Hard candy is one of the easier candy things to make if you read the instructions and do exactly what it says. A couple of things you should not do ~ like I did the first time I made hard candy in High School ~ are the following:
First, don't add your extract until the very last minute. Extract is made of alcohol, and the heat burns the alcohol off in those final seconds, leaving you with just the scent and flavor. If you add the extract too soon, it burns all the flavor out, too. Leaving you with just the scent. Younger me did not believe in reading directions and soon we had an abominable smell in our kitchen~a horrible infusion of grape and cinnamon~from adding too much flavoring to my batches of hard candy. I can still remember the smell to this day. Awful, awful, awful.
Second, don't take your heavy pot outside and bang it on the cement to get the hard candy out of it. I learned this the hard way. The best way, which my wonderfully understanding Dad showed me, is to fill it with hot water and let it sit for about 10 minutes. It turns right back into sugar and melts off. DUH. Fortunately the pot was stronger than I was. I now own this pot and use it to make all my candy, dents in the bottom and all...a reminder of me not having any patience. And that well made pots will outlive you and your stupid first attempt at making suckers.
Anyway, hard candy really is easy to make. And it makes wonderful water features on cakes! My best advice to you, aside from those two little nuggets above, is to go to a baking store or baking section of your grocery store and buy some hard candy flavorings or oils. They run around $2 or so and come in tiny little pre-measured bottles called a dram, which is a teaspoons worth. They are about 4 times stronger than extracts and made to do the job. And now that we're all much older and *cough* wiser, read the instructions and do exactly what it says. Really! It's that easy! I mean, it's not Rocket Surgery. ;)
Old Fashioned Hard Candy
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
1 dram (or 1 teaspoon) candy flavoring or extract
food coloring (optional)
powdered sugar (optional)
-Lightly oil or butter your candy molds or a cookie sheet and set aside.
-In a large, heavy saucepan, mix together the sugar, corn syrup and water.
-Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
-Clip on a candy thermometer making sure it does not touch the bottom of the pan. Bring mixture to a boil without stirring.
-When the syrup reaches 260 degrees F, add the food coloring. Do NOT stir. The boiling action will mix in the color.
-When the mixture reaches 300 degrees F, remove from heat. After the boiling action stops, add the flavoring and stir. Be careful, as the mixture will steam when you add the flavoring.
-Quickly pour your syrup into the molds or onto a cookie sheet.
-If desired, score while warm to break it into squares when cool. Dust pieces with powdered sugar to prevent them from sticking.
-Store in an airtight container.
------------------------
Tips:
You can melt your hard candy back down in your oven...this is also good for making windows for gingerbread houses or those glorious stained glass sugar cookies. Just put your hard candy in a plastic bag and smash it up into little chunks, pour the pieces into your cut-out cookie windows or onto a greased cookie sheet or a piece of greased foil in an even layer and put it in a 400 degree oven (or whatever your cookie recipe says). It will only take a few minutes, so watch it carefully. Your candy will melt back together in one even layer. Leave to cool and then remove from the sheet. Ta-da! Magic! :)
Always make sure there is some kind of butter or oil on whatever you pour your hard candy into or it will stick and you'll be left to soak the stuff off in the sink.
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Minty
I know I haven't gotten around to posting some of those other promised recipes yet...don't worry, I will!
In the meantime, I tried a recipe yesterday that I thought was brilliant and would be impressive for a cookie exchange or a gift. Mint Shortbread! They are drizzled with white and milk chocolate and they taste a little like a grasshopper cookie, only much, much better.
Mint Shortbread Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons mint extract
2 and 2/3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Green food coloring
White and Milk Chocolate chips
-In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
-Beat in the egg and then stir in the mint extract.
-Add the flour and salt and stir in until completely mixed.
-Add several drops of food coloring and mix well. (I find this works best if you mix until the dough is marbled and then knead it with your hands so it gets well mixed, but you don't get green fingers.) Add food coloring until desired shade of green is reached.
-Roll the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
-Slice dough into 1/4 inch thick slices and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
-Bake for 8-9 minutes or until cookie just begin to brown at the edges.
-Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.
-Drizzle with melted chocolate chips if desired*. (Melt each kind seperately in microwave safe bowls. Instructions on how to do this follow.)
Makes about 60 cookies
(depending on what size log you make...mine was about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter and about 2 feet long)
----------------------------------------------------
*Some tips about chocolate and how I did my drizzling!
Once upon a time, right after I graduated from high school, I worked at a chocolate factory. I guess that would make me an Oompa Loompa of sorts, but this chocolate factory wasn't anywhere near as fun or pretty as Willie Wonka's. (Nor was my manager anything as lucious and Johnny Depp.)
I learned lots of things while I was there, like how to make nifty designs so you could tell the chocolates apart and also how to eat so much chocolate that you don't ever want to eat it again.
