It's tea time!

Ring-a-ding-ding! My goodness, look at the time. Would anyone care for a spot of tea?

Today at Lightbulb Cuisine, we're hosting a tea party. We have some tasty little grahams dipped in chocolate to go with your afternoon pick-me-up. Whether you choose herb or caffeinated, your tea won't be lonely with these snazzy biscuits.

For the tea biscuits you will need:

• Graham cracker sections
• Hershey's Kisses
• Sprinkles and/or colored sugar

Place some Hershey's Kisses (white and milk chocolate) into the warming cups and place on the warming tray. Cover. Stir occasionally as the chocolates melt. Experiment with the chocolate dips and sprinkles. I like to dip the grahams into the milk chocolate and then into the white chocolate. You will need to allow the milk chocolate to harden before dipping in into the white, or you'll end up with a swirly chocolate mess.

Your little darlings will love to make different chocolate and sprinkle combinations. Refrigerate your finished product so that they harden faster. Once they're ready to eat, pour yourself a cup of tea and enjoy!
That's Easy Baking! How do you take your tea? (Or coffee?)

Pip pip, Cookie B.

THE WARMING TRAY

Before launching full-bore into recipes and trade secrets of the Easy Bake aficionados here at Lightbulb Cuisine, let's begin slowly with treats from my favorite heat source – the warming tray. And what better way to kick off a cooking blog, than with a fondue?! Fondues are always a family favorite.

The warming tray is perfect for creating fondues. And today we're going to do a fun chocolate-pretzel fondue. The chefs here at the Easy Bake test kitchen have chosen to do a combination of milk and white chocolates.

NOTE: In a future entry of Lightbulb Cuisine, I will discuss the importance of preheating the oven. That advice does not hold true for the warming tray. When producing a drizzle or a fondue, it is expected that you will warm the items slowly. So when doing a melt, there is no need to preheat.

For the chocolate-pretzel fondue, you will need:

• Pretzels
• Hershey's Kisses or milk chocolate morsels
• Hershey's Cookies & Cream Kisses

I prefer to start with milk chocolate. Milk chocolate is a thicker melt, and is often messier for the amateur fonduer. White chocolate is thinner and easier to work with, hence it can be used to cover a mistake on mis-dipped pretzels.

You will need to place the unwrapped Kisses or morsels into the warming cup. Go ahead and fill it up! Live a little! Place the cup onto the tray, and cover with the warming dome. Plug in the oven. Stir the chocolate with a toothpick from time to time to ensure an even melt. Once the chocolate is ready, DIP! Scrape off the excess and place the pretzel on wax to cool. Continue until all the milk chocolate has been used. You might need to scoop and drizzle the chocolate as you near the bottom of the cup. Clean the cup, and repeat with the white cream Kisses.

I like to make a combo of all chocolate, all white cream, and a mix of the two. Remember the the black and white cookie from “Seinfeld”? Same principle. Simply dip half the pretzel into milk chocolate, let cool, and then dip into the white cream. It's beautiful and tasty! It helps if you pop the pretzels into the fridge for a few minutes to speed the chocolate hardening process.

Fondued pretzels make delicious after-school snacks for the kids or a lovely gift for a friend. If you're feeling adventurous, you can buy colored dipping disks to melt in the warming tray. Use your imagination and create chocolate pretzels for all occasions! Try sprinkles and colored sugars, too!

Stay tuned for other fabulous fondues.
That's Easy Baking!
Love, Cookie B.