I Saw it on Pinterest

To date, I have roughly 2.5 million things pinned on Pinterest (ok, ok. Probably closer to 500, but the point is...more than is necessary). I have tried many of the recipes, but not all. I pinned things planning on producing the end product, but then two minutes later I've pinned something else that just NEEDS to be made, and on and on and on.

I also have a board of crafts that are just waiting to be made. The other day I found a bag of peppermints hanging around the pantry and remembered a fun craft that I had pinned that would be perfect for about 15 minutes (the current length of The Little Lady's naps at the time. Don't get me started!) of fun with The Princess.

When I had come across the pin for a candy serving platter made by melting candy it brought back memories of making vinyl record bowls. Seriously, I don't think there was a fruit or piece of jewelry not placed inside a record bowl. I lived with sisters at the time, and for whatever reason we decided we were "crafty". Trust me we weren't, but we made candles, soaps, lip balm, bath salts, and of course record bowls.

Anyhoo, back to the present. The Princess was so excited while making this bowl. She enthusiastically helped me unwrap the candies, carefully placed them into a design, and then watched wide-eyed as the candies melted into each other. I thought her joy was a little much for the task, but when it was complete, I figured it out. She thought she was going to get to eat the bowl. I should have known.

The pin was for a platter, but like the record bowl, I didn't figure it could be that difficult to shape it into bowl. The process is very easy. Pick your candy and begin unwrapping. Then on a baking sheet lined with wax paper lay out your pattern. We started with a heart shape because I wanted to see how well the candy would maintain its shape for future projects.

Place baking sheet into 350 degree oven and turn on your oven light to watch the candy melt. Some melted very quickly, while others retained their shape for quite some time. All were melted at the 10 minute mark.

I pulled the pan out of the oven and let it cool for a minute to prevent a trip to the emergency room and then before it became too solid I peeled it off the paper and placed it inside a bowl so that it would form a bowl shape while it cooled.

If you aren't going to shape into a bowl, I wouldn't recommend peeling it off the wax paper until it has cooled completely. You can see in the picture where the heart lost its shape at the bottom as I was pulling it off the wax paper. It should harden into your shape if left alone. At this point The Princess revealed her motives and asked if it was going to burn her tongue. Right.

The bowl turned out pretty much as the pin had described. I was happily surprised that it had lost most of its stickiness by that evening, and was not tacky at all the next morning.

I also tried the same process with butterscotch and cinnamon candies. They melted faster than the peppermints and I don't think they were as easy to peel off the wax paper, but same end result. I have an idea for another candy I want to try. I'll let you know later if it worked or failed.

Also, these shatter EVERYWHERE when dropped. Ask me how I know.

Original pin here

Bryn

Strawberry Yogurt Nutella Bites

In our first edition of, I Saw it on Pinterest ...

Does anyone else have trouble spelling Pinterest?  For whatever reason, I can't seem to ever get it right.  Anyhoo ...

Who is obsessed with this site?  Show of hands please.  Now, of all the things you have pinned, how many things have you actually baked/made/created/finished?  Uh yeah, that is what I thought.  So 'I saw it on Pinterest' is dedicated to actually DOING some of the things we have pinned. 

Now this particularly yummy thing, I did not see on Pinterest.  But it was inspired by what I saw on Pinterest.  So, let's start there.

Frozen yogurt bites.  You can see the pin HERE.  I tried to find the original owner of this one, but I could not track it down.  If you know who first created these yummy treats, please let me know and I will give them proper credit! 

They turned out great and are so easy to make.  I imagine we will be eating these a lot this summer!

Here are the instructions:

Buy a container of your favorite yogurt.  Empty contents of said container into ziplock bag.

I put the ziplock bag over a cup so that I don't have to hold it.  Much less messy this way.

Cut just a very small tip off the corner of the ziplock bag. 

Squeeze small dots onto foil lined pan.

I got 50 out of one 6 oz container of yogurt.  Place pan in freezer.  Freeze two to three hours.  Enjoy!  The kids gobbled these down in one sitting, so you might want to make a few batches!

While eating these, I thought, you know what would make these even better?  Nutella!  Because Nutella makes everything better.  Everything.  Really, everything.  So my brain got to working and I came up with ...

Strawberry Yogurt Nutella Bites.  Yeah, so the name isn't catchy.  I didn't have a lot of time to brainstorm.

Gather your ingredients!

Nutella, yes, you NEED the giant size container.  Strawberry yogurt or whatever variety you think would make a good combo.  I am going to try key lime next.  This is just what I had in the fridge.  Mini Vanilla Wafers. 

There are two ways you can go here.  You could crush up the Nilla Wafers in a plastic bag and stir into yogurt.  Then fill the mini muffin cup up 3/4 of the way. 

OR you could just put the Nilla Wafer in the bottom of the mini muffin tin. 

The problem I had with this initially is that it doesn't fill the whole tin.  But we'll see how it works anyway.  Cover the Nilla Wafer with the yogurt.

Next is the messy part.  Nutella is extremely difficult to spread.  So, I used the plastic bag method.  I heated the Nutella for aprox. 20 second just to loosen it up a bit.  Then placed it in a ziplock bag. 

Cut off the tip and get to work.

Spread Nutella over the tops of all the tins.  You can pipe it all on, use a spoon, your finger, whatever you find easiest.

Then place in the freezer for aprox. 2 to 3 hours.  And then you get to enjoy this:

Serious yum.  Just the right amount of sweet to satisfy.  In terms of which method is best, I think that is probably personal preference.  The ones with the whole Nilla Wafer on the bottom had more crunch, but were messier to eat.  The ones with the Nilla Wafers all smashed up where easier to eat, but not as crunchy.  I preferred the whole Nilla Wafer myself. 

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Hallie