Candy for Christmas

Caramels

2 cups white sugar           1 ¾ cups white syrup
2 cups heavy cream         1 cup butter
Pinch salt                         1 tbls. vanilla

A student of Rebecca's emailed her to say that the best caramels she had ever tasted were the ones that Rebecca would bring to class, and could she have the recipe.

So above is the short version of the longer verions to which you can link here:  Caramel Recipe.  And a big thank you to Edmonton Relief Society Candy Makers who passed this recipe on to so many people.

Rebecca is not in the candy-making mode right now, but she does have some tips to add to the ones you will find out on the link:

Yes, to using Lily White Corn Syrup (usually found on the shelves close to honey, baking goods, etc). 

I use a teflon coated pan with straight sides (so I can clip a $10 candy thermometer on the side of the pan, so it will rest in the liquid and not touch the bottom of the pan).
The secret? Put the cream, sugar, butter and syrup in the pan, and heat it SLOWLY, stirring regularly until the sugar has really dissolved. I can usually tell if I am using a wooden spatula to stir, because you will sort of FEEL the scratchiness of the sugar until then. Once the sugar is well and truly dissolved, then you turn up the temperature until it comes to a boil. (not splattering you… but it will be boiling). Then you stop stirring, and just let it do its magic until it gets to the temperature you want. 

You really can do experiments here. If you stop it at a lower temperature, you will end up with the most delicious pancake syrup ever. Higher than that, and you will have a runny caramel. Higher still, and the caramel will firm up, and if you go even higher, it will be hard enough to be more like a peanut brittle.

I use a good cookie sheet (one that does not also get used for chicken fingers), and prepare it by rubbing it with butter first. That will help get the caramel off the sheet later. I also place the cookie sheet on a wooden cutting board on the counter, so I don’t worry about it being too hot, or burning my fingers when moving it before cool. 

Add the vanilla at the last minute before taking it off the stove, and give it a quick stir (it will start bubbling up when the vanilla hits the surface. Then I take two good oven mitts, and til the pot over the sheet, so the caramels pours onto it….I often get one of the boys to help scrape things off the pot onto the cookie sheet, since you will NOT want to rest the pot against your chest to leverage on this! Been there done that. Ouch. Truth is, you can’t go wrong. No matter what you do, it will be an interesting experiment. 

And then try it again!

Rebecca

The Candy Cupboard

fun sorts

Not everyone has a candy cupboard.

Where ever they go.

Well, maybe they do, and I just don't know about it.

Doral has a candy cupboard at work, one at home, one in his holiday bedroom and now one in my kitchen.

He knows how to stock them well.

I was with him in Salmon Arm and one of our stops was the Bulk Barn.

blue raspberry bon bons

I only go there with Moiya, but on this trip I could see that Doral knows his way around the Bulk Barn and was asking me if I could pick out candy I like.

Over the years, I am having fewer and fewer choices that are appealing to me.

I did find one in the Bulk Barn:  chocolate covered ginger.

I fished out just enough for everyone to have one piece.

That would be five pieces for $.51.

A bargain!  Ten cents a piece to find out if these tasted as good as I thought they would.

Ceilidh and Meighan gave them a thumbs up.  David didn't even want to take the taste test.

sour watermelon slices

That was OK really since there were still wild strawberry to taste, as well and blackcurrant and strawberry bonbons in the bag.

At our house, a person just can't make it through the candy cupboard, especially since it is also stocked with every kind of chip known to man.

What a holiday!

Arta

Eggs and Nests

Each time Wyona and I go to Costco lately, she has been looking for the Easter candy to come out. 

Finally the Easter candy has arrived.  Or at least two kinds:  Speck-tacular Eggs by M&M and another brand of egg, pastel colours and smaller, the brand name of which I do not remember. 

Question: How can you tell if the nest is fake?
Answer from Michael: because there are sparkles in it.

