Caramel corn (p. 866)

I've been looking at the Caramel corn (p. 866) recipe for a long time, because it is on the randomly selected list. It is the reason my mom originally gifted me the magic popcorn pot that always makes perfect popcorn. You have to make caramel corn with "real" popcorn, not microwave popcorn, because microwave popcorn is too fragile. I am always going to be grateful to this recipe, because it reminded me how far superior stovetop popcorn is to microwaved popcorn.

I melted butter in a saucepan and then added light brown sugar and water. I brought it up to a boil:



I kept it cooking, without stirring, until it was to the soft-ball stage. I then poured it over my popcorn:



Amazingly delicious. Almost unbelievably good. It would have been even better with nuts, though, so I recommend mixing nuts into it. I also recommend spreading the whole thing out on parchment or wax paper because it was really difficult to chisel off of the bowl. But homemade caramel corn definitely figures in to the "win" category. It was super easy, too, so if you are afraid of making candy, don't let that worry you.

Candy making #2: Fruit jellies (p. 878) , Citrus fruit jellies (p. 878), Cream caramels (p. 864), and Bourbon balls (p. 879)

Of course, in my candy making extravaganza, I made several TJOC recipes. Why didn't I make only candy from TJOC instead of other cookbooks? I don't know, I just saw other recipes that looked terrific and I wanted to try them!

I rather randomly sent candy to friends and family, so I hope they comment on these two blogs about the candies. If you didn't get candy and wanted it, I apologize :) It was probably due to me thinking you didn't like candy or wouldn't be home around the holidays--let me know for next time! And I didn't send the whole compliment of candy to everyone because I didn't make that much .

Josh's good friend Jan mentioned that her kids liked gummies. While leafing through TJOC, I noticed a recipe for Fruit jellies (p. 878) and had a feeling that was as close as I was going to get to gummies. The recipe requires 3 cups of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries. I bought frozen strawberries and blackberries and set them out on the counter to thaw. I was under the impression that the bags would be sealed shut.

The next morning, blackberry juice was ALL over my counter. It looked like someone had been murdered and I've never been so grateful my counter wasn't white. It was a huge mess. I spent the first hour cleaning.

Eventually, I cooked down the blackberries until they "released their juice".



I then mashed the blackberry mixture through my new strainer (thank you uncle Derryl!):



It was at this point that I realized I was an idiot. A major idiot. I HATE straining. And the blackberries took FOREVER. Absolutely FOREVER. Plus I only got the minimum amount of puree that was needed for the jellies.


IMPORTANT TIP! TJOC mentions that you should use 4 envelopes of gelatin to get 3 tablespoons. My envelopes each included 1 tablespoon, so I only needed three envelopes. So look and be careful!

I decided to just mix the gelatin into the cup since that's what I measured the puree in to. It was a big error in judgement because the gelatin clumped WAY too much and had to be cut out of the final project. It was so hard that my kitchen shears almost couldn't cut it. In all future versions I used the medium sized bowl that the recipe called for.



While the gelatin was "softening" I started cooking my sugar/water mixture. It went from opaque:



To clear and bubbly:



The gelatin mixture was then added into sugar mixture and cooked:



Eventually it looked like this:



The next day, I popped the fruit jellies out of the pan, which wasn't easy because the jelly was very sticky:




I cut them with my kitchen shears and rolled them in sugar:



I also made a strawberry version of the jellies:



The strawberries were WWWAAAYYY easier to work with. No problem to strain and I got twice as much juice as I needed, so I made two batches. If I was going to make this again, I would use strawberries and blueberries, which are the easiest to juice.


After making three batches of fruit jellies, I decided to just plow ahead and make Citrus fruit jellies (p. 878), which are essentially just the fruit jellies above with citrus juice.

I mixed orange juice with lemon juice and gelatin.



Like above, I cooked the water/sugar mixture until the soft-ball stage and then added the orange juice:



I stirred until dissolved and then got it back up to the correct heat and poured it into the pan:



I finally cut the jellies and rolled them in sugar. I couldn't' find superfine sugar so I just used my normal sugar which is pretty fine to begin with.



The gummies are incredibly sugary. Inside and out. And I don't think they are going to travel well but I was unwilling to wrap all three thousand of them. So I apologize to people for the crushed candy!

I'm also rather sure the kids won't like them--I know when I was a kid, I usually wanted the store-bought version of food, not the homemade (except for Italian food, which was essentially all my family cooked). For example, I detested my grandmother's homemade macaroni and cheese because I wanted the radioactive orange Kraft version.

I'm not sure what motivated me to make Bourbon balls (p. 879). It certainly wasn't because I had bourbon on hand (because I didn't). I think it was because I was thinking of the rum ball cookies that I like and hoping they would be similar (they weren't). I went to the liquor store and stared at the dozens of choices. I really, really wanted to buy the cheapest one. Unfortunately, I knew that the flavor would really come through and I needed good bourbon. So I bought Maker's Mark (and I like the bottle!).



I sifted powdered sugar and cocoa together using my new sifter:



And I mixed bourbon and corn syrup in another bowl. The recipe says you could use bourbon OR rum, but if you used rum, would they really be bourbon balls?



I mixed the cocoa mixture and the bourbon mixture:



I then smashed some Nilla wafers with a mallet and mixed them with chopped pecans and then I mixed the cocoa mixture with it:



And shaped them into balls:



They didn't shape into balls easily and really wanted to fall apart. I kept adding bourbon, so they were pretty stout. And hard as tiny rocks--although rather good. I'm really interested to know what other people think about them.

I had made chocolate cream caramels (and I did it again this time, although I'm not going to detail it because I did it again). I hadn't made Cream caramels (p. 864). The recipe was pretty similar. I mixed sugar, corn syrup, butter, and heavy cream in a pot and then heated it up until the firm-ball stage. Stirring constantly. It took forever.




Boiling caramel is scary! Use a deep pot so it doesn't boil over:



At the very end, another cup of cream was poured in and the mixture was brought back up to temperature. I poured it into a lined disposable pan. I learned from experience that lining the pans was not necessary (that tip came from Brittles, Barks, and Bonbons and was absolutely true).



And wrapped them up cute!



I was afraid they didn't turn out because they felt so hard but they tasted perfect.



Notes on candy making:
There are two types of people that shouldn't make candy.
1. People who hate to measure. