Recipe Exchange - Traditional Swiss Zopf Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookie Truffles, and a GIVEAWAY!

Almost as much as I love Christmas traditions, I love Christmas treats!  I especially enjoy combining them - baking cherished recipes with my little ones every December.  Do you have a favorite holiday recipe?  As part of the Nestle Family Holiday Exchange we're participating in, they've encouraged me to share one of my family's special holiday recipes with you today (along with an awesome HOLIDAY BAKING GIVEAWAY - keep reading!).

Last night we started our 12 Days of Christmas Around the World, kicking it off with Christmas traditions from Switzerland because my husband's mother is native Swiss.  I was lucky enough to have this wonderful Swiss Bread (also known as Zopf) recipe taught to me while Brett and I were living just outside of Geneva during our first year of marriage.  I've made it every Christmas since and relish the thought of warm Zopf and hot cocoa on cold mornings!

ZOPF (pronounced zup-fa) 

4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
4 tbs butter (melted)
1 1/4 cup milk (warm)
1 packet of yeast
1 egg yolk (beaten)

This is a great recipe to make with children because they love to get their hands in the dough (plus, you can practice math while doing your measuring - brainy bonus!). 
Combine dry ingredients & stir well, then add the milk & butter.  Kneed well - at least 15 minutes.  Cover and let rise for 2 hours (dough will double in size).  Then spilt dough into 2 equal part and roll them out into 2 long "snakes" about 2 inces thick. Lay them out criss-cross and follow the photos below to do the special Zopf braid, tucking the ends under at the bottom (I'm not gonna lie - it's a bit tricky!).
 

  Brush the top with the egg yolk.  Bake at 400 degrees F for 35-45 minutes until golden brown.When it comes out, it's gonna look all gorgeous and taste even better.  I'm also excited to share with you a few new recipes we're adding to our repertoire!  While browsing the Nestle Family Holiday Recipes I discovered this: 

 It's called A Very Merry Cookie Wreath and looks like tons of fun to make (not to mention super-delish to eat)!Next I found these...
 

Major YUM, right?  Here's how you can make them yourself!   Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Truffles 1 pkg. of NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Dough
1 3 pz. pkg. of cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup of NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 tablespoon of vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon of NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa, for dusting (optional)

First, prepare the cookies just like you would normally.  Let them cool, then blend them up into small bits in your food processor.  Add the cream cheese and process some more until the mixture starts to hold together.  Roll into 1 inch balls, drop onto a wax-papered cookie sheet and refridgerate for 1 hour.  Then  microwave chocolate morsels and shortening uncovered for 1 minute.  Stir together to make sure everything is melted.  Dip the balls into the melted chocolate with a fork, let the extra chocolate drip off and return them to the wax paper.  Lastly, let your kiddos sprinkle some sort of deliciousness on top!  The recipe suggests cocoa, which looks very pretty, but I think we're also going to try crushed candy canes, rainbow sprinkles or even some crushed Butterfingers.

Are you drooling on your keyboard yet?  Well,  Nestle Toll House and Carnation want to make sure you've got all the delicious ingredients you need to make your favorite holiday recipes, so they're offering one SuperMom Central reader this awesome Baking Package Giveaway:

You Could Win: VIP coupons for Carnation Evaporated Milk, Tollhouse Morsels, Nestle Refridgerated Cookie Dough and a $25 Visa Gift Card!How To Enter:  Participate in this recipe exchange!  Leave either a link or the instructions for your favorite holiday recipes in this post's comments.Extra Entries:  You can earn 1 additional entry for each of the following (leave a separeate comment for each one you do)-

• Become a Fan of Nestle Facebook Family
• Visit the Nestle Family Holiday website, pick a recipe you'd like to make and share a link to it in the comments.
• Tweet the following "I participated in the SuperMom Central recipe exchange and you should too -  you could win a $25 VISA gifcard! http://bit.ly/hXbr6D"
• Become a Follower of SuperMom Central (see right sidebar)
• Subscribe to SuperMom Central's feed 

This giveaway will end Dec. 18th at 11:59 pm, winner will be chosen by random.org, contacted via email and have 24 hours to respond.  This is a sponsored giveaway/post by Nestle. ***A little hint: There will be five sponsored Nestle Family Holiday Exchange posts/giveaways here at SuperMom Central - the last one will include a $100 Visa gift card and the only way to win is to participate in all five holiday discussions, so be sure to leave a friendly comment on each of these festive posts!