The fact that the snow on it didn't melt was of no consequence.
Neither was the fact that 1/2 of the eggs
letters on them of any consequence.

:-)

“One of these brands tastes better than the other. But I can’t remember which,” she said as she looked them.

“I’ll take one package and you take the other,” I said, “though that will hardly make it possible for us to tell which is the best.”

“We will split them,” she said.

 And split them she did. Right at the Food Court, sitting down and opening up the first bag and then juggling back and forth until there was an equal number in both bags. The couple next to us were staring. Just blatantly staring. She looked over at them and said, “We are splitting these two bags.”

“Oh,” said the man. “We thought you were opening them for lunch and we were wondering how that was going to go down.”

At my house the eggs got nested and we ate them for dessert tonight, after an elaborate story from Richard about how he had found the nest in a tree but couldn’t tell if they were turkey, or chicken or quail or chickadee eggs. Miranda and Richard also demonstrated the sign language for chicken and duck: chicken is two single finger pecking and duck is all four fingers, pecking with the thumb.  A nice flat bill, you see.

And after tasting the eggs, we now know which we prefer: speck-tacular or plain.

Arta

Leaf Allsorts

 ... the original sheep and fences ...

I think back to when I was young, to moments that I loved.

Then I try to re-create those experiences, either with my children or my grandchildren.

One gentle memory is when my dad would bring home a package of liquorice, the kind that were bullet shaped with an outer candied coating .

He would lay them on the table and tell me that we were going to play Sheep and Fences.

... no making fences for sheep in her mind ...

 I would pick the white and black ones out to be the sheep and then build fences: herd the sheep to the inside of the pen, march them out, close the gate, open the gate back up, get them inside again, all the while working hard to keep the little liquorice fences from rolling around and ruining the beauty of the symmetry I had built.

I don't remember eating the candy as much.  I only remember the joy of the game.

... Alice made a vehicle and was dismayed
when one of the wheels fell off ...

The candy isles don’t carry that kind of liquorice anymore. I looked all through December for it and could only find Allsorts: Assorted Licorice Candy.  And they would be made by different companies:  Leaf, Maynards, or maybe Bassett's.

Not to be dissuaded at least from the spirit of the game of Sheep and Fences, I took a 400 gram package of Allsorts over for dessert with Michael, Alice and Betty.

My plan was to explain the game from my childhood and then see if we could do the sme thing ... or even improvise.

Everyone was given a cutting board, a butter knife and a dinner knife for tools.

We sorted by shape sometimes and sometimes by colour.

I was surprised that I didn’t have the nomenclature to deal with the game so I began to make up some of my own.

... the two towers, going down ...

There are the five decker sandwiches to begin with: neon pinks, yellows and greens sandwiching the square flat liquorice.

And then I became aware of a few black plugs of liquorice.

 There is a marshmallow plug that has a band of liquorice around its circumference.

... Allsorts in both cheeks ...

Michael found he could pull that outer coating off by running his thumb along one side of it and then peeling it off. 

Michael spent a long time trying to pick the blue beads off of the baby-blue flat jellies.

There is another easy peel.  It is the yellow circle that has a black liquorice plug.  Just rubbing my thumb on those yellow flakes brought then off -- sticky pieces of cocoanut!

I tried to help the kids, though it was very hard to get them to share their tools or their boards.

We could cut the candy in half, but there was no way of scraping those jellies off! 

They just didn't fall.

“Can you help me with this, Dad,” Michael asked Richard. 

 “I can’t do any better job than you are doing, son,” came the reply.  

And of course there is the coin-like circle that is surrounded with cocoanut. 

Here, at least the flavour of the candy changes.

I explained about sheep and fences to the kids.

Their game turned into trucks and towers.  I went back to sheep and fences with Betty.   Always good when at least the 18 month old will listen.

Betty practised putting in as many candies in her mouth as she could at once.

Richard and I also tested out the flavours but not in the same quantity.

