Confections! What did we make? (2012 – 2014)

[minas6907]

Apple, banana, and blueberry Dots.

[curls]

Apple, banana, and blueberry Dots.

Now that triggers fun childhood memories. Dots!

[lironp]

Hibiscus caramel with Ghana milk chocolate-honey ganache.

I couldn't get decent lighting, but the hibiscus caramel is actually a dark pink.

I just love that flavor, and have recently made a hibiscus PDF, hibiscus ganache and now this.

[cmflick]

2013-03-04 20.47.35 - Copy.jpg

Hibiscus caramel with Ghana milk chocolate-honey ganache.

I couldn't get decent lighting, but the hibiscus caramel is actually a dark pink.

I just love that flavor, and have recently made a hibiscus PDF, hibiscus ganache and now this.

Can you share recipes for your hibiscus caramel, hibiscus PDF and hibiscus ganache? Hibiscus is one of my favorite flavors.

[minas6907]

Peppermint Patties for a wedding next weekend.

[Kerry Beal]

Gorgeous Peppermint Patties.

I had young Kyle's airbrush to get working again (easily solved by hubby by cleaning the chocolate out from under the trigger of the gun) - so painted up some eggs to test drive it.

Decided to make coffee meltaway - didn't want to add any moisture to the mixture - so put the chocolate, the coconut oil and the coffee beans in double vacuum bags and into my immersion circulator overnight at 50º C. Strained out the beans in the morning and cooled it until it started to thicken before piping it into the prepared egg shells.

[Beth Wilson]

Yum! I want one!!!! You know coffee and chocolate is my weakness.

They are really sweet. Love the decoration colours. How is the infused flavour?

[Kerry Beal]

Yum! I want one!!!! You know coffee and chocolate is my weakness.

They are really sweet. Love the decoration colours. How is the infused flavour?

The flavour turned out really great.

[Tri2Cook]

Those look nice Kerry... and they sound tasty too!

[keychris]

I made a flower!

Not too bad for a first attempt, need to think a bit more about it to do it better

[Darienne]

Well done, keychris!

[Alleguede]

A little fun...

Edited March 16, 2013 by Alleguede (log)

[Alleguede]

2013-03-04 20.47.35 - Copy.jpg

Hibiscus caramel with Ghana milk chocolate-honey ganache.

I couldn't get decent lighting, but the hibiscus caramel is actually a dark pink.

I just love that flavor, and have recently made a hibiscus PDF, hibiscus ganache and now this.

Very nice bonbon. Would you mind sharing your caramel recipe on this piece. The Ghana is a very tasty milk chocolate. Very nice combination. Nice thin shell also. Well done

[minas6907]

Heres todays wares. For the wedding on saturday, assorted taffies (lemon, blueberry, strawberry, and lavender) and Grand Marnier lollis.

[Darienne]

Oh wow. :Those lollies are terrific. How much Grand Marnier can you add to a hard tack recipe, please?

[minas6907]

Glad you like them! The Grande Marnier was a flavoring I purchased, not the alcohol. I don't think liquors would ever be a very effective way of flavoring candy at all, that would be cool if you can flavor them, but you'd have a short shelf life.

[Darienne]

Glad you like them! The Grande Marnier was a flavoring I purchased, not the alcohol. I don't think liquors would ever be a very effective way of flavoring candy at all, that would be cool if you can flavor them, but you'd have a short shelf life.

Excellent point. I hadn't thought of that. I must try to get some Grand Marnier flavoring. Where do you get yours if I might ask.

Found a source within a hundred miles...unfortunately they are out of it and not likely to re-order for a bit. The joys of living in the middle of nowhere, near nothing much.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Darienne (log)

[minas6907]

I have a grande marnier flavor from Loranne oils, but the one I use for these lollipops is from getsuckered.com. They have some nice flavors, ones that are different from Loranne. I used the flavor from get suckered in this case because it uses soybean oil as a carrier, where as the Loranne Grande Marnier uses almond oil, just for the sake of possible allergies.

Edited March 19, 2013 by minas6907 (log)

[Darienne]

Thanks Minas. Went and explored in the Get Suckered website. Good stuff.

[jjahorn]

I haven't had much luck with my first attempts at sugar or caramel based products - my 'cracker-jack' style popcorn just tated bitter, and now I've ruined a large batch of walnuts (that my daughter and I spent a good hour peeling) trying to make sugar coated nuts (like the 'beer nuts done with almonds).

I didn't have a recipe and basically just made a wet caramel - brown sugar and a little water to get it going quickly. and tossed the nuts and then baked them on a low heat for a while.

The 'coating' stuck to the nuts, but it is powdery and doesn't have either the intese sweetness I was expecting, or a nice shine, and they seem to actually suck the moisture out of my mouth. I popped a few into a bowl of Tonka-bean ice cream I made the next day though and they work well in it - the dryness is covered by the cream. They would work well with a maple ice cream, so not all is lost.

Can anyone explain what I should have done, or have a good recipe for sugar coated nuts? I'd like to be able to understand what I did wrong.

Edited March 22, 2013 by jjahorn (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I haven't had much luck with my first attempts at sugar or caramel based products - my 'cracker-jack' style popcorn just tated bitter, and now I've ruined a large batch of walnuts (that my daughter and I spent a good hour peeling) trying to make sugar coated nuts (like the 'beer nuts done with almonds).

I didn't have a recipe and basically just made a wet caramel - brown sugar and a little water to get it going quickly. and tossed the nuts and then baked them on a low heat for a while.

The 'coating' stuck to the nuts, but it is powdery and doesn't have either the intese sweetness I was expecting, or a nice shine, and they seem to actually suck the moisture out of my mouth. I popped a few into a bowl of Tonka-bean ice cream I made the next day though and they work well in it - the dryness is covered by the cream. They would work well with a maple ice cream, so not all is lost.

Can anyone explain what I should have done, or have a good recipe for sugar coated nuts? I'd like to be able to understand what I did wrong.

When you are sugar coating nuts they go through two stages, first the sugar melts, coats the nuts and goes powdery. You need to persist in the heating beyond this until it melts again and then goes glasslike and darkens.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Kerry Beal (log)

[minas6907]

Heres my projects for today, the last two items for the candy table at my friends wedding. Caramels and an almond nougat.

[keychris]

When I coat hazelnuts, I do it in two stages.

First, I cook the sugar syrup to 114C, remove from the heat then add the warm nuts. Stir the nuts through and keep stirring until the sugar has recrystallised over the nuts and looks like superfine icing sugar in the bowl. Return the bowl to the heat and stir constantly, lifting and moving the nuts away from the heat, until the sugar remelts and coats the nuts as a caramel. This second heating takes me >20 minutes for 250g nuts.

Don't know if you can apply the same process to walnuts though

[minas6907]

Wedding was tonight, here's a side shot of the candy bar. More pics to follow.

[kaneel]

Such an elegant display ...btw my mouth is watering looking at the caramels( my weakness)