I know this is delayed but oh well! For the past few years I have never had the chance to do any holiday baking as a result of commuting home from college close to the holidays or working through the holidays. With being in graduate school now, and a school close to me to boot, I finally had some time for holiday baking and took full advantage of it! Mike and I attend or host approximately 4 Christmas events, all of which obviously revolve around food.  Wanting to bring these hosts gifts without all the hassle of picking out a gift or spending a lot of money we decided we would take my cooking opportunity to give away bundles of cookies. For our ‘gift boxes’ I settled with making  modifying an old recipe my friend provided me with for Oreo Truffles, creating my own version of Chocolate Bark and making Peanut Butter cookies. We also gave out Pignoli Nut cookies from a local Coffee House, 1014 Coffee House.

Gluten Free Oreo Truffles 
(Courtesy of a Work Friend who emailed me the Glutenous version a few years back)

Ingredients:
1 package Gluten Free Oreo cookies, crushed

Chocolate Bark 

Homemade double burner

Chocolate bark was an inspiration from a post from Jules Gluten Free. Being new to GF and celebrating my first GF Christmas I wanted to make something everyone could enjoy, including those gf food critics. I figured chocolate fit the bill perfectly and boy was I right, It was a hit! I made four types of bark using my personalized homemade double burner (a pan within a pan). Who knew I could be so creative? Each Bark has the same instructions:

Chopped ingredients.

1. Coarsely Chop or cut ingredients to be added to chocolate and set aside, you can do this by hand or with a food processor.

2.  In a double burner melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Prepare a 8×8 pan by lining it with tin foil.

3. When the chocolate is fully melted add and stir in the canola oil.  Throughly stir in 3/4 of your prepared ingredients.

4. Pour the mix into your prepared pain and smooth to an even thickness.

5. Sprinkle the remaining ingredients on top of the chocolate.

6. Place in the fridge and cool for at least 2 hours, break bark and serve or package for gifts.

The four varieties of bark I made included:


Chocolate Nutty Bark

Close Up

12 oz gluten free Semi Sweet Dark Chocolate Chips
1 tsp. canola oil
1 1/2 cups chopped Mixed gluten free nuts

(Follow cooking directions as above)


Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark

(Follow cooking directions as above)

1 1/2 cups chopped M&Ms 

   – I found the M&Ms are very difficult to chop in the food processor, it may be idea to chop these by crushing them with a roller while they are plastic bag or plastic wrap.


(Follow cooking directions as above)

White Chocolate Cranberry Bark 

12 oz gluten free White Chocolate Chips

1 tsp. canola oil

1 1/2 cups chopped dried cranberries 

(Follow cooking directions as above)

AND THE FINAL PRODUCT:

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter cookies

This recipe was pulled from the Gluten Free Cookie Swap on facebook and supposedly came originally from a recipe Southern Living. I love these and they were a hit, I have made them three times since Christmas!  

AND FINALLY, WE PACKAGED EVERYTHING AND TOOK IT ON THE ROAD

The final gift baskets and personal stash of cookies

Hope You Enjoyed Reading!