No one seemed to mind loosing a few of the candies to the adults, since the kids were more interested in their building projects than in eating.

... I think I can go even higher ...

I think Betty managed to get the most in her mouth at once: the high number for her was eight.  That was far too many to swallow so she needed someone standing by to catch them when she figured out they could not go down her throat.

I know the only way to take care of that is for an adult to extend a cupped hand under a child's chin and let the candy (or whatever is going to come out of their moth) roll over their lips, down their chin and be caught by someone's hand before it hits the ground.

I had forgotten that I would need at least one wet cloth at the table.

Arta

Cherry Blossoms

 ... perfect dessert after pizza ...

What have you learned from your children? That is one of the questions asked of participants in the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development. If I were asked that question about my children I would write eight  essays. I begin one of those essays by saying that from Bonnie I have learned how to interact with autistic children. I mean really learned. Not just read a couple of books and participated in a some group discussions. I have really practised. I am still practising when David is around. Every day there are new developments for me – new ways of figuring out appropriate grandmother behaviours from me for David.

... the ritual of opening the bar, as practised in the daylight ...
...  a ritual to be practised in the dark of a movie theatre next ...

Take giving eye contact, for example. Bonnie, Kelvin, David and I have a new way of getting information to one another.

No yelling from one room to another, or even calling across the room to someone’s back.

 ... David practices the folding technique ...

We get within six feet of each other, get the person’s attention and then ask our question. For three of us, that also means getting eye contact. For David that should mean not getting eye contact. There is enough literature now to fully inform us that demanding eye contact from someone who has autism is the least effective way for him to learn.

So three of us? Yes to eye contact. With David – let him learn in the best way for him, letting him seek the contact with us, but not demanding it from him. Now this seems counter intuitive to my old practices. But it is the way that works for him. I try to change. I am not so old yet that I can’t learn how to do this. And that is what I have learned from Bonnie. In short? Ask another child a question. They will respond in a second or two? David? Wait 8 seconds for his response. Count them out on your hand behind your back. Eight seconds is so long for me that by the time he gets to the answer, I have forgotten my question.

we practice throwing our wrappers on the floor
even knowing it is allowed, it is still hard work.

Bonnie is always going to conferences. The latest one was devoted to how to teach sexuality to children with autism. Now, another chance to connect with David. The message in 25 words or less is ... that you teach sexuality the same way that you teach the alphabet ... thousands of repetition, variations and iterations until the alphabet feels like something that is natural. How interesting now to find ways to do that with sexuality. No one ever told me that retirement would be full of interesting events like this.

Three years ago, Bonnie invited a therapist to work with David in his home environment. I watched Leanne’s pedagogy to see if I could imitate the work Bonnie and Leanne were doing. My latest practise event to model their teaching method was wondering if I could show David how I used to eat a Cherry Blossom in a movie theatre when I was young. I must have been triggered to try this experiment when I was looking at Word of the Day from Dr. Dictionary.com and noticed a small essay on how chocolate bars got their names. I bought those chocolate bars, brought them home, told the stories of how manufacturers named chocolate bars to David, we looked at specimens of the chocolate bars, touched all of the wrappers and he ate the ones he was interested in.

... finally!  unwrapped and ready to investigate ...

As a follow up, the “How to Eat a Cherry Blossom” event began after our regular Thursday night pizza party. I passed out Cherry Blossoms assuring my dinner guests that they will not have to eat this product. We are just looking at them. They are only a prop to help me remember how I did things when I was young. We opened our Cherry Blossom boxes together. I began to make the method explicit.

“This should be done in the dark of a movie theatre, so just imagine it is dark for now. The first step is to hold the silver paper in one hand and carefully peel away the silver wrapping. Put the Cherry Blossom down on one of your knees. On the other knee spread the tin foil out so that there are no wrinkles in it, fold it in half then quarters, then eighths until it is a tiny piece you can hold between your fingers. Then throw it on the floor along with the yellow box, because in movie theatres you are allowed to drop items on the ground and not feel bad ... like if pieces of popcorn fall out of your popcorn container, it is O.K.

