I absolutely could not find branches carmel so I went with Carmel balls for the Christmas season from Kraft. Actually, I think this is much prefered because they are small and melt easier. It was only an 11 oz bag, but worked well with the same nuts and crispy. I did however, reduce water to 2 TBS. At first I thought I had too much water and almost added more carmel (from a second bag), but then it seemed to cream out. Mine all fit onto one cookie sheet. I sprayed everything with PAM, the parchment paper, spoon, spatula and used a teflon pan. Everythign was awesome until the chocolate step. I got the chocolate melted pretty quickly, so took the shet out before 10 minutes. I could have coated them, but decided to leave them on the sheet and jut drizzle over. Next time I will use Semi sweet to reduce sweetness a bit. As I worked quickly the chocolate got hard and almost powdery...I tried everything to keep it smooth, but nothing worked. So I ended up clumping chocolate on some and then smearing and pushing it down on them to make smooth. those are definately not as smooth and nice looking, but the taste should be similar. next time I will make two batches of chocolate to lengthen my time to get it on. Also, I only used 1 bag (just over 2 cups) and I had left over. I also only did 1 tsp of shortening. Not really sure what that is for, never did that before. I will make them again, but with the changes I made above. 5 star for taste and ease.

Reviewed On: Nov. 19, 2008

Fantastic!! This got a 10out of 5 stars. I tried making it for one, but it didn't seem like enough liquid. So I used the whole can of tomatoes and the whole can of broth. I just sprinkled more herbs in by eye to match the extra liquid. I also added a dash of kosher salt. Didn't stick real close on the ounces of seafood, just too hard. So I added like 2 mussels, 3 clams, 4 shrimp, 3 scallops cut up, no crab, but added cod. I used less wine (just ran out and didn't want to open another bottle for a Tbs. Used the water. Not expensive as others thought , I guess since it was only a serving for two (maybe $10 or so). He still can't stop raving about it. These were the comments I got...Rich but not overdone or too much. Perfect balance. Plan on making this for the in laws. Thanks for the great recipe!!!

Reviewed On: Oct. 14, 2007

I'm at high altitude (5,000ft.), so I baked them for the 9 minutes listed and the second batch was 10. They looked a bit brown, not to pale. Keep the spoon heaping when you put them on the pan, the smaller scoops I used were flatter. I also used half butter and half butter Crisco. I added a little bit of flour (just heaped the measured amount) but it still seemed sticky, so I added a touch more. I also added a sprinkle of nutmeg and a little more than a sprinkle of cinnamon. I split the batch in half in the end and added the chocolate chips to one and raisins to the other. Good taste. Might use this one again, might try another.

Reviewed On: Sep. 17, 2007