Short On...? Carry On: Part Five, Easter Candy

We could have bought some Easter treats earlier at the store, but we didn't, and today all the grocery stores are as crazy as they're allowed to be right now. So it looks like I'm responsible for filling our household baskets.

What do we have?

250 g dark chocolate chips
300 g butterscotch chips
1 lb. (454 g) butter
1 cup milk powder
1 bag sweetened, flaked coconut

Miscellaneous things like quick oats, cocoa, eggs, milk, flour, sugar, green and multi-coloured sprinkles. Yes, I know how fortunate we are to have some of these things.

What would you do with these ingredients? If peanut butter weren't an issue here and if I needed a lot of something, I'd probably make peanut butter balls and dip them in melted chocolate chips. My grandmother might have made cocoa-oatmeal macaroons. But we need only small batches of any one thing, and I have only that one cup of milk powder, so I'm thinking half a batch of chocolate cheater fudge, half a batch of coconut candy, and a batch of butterscotch-oatmeal cookies or squares ("Scotchies"), some of which we could freeze for later.

We have to start by making the equivalent of one can sweetened condensed milk. I got this version in a "living on one income" workshop at my very first homeschool conference, twenty-five years ago.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Substitute (makes equivalent of one can)

Ingredients: 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup milk powder, 1/3 cup boiling water

Mix in blender, let thicken a bit in the refrigerator.

Half Batch of  Canadian Living Quick Fruit and Nut Fudge, without the fruit and nuts

Half the amount of sweetened condensed milk
225 g chocolate chips (turned out to need the whole bag)
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Heat chocolate and milk mixture together until the chocolate melts (I did this in the microwave, it took only a couple of minutes). Stir in vanilla. Spoon into foil-lined pan or mini muffin cups. Top with sprinkles. Refrigerate until set, cut in squares.

Half Batch of Coconut Candy, from a recipe found at The Gold Lining Girl

Ingredients: Half Full bag of coconut (her bags must be twice as big as ours), half the amount of sweetened condensed milk. Follow the recipe at that link, cutting amounts in half. Bake candies and let cool. Optional: melt remaining chocolate chips, stretching with butterscotch chips if necessary, and partially dip the candies as shown at The Gold Lining Girl.