Cherry Blossom Shell
perfectly cleaned out of all of that cloying sugary sweet stuff inside

Turn the Cherry Blossom upside down and try to suck the chocolate off of the bottom to get to the maraschino cherry. Dig out the cherry and the fondant juices that are inside. If you take a bite from the side, then all of this is going to fall out and get on your clothes, so it is better to make the bomb like a rounded container, take off the bottom which is now the top for you. If you have trouble with your teeth, you can pick at it with your finger. Now scoop your finger in, use it as a lever to get the juice to your mouth and finally you will present your taste buds with the cherry – one per chocolate bar. Your finger will be your spoon and you will have to suck it clean many times. The taste of the chocolate and peanuts from the bottom of the bomb will mix with the cherry and its juices. I don’t really like this part in the steps of how to eat a Cherry Blossom. The maraschino is too sweet for me, but eating it is a necessary step in order to have the half moon of chocolate that has now been swept clean of cherry juices by your finger, and is now ready for consumption.

... the scooping ritual practise with the baby finger ...

By this time your fingers are so warm that some of the peanut chocolate from the outside shell has started to melt onto your fingers. I hold it carefully between my thumb and my index finger and put tasty bits of chocolate and peanut in my mouth. I savour the chocolate, learning when is the right time to chew the peanuts and chocolate to get the joy of the crunch, when to swallow, when to wait until the burning feeling I have in my throat that tells me this is enough, and then I wait until that feeling goes away.

I watch a few more scenes in the movie.

Take another bite of the chocolate and continue with these steps until the Cherry Blossom is all gone.

 I think to myself, ‘That was the perfect treat.

Of all of the chocolate bars at the theatre candy stand, I choose the best one. And I will choose this one again next Saturday when I come to the Roy Rogers matinee’.

David in fear ... this dessert is to much for him

And that is how to eat a Cherry Blossom in the 1940’s .

Now back to what I have learned from Bonnie. To introduce a food to a child who has a diagnosed disability, you may have to try 17 different ways. The next time that dessert is Cherry Blossoms we will cut hem in half and see if we can get the filling into a dish and the chocolate into another, much the same way one cracks an egg and separates the shell from the edible product. Then I will have two Cherry Blossom experiments done, and only 15 to go.

 ..David captured with his classic look of utter disgust ...
this may look like boredom or ennui to you
but it is David's expression of absolute disgust

 He still might not have tasted it, but he will have touched it, smelled it, watched others savour it and this will be enough. The fun I am having is not teaching David to like Cherry Blossoms. Only to do have the product investigated enough times that he will know if he likes them or not. I am wanting to give him every chance in the world since that is what I learned from Bonnie and Leanne. Well, not every chance in the world, but at least 17 chances.

Arta

Sweeet Chocolate Christmas

Tempering chocolate

From Mary

Here is my hand, hard at work on Saturday.   

We dipped 4 batches of fondant, 2 batches of caramels, 2 batches of truffles and 1 batch of fondant left over from last year that was still in the freezer (mint, water fondant).   

The day seemed to breeze by with 2 dippers and 2 rollers.   

I can never go back to just 2 people trying to get everything done.

We even put a little sprinkle of red sea salt on top of half of the dipped caramels.  Mmmmm.

There was one hitch.  I turned up the heat in the frying pan and my colleague, not knowing it was turned up for a few seconds, scraped the bottom of the pan with her hand and was burned by it.  Ouch.  I wish it had been my hand and not hers.

Another hitch.  I have Arta's plastic and metal molds.  I wanted to finish up the melted chocolate, so I filled the metal molds, even putting a nut in the middle.  I couldn't get the candy to come out of the molds.  After Arta and I talked on the phone, I froze the chocolates that I couldn't get out of the molds, since I had tried every other way I could think of.  