All kidding aside, it's important how you heat chocolate so that it doesn't do scary things that make very un-attractive treats. Overheating it and/or getting any water in it will make it sieze up and turn into a lumpy, sugary mess. Cooling it too quickly will cause it turn grey, and it won't set up properly. Not cooling it enough will ensure messy, sticky fingers.
Here is the easiest way I know, short of owning a warm chocolate vat, to melt chocolate:
Put the chocolate (chips in this case) in a microwave safe bowl and microwave them for 30 seconds. Stir them around and put them back in for another 30 seconds. Stir again. Don't be tempted to put them in until they melt. This will overheat your chocolate and make it sieze. If the chips aren't melted yet, put them back in for another 30 second but watch them. As soon as the chocolate starts to look like it's melting you need to take it out and stir it. Make sure you stir it really well because this may be all it needs for it to melt the chips.
Without trying to get too scientific, the reason you need to do this is because everything you're cooking in a microwave will conduct heat from the bottom up. The bottom of the chips will melt first while the top chips might not look melted at all. In fact, some kinds of chocolate don't even look like they're melted at all until you stir them up. If you wait for all the chips to melt, the chocolate on the bottom will already be overcooked. This is why it's necessary to stir, stir, stir. The hot chips on the bottom will melt the less hot ones on the top and your chocolate will never get too hot if you remember to stir it often and cook in short bursts.
As soon as there are no more lumps in the chocolate you're ready for drizzling. You can do it freehand with a fork or spoon, or spoon the chocolate into a plastic bag, snip a tiny bit of the corner off and drizzle them that way. You may even be tempted to make nifty swirly designs or star shapes with your chocolate. You little artist, you. :) Just remember that as soon as the chocolate starts to come back to room temperature it will harden up, so you need to do the drizzling in a relatively short amount of time.
The last tip is that you need to give yourself time to let the chocolate set up. It will harden again if you let it sit at room temperature long enough. Faster in a cooler room. Don't be tempted to put them in the freezer. Reason being that when you introduce too much cold into warm you're going to get condensation, and that equals water on your chocolate. Water+Chocolate=Grey, Sticky Chocolate. If you absolutely need them to be done faster, you can put your cookies in the fridge, but not for longer than 5 minutes. This will give the chocolate a chance to cool down just enough. Let them finish out cooling at room temperature. This will ensure perfect cookies.
I will now dismount from my chocolate soapbox.
In the meantime, I tried a recipe yesterday that I thought was brilliant and would be impressive for a cookie exchange or a gift. Mint Shortbread! They are drizzled with white and milk chocolate and they taste a little like a grasshopper cookie, only much, much better.
Mint Shortbread Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons mint extract
2 and 2/3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Green food coloring
White and Milk Chocolate chips
-In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
-Beat in the egg and then stir in the mint extract.
-Add the flour and salt and stir in until completely mixed.
-Add several drops of food coloring and mix well. (I find this works best if you mix until the dough is marbled and then knead it with your hands so it gets well mixed, but you don't get green fingers.) Add food coloring until desired shade of green is reached.
-Roll the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
-Slice dough into 1/4 inch thick slices and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
-Bake for 8-9 minutes or until cookie just begin to brown at the edges.
-Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.
-Drizzle with melted chocolate chips if desired*. (Melt each kind seperately in microwave safe bowls. Instructions on how to do this follow.)
Makes about 60 cookies
(depending on what size log you make...mine was about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter and about 2 feet long)
----------------------------------------------------
*Some tips about chocolate and how I did my drizzling!
Once upon a time, right after I graduated from high school, I worked at a chocolate factory. I guess that would make me an Oompa Loompa of sorts, but this chocolate factory wasn't anywhere near as fun or pretty as Willie Wonka's. (Nor was my manager anything as lucious and Johnny Depp.)
I learned lots of things while I was there, like how to make nifty designs so you could tell the chocolates apart and also how to eat so much chocolate that you don't ever want to eat it again.
All kidding aside, it's important how you heat chocolate so that it doesn't do scary things that make very un-attractive treats. Overheating it and/or getting any water in it will make it sieze up and turn into a lumpy, sugary mess. Cooling it too quickly will cause it turn grey, and it won't set up properly. Not cooling it enough will ensure messy, sticky fingers.
Here is the easiest way I know, short of owning a warm chocolate vat, to melt chocolate:
Put the chocolate (chips in this case) in a microwave safe bowl and microwave them for 30 seconds. Stir them around and put them back in for another 30 seconds. Stir again. Don't be tempted to put them in until they melt. This will overheat your chocolate and make it sieze. If the chips aren't melted yet, put them back in for another 30 second but watch them. As soon as the chocolate starts to look like it's melting you need to take it out and stir it. Make sure you stir it really well because this may be all it needs for it to melt the chips.
Without trying to get too scientific, the reason you need to do this is because everything you're cooking in a microwave will conduct heat from the bottom up. The bottom of the chips will melt first while the top chips might not look melted at all. In fact, some kinds of chocolate don't even look like they're melted at all until you stir them up. If you wait for all the chips to melt, the chocolate on the bottom will already be overcooked. This is why it's necessary to stir, stir, stir. The hot chips on the bottom will melt the less hot ones on the top and your chocolate will never get too hot if you remember to stir it often and cook in short bursts.
