Christmas treats...

This Christmas we have made an assortment of treats to give out to friends, teachers and family and of course to munch on ourselves.   We have tried to adapt some of our favorites to make gluten free versions.  Of course not everything can be adapted.  The girls love all these treats and have a hand in baking all of them.

Holiday Pretzel Treats are a quick and easy treat to make.  They combine salty and sweet and are a family favorite.  You have to be careful though because even though Hershey kisses are gluten free, Hershey hugs are not.  So despite getting gluten free pretzels and making sure M&M's were gluten free we couldn't give them out to our friend with celiac disease.  After taking the pretzel treats from the oven you add an m&m to the top of the melty goodness.

We altered our kiss cookie recipe with gluten free flour and they were a hit!  Easy peasy too because they have very few ingredients. We cover the cookies with confectioners sugar by putting them all in a bag with the sugar and gently tossing them about.  These are a crowd pleaser and the hershey kiss inside is a nice surprise!   We have found making everything dairy free as well as gluten free is a little harder.  I do "cheat" a bit with dairy but haven't cheated with gluten at all.

This is obviously a well loved recipe.   This is Rod's Christmas tradition every year to make this in memory of his mom.  Wish it was in Ruth-Ann's writing.

Rod's mom's toffee is delicious!  Homemade heath bar and a favorite with everyone.  The girls can't help with this one and you need a candy thermometer and some time and patience to make this.  Even a few degrees one way or the other can alter the recipe.  The girls love giving this to teachers and friends!

We also make peppermint bark by crushing up candy canes and adding it to melted white chocolate melts.  Spread it on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Let chill, break and bag up.  Easy and delicious and most of the white chocolate wafers we have found are gluten free.  

Gluten free Peppermint Meringues

We have had a few mishaps like mixing the gluten free cookies with the gluten full cookies, using hugs on the pretzel treats and mixing them all together, running out of gluten free flour and trying to wing it with not quite enough..but most have worked and all have been delicious!  It's nice to be able to eat a few holiday favorites!