 Later, Leo hit the back of the molds with a hard rubber hammer -- and voila.  The chocolates popped right out.  Now I don't have to discard those molds into the pile of things I am never going to use again, which is what Arta told me to do with them, seeing as she couldn't make them work either.

M

The Candy Start

Piano lessons were interspersed with beating candy today.

Catie was in the kitchen when the first batch was ready.

When the fondant pours out of the pan and all over the counter, there is a sense that it will run to the floor.

Which of course it will, unless someone with a candy paddle gets busy with it.

This was the first time the Jarvis kids have beat candy, though they have two grandmothers who had made pounds and pounds of it for others.

I find it rewarding when someone picks up the paddle and holds it like a pro, especially when that person is related to me.

Old time candy makers will look at the consistency of the cooled product that is now on the counter.

What you are seeing here is the first batch, the one that takes a long time.

On the way home we were talking about who likes candy, and learned the Eric likes home-made fudge and will buy it whenever he sees it on sale.

So we proceeded to buy a couple of quarts of cream and enough sugar to make candy today.

Arta

The Candy Finish

Rebecca took over from Catie who had to go to her piano lesson.

She is the one who wanted candy for this evening, for she was in charge of the family home evening treat.

Last week we tried to make candy, but there was no candy paddle here, so I brought back a nice one that Leo made for Mary.

We decided on four flavours: fudge for last week when we didn't get the candy made, mint-chocolate, maple candy for Eric, and a fruit flavour -- lemon because we had no limes.

No one here has had much experience yet.

So there were plenty of moments of surprise.

The candy can be lifted high and dropped, as they do for show in the windows of candy shops.

Rebecca was the one who was beating the candy when it turned.

She was not the least bit shy to get her hands into the turned fondant and knead it to keep it smooth.

I thought she had done it for years, for she was pushing it down and flipping it over to get it smooth.

Thomas had been busy with his D.S.

When he saw what was going on, he came over to the counter to take a try.

I don't know who remembers doing this from the past, but it is hard work, especially to know how to get that paddle to move up to the wall and then back again, but not far enough that there is candy on the floor.

Hard to believe that we made two batches -- four cups each.

And in between those I threw on a pot of caramels.

Catherine reached over to put groceries away and question, "Have you already gone through one quart of cream?"

What could I say.

Candy is only butter, sugar and cream and we had done three batches.

Thomas isn't bad at beating.

There may be a candy store in town just waiting to give them part-time work.

Arta

Toasted-Marshmallow Coconut Squares

This story shouldn’t be here in the candy posts, but thinking about making candy was at the back of my mind today. I shopped at the Coop and passed, well, I didn’t pass it, I put it in my cart – “Toasted Coconut Marshmallow Squares” that were displayed on the top rack of those circular displays at the side of one of the main isles. There they were looking just like the ones my mother used to make when I was a child. I have no memory of these tasty treats being around for more than a day. They were always fresh, and who far could they have gone with ten of us in the house. In fact, I think Wyora used to hold back the older ones to make them wait until the squares were fully set and she had dredge the still white sides of them with that final touch of cocoanut.

Enjoy the recipe read. I am not suggesting anyone has the time to try to make it, since it takes more than 15 minutes, the generally allotted in our lives to make a full meal for five or more people. I looked through the family Manna From Heaven cookbook for the recipe, and didn’t find it. Thank you, epicurious.com for giving it up to me. As well, I do remember Aunt Elmoyne Johnson saying that she always made these for Jack – they were his favorite treat. I also remember that she did layer them between piece of wax paper so that they didn’t run into one another as they sat in the container.

In our house, that would have been a waste of a piece of wax paper

Toasted-Cocoanut Marshmallow Squares

Ingredients

• 2 cups unsweetened dried coconut

• 3 (1/4-ounces) envelopes unflavored gelatin

• 1 cup water, divided

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 1 cup light corn syrup

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

 Equipment:
 a 9-inch square metal baking pan; a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment; a candy thermometer

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Toast coconut in a shallow baking pan in oven, stirring occasionally, until golden, 7 to 10 minutes.