As soon as there are no more lumps in the chocolate you're ready for drizzling. You can do it freehand with a fork or spoon, or spoon the chocolate into a plastic bag, snip a tiny bit of the corner off and drizzle them that way. You may even be tempted to make nifty swirly designs or star shapes with your chocolate. You little artist, you. :) Just remember that as soon as the chocolate starts to come back to room temperature it will harden up, so you need to do the drizzling in a relatively short amount of time.
The last tip is that you need to give yourself time to let the chocolate set up. It will harden again if you let it sit at room temperature long enough. Faster in a cooler room. Don't be tempted to put them in the freezer. Reason being that when you introduce too much cold into warm you're going to get condensation, and that equals water on your chocolate. Water+Chocolate=Grey, Sticky Chocolate. If you absolutely need them to be done faster, you can put your cookies in the fridge, but not for longer than 5 minutes. This will give the chocolate a chance to cool down just enough. Let them finish out cooling at room temperature. This will ensure perfect cookies.
I will now dismount from my chocolate soapbox.
Christmas Cookies
I made the sugar cookie recipe over the weekend, but I didn't get around to rolling them out and cutting them into cute little christmasy things until yesterday. I purchased snowflake, snowman and pine tree cookie cutters from Spoons and Spice and commenced to cookie-ing. Dana sprinkled on the sugars and we had a grand time.
The verdict? They were phenomenal. They tasted wonderful and rich because of just enough cream cheese added to the dough, and they didn't spread out and make the shapes deformed in any way (which is a problem when you're making cut-out cookies). They also turn a brilliant white when they bake, which makes them look beautiful. The only problem I found was that if you use cutters with spindly shapes (like my lovely snowflake cutter that had slender tips) the cookies are tender, which lead to the tips breaking off in an unceremonius fashion. So this may be one to not use with the reindeer cutter that has tiny legs and antlers. Oh well, those tips were still tasty!
Buttery Cut-Out Christmas Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
-Combine everything but the flour in a mixing bowl and beat until well combined and creamy (about 3-4 minutes).
-Gradually add the flour and beat until well mixed, about 2-3 minutes more.
-Divide the dough in half and shape into flat discs. Wrap in each in plastic wrap.
-Refrigerate until firm, at least two hours.
-Take out of the fridge when ready and let rest for about 15 minutes (otherwise it's fairly impossible to roll out).
-Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
-Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick.
-Cut out the shapes your prefer and place at least 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
-Sprinkle with colored sugars before baking if desired.
-Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the edges just start to brown. I find the magic number for my oven is about 8 minutes.
-Let sit on sheets for about 2 minutes (this prevents breakage) and transfer to racks to cool.
-I you prefer to bake your cookies plain you can decorate with icing and candies after they are cooled. Decorate away!
-------------------------------------------
Some helpful Tips!
If you're having trouble transferring your cut dough to the cookie sheets, try these techniques.
-Roll your dough out on waxed paper to keep it from sticking.
-cut out all your shapes on foil sheets, transfer the foil sheet to the baking pan, remove the excess dough around your shapes and bake.
The verdict? They were phenomenal. They tasted wonderful and rich because of just enough cream cheese added to the dough, and they didn't spread out and make the shapes deformed in any way (which is a problem when you're making cut-out cookies). They also turn a brilliant white when they bake, which makes them look beautiful. The only problem I found was that if you use cutters with spindly shapes (like my lovely snowflake cutter that had slender tips) the cookies are tender, which lead to the tips breaking off in an unceremonius fashion. So this may be one to not use with the reindeer cutter that has tiny legs and antlers. Oh well, those tips were still tasty!
Buttery Cut-Out Christmas Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
-Combine everything but the flour in a mixing bowl and beat until well combined and creamy (about 3-4 minutes).
-Gradually add the flour and beat until well mixed, about 2-3 minutes more.
-Divide the dough in half and shape into flat discs. Wrap in each in plastic wrap.
-Refrigerate until firm, at least two hours.
-Take out of the fridge when ready and let rest for about 15 minutes (otherwise it's fairly impossible to roll out).
-Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
-Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick.
-Cut out the shapes your prefer and place at least 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
-Sprinkle with colored sugars before baking if desired.
-Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the edges just start to brown. I find the magic number for my oven is about 8 minutes.
-Let sit on sheets for about 2 minutes (this prevents breakage) and transfer to racks to cool.
-I you prefer to bake your cookies plain you can decorate with icing and candies after they are cooled. Decorate away!
-------------------------------------------
Some helpful Tips!
If you're having trouble transferring your cut dough to the cookie sheets, try these techniques.
-Roll your dough out on waxed paper to keep it from sticking.
-cut out all your shapes on foil sheets, transfer the foil sheet to the baking pan, remove the excess dough around your shapes and bake.
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