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.

YAY! for the Olympics!!!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.
I chose to make my crackers with actual graham flour (any other way would be a "graham-style cracker" rather than an actual graham cracker)

I made a peanut butter filling for the Nanaimo Bars by using half a recipe of Reese's Bars, so the recipe for the bars was:

Bottom Layer
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 T unsweetened cocoa
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup peanuts, roasted unsalted, finely chopped
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in
crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an parchment lined 8 by 8 inch pan.

Middle Layer
1 C graham cracker crumbs
1/2 C butter, melted
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C peanut butter

Add cracker crumbs to melted butter. Then add sugar and peanut butter. Mix well. Spread on top of Nanaimo layer.

Top Layer
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
2 T butter
Melt together, spread on top of peanut-butter layer.

Chill bars until firm. Lift the parchment to pull bars out of the pan to cut into squares.

Home-made Candy Corn

I came across this recipe on Serious Eats ( http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/10/how-to-make-homemade-candy-corn-halloween-recipe.html?ref=se-bb2 ) and just had to try it. I made a bunch of candy corn and then with the rest of the candy decided to make pumpkins. I think I undercooked the sugar mixture even though I used a thermometer, so next time I'll cook it longer. The candy was so soft the pumpkins, which I originally made as tall and narrow flattened themselves out to what you see here within 15 minutes. They were so soft I couldn't even take them off the baking liner without freezing them first.


1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup salted butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
red and yellow food coloring



Sift powdered sugar, milk powder and salt and reserve in a medium mixing bowl.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan (wide and shallow is preferable, as is nonstick or enamel coated), bring granulated sugar, corn syrup, fat and vanilla up to a boil over high heat. When you begin to see bubbles, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for five minutes, stirring frequently with a heat-proof silicon or rubber spatula. A candy thermometer will read 225-230 degrees, just before thread stage. You want to set a timer or use the thermometer - this is very important.

Remove pan from heat, and gradually add powdered sugar mixture to pan, incorporating with spatula. Make sure that mixture is completely integrated. Let mixture cool until slighty warm to the touch, about 20 minutes (again, a timer is helpful here).

With a knife or pastry cutter, cut dough into three equal pieces, placing each in a small bowl. Now here's where it gets interesting (and messy): Put on an apron or shirt that you don't mind getting stained.

Add three drops of yellow food coloring to one piece of dough and begin kneading until smooth and color is evenly distributed. You can this a few different ways: Wearing rubber gloves (however, latex was a disaster), covering your hands with plastic wrap or placing dough and coloring in a Ziploc-style bag and knead the bag. Set on parchment or wax paper or on a silicone baking mat.

For the second piece, use a combination of red and yellow coloring to make orange, using the same procedure. Knead the third piece until smooth but keep uncolored.

Clear a large work space to roll out each piece of dough, which, when rolled into a thin rope, can get quite long. If rope gets too long, trim with a paring knife or pastry cutter.

Push three ropes together to form a long rectangle. Use sharp knife to trim ends and sides to make a straight angle. Starting at one end of the rope rectangle, cut small triangle shapes. Place each candy on parchment or wax paper to keep from sticking to your work surface.

Store at room temperature in airtight container, separating layers with parchment or waxed paper.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2007/10/getting_handy_with_candy_corn.html