Oil 9-inch baking pan, then sprinkle bottom with 1/2 cup toasted coconut.

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup water in bowl of mixer and let soften while making syrup.

Heat sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup water in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil over medium heat, without stirring, washing any sugar crystals down side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Put thermometer into syrup and continue boiling, without stirring, until it registers 240°F (soft-ball stage). Remove from heat and let stand until bubbles dissipate.

With mixer at low speed, pour hot syrup into gelatin in a thin stream down side of bowl. Increase speed to high and beat until very thick, about 15 minutes. Add vanilla and coconut extracts and beat 1 minute more.

Spoon marshmallow over toasted coconut in baking pan and press evenly with dampened fingertips to smooth top (it will be very sticky), then evenly sprinkle top with 1/2 cup toasted coconut.

Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature until firm, about 2 hours.

Run a sharp knife around edge of marshmallow and invert onto a cutting board. Cut into 3/4-inch-wide strips, then cut each strip into 3/4-inch squares.

Put remaining toasted coconut in a small bowl and dredge marshmallows in it to coat completely.

Cook's notes: • Marshmallow squares keep, layered between sheets of parchment paper in an airtight container, in a dry place at cool room temperature 1 month. • To avoid stickiness, try to make marshmallows on a dry day. Arta's note: In Alberta that is easy.  Every day is a dry day.

Thanks to http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Toasted-Coconut-Marshmallow-Squares-240939#ixzz15plCduHJ for the recipe.

Arta

The Sweetest Thing I Ever Tasted

In an email, Catherine Jarvis told me that her best home made candy memories are about caramels.

“The sweetest thing I ever tasted,” she said.

She can remember caramels wax-paper wrapped as well as chocolate dipped, though while she was eating them (as a child and as a teen-ager), she forgot to learn to make them.

I would like to fly down there and spend a day in the kitchen showing her how. Given that impossibility, I am going to blog some caramel candy recipes, and maybe even make a batch or two myself, to see if I still have the knack.

One person in the family did not forget to learn to make caramels: Rebecca, the most unlikely of all of the possible suspects: They are a regular of her cooking repertoire and she makes them year round.

Caramels

2 cups white sugar           1 ¾ cups white syrup
2 cups heavy cream         1 cup butter
Pinch salt                         1 tbls. vanilla

Put sugar, white Karo syrup, salt and butter in heavy large kettle. Add cream. Stir well to dissolve the sugar. Put the lid on the kettle and bring to a rolling boil. Take lid off and lower the heat. This boils over easily. If using electric stove, turn down to medium heat,. Also turn down a gas flame, and continue cooking without stirring for about 35 minutes.

With the candy thermometer, test for 245 degree to 248 degree Fahrenheit. When testing in cold water, candy should form a firm soft ball.

Add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Remove from heat. Add one or more cups chopped walnuts, almonds or Brazil nuts. Pour into a well buttered pan, 8” x 8” and cool. When cool to the touch and almost hard, turn the pan upside down, and with your fingers gently bend the mass out onto a slab. Then cut into desired squares. Dip in chocolate or wrap in wax paper.

Alerting you to possible problems:

1. The caramels are going to burn if you are not making them in a heavy bottomed pan. Bonnie, there is a nice heavy bottomed pressure cooker downstairs in the cabin, if you want to try the test. I think on this front, Rebecca told me she has a special Teflon coated pan so that the mixture slips out of the pan and into the 8” x 8” pan like a dream.

2. The perfect temperature on the candy thermometer is variable, given the altitude at which you are living (this statement is actual and not metaphorical). It is better to do the firm ball test until you get a take on which is exactly the right temperature on your candy thermometer for the place you are living. Besides that, it is fun for the kids to taste all of those soft ball candy-tests-in-cold-water along the way.

Arta