense of humor about the whole thing. They kept checking on the fudge not setting in the refrigerator, and reset the microwave timer a bunch of times so they could keep tabs. My seven-year-old told me, "the cooking science just didn't work, mom," and my four-year-old simply asked for a spoon. The reason the above picture is streaky is because we ate a bunch of the marshmallow that floated to the top.

My fingers are crossed that this is the last flop for the year.

other candy and fun snacks that DO work:
rice krispie treats
rocky road candy
peanut not-brittle candy
cracker jacks
nuts and bolts snack mix
chex mix

CrockPot Peanut Clusters

Day 356.

11 days to go until 2009. I'm going to cry.

Today is the first day of Hanukkah, and there are only a few days left until Christmas. If you're entertaining for the holidays, or need any last-minute hostess gifts, these peanut clusters rock. And they make A LOT. You could easily feed the entire neighborhood on one batch, or make yourself very, very sick.

I, um, have eaten too many. Much too many. It's Susan and Amie's fault. I had to change Susan's original recipe because I live in one of the few places in the world without a Walmart, and couldn't find Chocolate Bark. Nor did any of our grocery stores know what chocolate bark is/was. So I improvised, and am quite pleased with the results. My waistband, not so much...

The Ingredients.

3 (16-ounce) jars lightly salted roasted peanuts (lightly salted is important!)
2 (4-ounce) boxes German Baker's Chocolate
1 (8-ounce) box Unsweetened Baker's Chocolate (there are 2 in the picture. that was wrong.)
1 (24-ounce) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla (not pictured because I didn't know I wanted/needed it until after the photo)


The Directions.

Use a large crockpot. This makes about 150 peanut clusters. Spray the inside of your crock with cooking spray, and place the unwrapped baking chocolate, and bars of German chocolate in the bottom. Add all the peanuts. Pour in the chocolate chips, and add vanilla. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours, or high for about 1.5. While the chocolate is melting, lay out a bunch of parchment paper on your counter top or kitchen table. When time has elapsed, stir well, and remove from heat. Use a small ice-cream scoop to plop out bite-sized piles onto the parchment paper.

Let cool before eating---this takes a long time---hours. It'd be best to leave them overnight so you don't pick at them. Unless you have much more will power than I do, then I suppose it would be okay. But I sort of hate you.

Package up and give away as soon as possible.

The Verdict.

These are addictive. The chocolate flavor is quite rich, and tastes dark. If you aren't a fan of dark chocolate, use milk chocolate chips. The salt flavor from the nuts is subtle, but is there, and it makes your tongue itch for more.

and more.

Thank you again to Susan and Amie! Make sure to check out Amie's play-by-play peanut-cluster making video.


I was thinking about nut-allergies during the night. I think you should turn these into pretzel clusters. Definitely.

Reader Favorites

I wanted to put together a favorites page for a while, but couldn't figure out how to properly gauge what were "true" reader favorites. Until I remembered Facebook.

doy.

The following recipes have the most "likes"--- which has got to mean something, right?

 

Creme Brulee

156 likes

 

 Falafel -- yup, Falafel!

201 likes

 

Pasta Fagioli: an Olive Garden knock-off

 339 likes

 

Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches

340 likes

 Cream Cheese Chicken

346 likes

 

 Taco Soup

589 likes

 

Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup

650 likes

Brown Sugar Chicken/Candy Chicken

716 likes

Pumpkin Spice Latte

over 1k likes

ABC Index of all slow cooker recipes

over 3k likes

Slow Cooker Yogurt Recipe

over 5k likes

When I started this site, I never thought I'd come up with new or innovative uses for the slow cooker. I figured people might tune in to see if I actually kept my resolution, but I had no idea that I'd learn new uses for the cooker or come up with recipes. It has really been a complete trip--- and I'm truly thankful.

Thank you so much. 

other stuff I did this week:

Time Management for Moms

2008 Flashback, the complete year of crockpotting, in order
interview with Amy Green: Simply Sugar and GlutenFree
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Tangy Lemon Chicken Slow Cooker Recipe

I've been watching Mad Men. It took a long time to get into the show--- a good 9 episodes into the first season before I really started looking forward to the next show. It would be on in the background, and I'd half-watch -- instead I was mostly folding laundry or goofing around on the internet. And then I got completely hooked.

Betty would make this chicken. And Don and her kids would eat it, and then lick the plate. She might just sit and watch though (and drink. she drinks a lot...) because she knows how she made it. Although the ingredients work and the chicken tastes amazing, and her kids and husband are clamoring for more, she just smiles that slightly impish smile and sits back to watch.

The inspiration for this chicken comes from a freezer full of chicken legs and a box of Lemon Jello and a sleeping baby who wouldn't allow me to get to the store. I had to make do; and I'm so glad I did. Adapted from CopyKat Recipes Sunshine Chicken and that from the KRAFT website --- this chicken is sweet, tangy, and very (very) surprising.

The Ingredients.
serves 4-6


3 to 4 pounds chicken parts (I used frozen legs and a few breast halves)
1 (6-ounce) box Lemon Jello powder
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon prepared Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon dried minced onion flakes (or one tiny onion, finely diced)

The Directions.

Use a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker. I used a 4-quart for this one, and didn't brown the legs beforehand. The color on the chicken you see up above came only from slow-cooking. If you prefer more of a brown color, or more texture, go ahead and brown beforehand. 
My chicken was frozen solid, too. If you have thawed chicken, shave about 90 minutes off of the cooking time.
Place the chicken into your slow cooker. In a small mixing bowl, combine the jello powder, melted butter, dijon mustard, and onion flakes. Stir together to make a paste. This isn't liquidy at all--- it's sort of a combo between paste and playdough. Smear this onto your chicken the best you can.
Cover, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. I cooked our chicken on low for exactly 7 hours, then kept it on the warm setting for another 2 hours.
Serve with mashed potatoes, or rice pilaf and something green.

Sit back and watch your family go nuts.

The Verdict.

I decided when I threw everything into the pot that this dinner could go one of two ways: it'd either rock or be an epic fail. Adam and the kids LOVED it. They all had seconds. I ate a good amount, but not as much as they did-- I liked it, but couldn't quite get over how I made it.

I will make this again; it's already been requested. I used full sugar Jello, but would imagine the sugar-free would work the same exact way. We had granola bar Rice Krispie Treats for dessert. 

~~~~

Fall has officially begun (although we're in shorts, today...) and if you need some Fall Friendly slow cooker dishes, this post will be good inspiration for you. Enjoy your weekend!


Lisa has been working hard on the giveaways --- we have a bunch posted over there! Go check them out, and get a good start on your Holiday lists!