Cooking Candy

Well, still on the random access theme. Random glimpses into my life. We are on a candy making binge at home. Marshmallows, first I made a batch to prove it could be done better at home. Then hubby repeated it, to prove he could. Now he talks about whipping up some marshmallows like it is an everyday thing. As the bonus, ours taste better and don't have two dyes and terasodiumphosphate. The cost is about the same.

So, what do you do when you find baking chocolate but no box? How can you tell if it is sweet, semi-sweet, or unsweetened? Well, I couldn't tell, and I didn't want to bake with it, so the obvious choice was candy. I threw those three unknown squares into my candy/popcorn pot (2.5 quart covered nonstick sauce pan) with the end of the bag of sugar, and the end of the bag of powdered sugar, some turbinado, some cocoa, some corn syrup, a stick of butter and some water. Heat gently on med low until it boils down the sides of the pot, then cover five minutes to steam down the sides of the pot. Add candy thermometer and watch without touching until soft ball stage was reached. Remove from heat, add a splash (2t) of vanilla and stir while bubbling. Pour unto parchment (ungreased) cover and wait. (The cover keeps the kids and cats out, other homes may not require this step) I waited overnight and the fudgy goodness was easily peeled from the parchment and cut with scissors. The kids loved it. My hubby said this is what tootsie rolls wanted to be.

I joined spark people so cooking may have even more interesting turns.

On the babymaking front, hubby is starting to talk about doing it on purpose. He thinks I could get preg any Monday, I explained it was every fourth Monday. (slaphead)

Although, at my 'advanced maternal age' I could be ovulatiing anytime. I told him every other day would work better than Mondays. ;)