Blarney Stones

St. Patrick’s Day has always been a fun and fanciful time for our children. It’s a ‘lucky day’ when those mischievous little leprechaun’s visit our house and sometimes the classrooms leaving upheaval in their path and prankster tricks along the way. We have tried for years to capture one of those little guys with our kids, but the only success we’ve had was to find a very tiny note or a piece or some threads from their clothing.

This year we are going to try to entice them with some BLARNEY STONES. What’s a blarney stone? In reality, there is a castle in Ireland called a Blarney Castle and there are legends about kissing the Blarney Stone. After a little homework, I have no intentions of ever hanging upside down hundreds of feet in the air to reach and kiss the blarney stone with no safety net below and yet tourists do it every year. However, that being said, if you are braver than I, apparently if you do kiss the blarney stone you might get some sweet talking bestowed upon you.

Well with the luck of the Irish, I think I’ll stick with this sweet talking recipe I created and have a little fun in the kitchen where no safety net is needed and magically try to catch the leprechaun who visits us each year with my youngest who is still in search of capturing ‘Lucky the Leprechaun’.

Blarney Stones
By Jodie Fitz

8 oz. Price Chopper cream cheese softened
3 ½ cups Price Chopper confectioner’s sugar
½ teaspoon peppermint extract
Green food coloring
12 oz. Price Chopper milk chocolate morsels

Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar and extract together; approximately 8 – 10 minutes. Do not add milk, the ingredients will appear dry at first and then will cream together. Add in three to five drops of food coloring and mix until the color is evenly distributed.

Spoon small clumps, approximately two inches apart onto a waxed surface (baking sheet) and refrigerate at least an hour. After the refrigeration, roll the cream cheese clumps into balls and slightly flatten. Return them to the refrigerator while melting the morsels.

In a glass bowl melt the chocolate morsels in a microwave on high for one minute. Even if they do not look melted, stir them before re-microwaving. Often the morsels will melt in the stirring process. If you have to place them back into the microwave, use 30 second intervals followed by stirring.

Dip each cream cheese mixture into the chocolate and cover completely. Return the ‘blarney stones’ back to the wax covered baking sheet and refrigerate again. Once the chocolate has hardened you can move them to a large snap and seal bag for storage or other air tight container. Keep them refrigerated until they have all magically disappeared.

NOTE: Recipe yields approximately 55 – 60 blarney stones depending on your clump size.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from our kitchen to yours and may the luck of the Irish be with you!