YAY! for Candy!!!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

The first candy I made was taffy, from this recipe.

I made root beer and orange with citric acid for tartness.

The second candy I made was dulce de leche bonbons, with Ikea ice cube trays as molds.

I cooked down sweetened condensed milk until thick and caramel colored and let it cool while I tempered chocolate.

Then I put the chocolate in the mold, scraped, and let it drip and set. Then I put in the filling and topped with more chocolate.

The third candy I made was a homemade mounds bar.

I mixed together:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 stick softened butter

2 14-oz bags sweetened shredded coconut

and chilled for a couple of hours in the fridge. Then I scooped (with my #70 scoop) and shaped into rounds, and chilled again until it was firm (overnight)

Then I dipped using my special dipping forks:

They're just Wilton forks, but I bent them to the angle I prefer.

Then I rigged my special chocolate dipping tool:

Yep, it's a rice cooker. I like that I can turn it on to melt, and take the chocolate off to cool, and put it on Keep Warm to keep the chocolate fluid. I couldn't find my chocolate thermometer, so I used the infrared instead.

The last candy I made was a gummy candy that starts with Jello

Once again I used my handy-dandy Ikea ice molds. Next time I would use less gelatin, as it had a really firm texture.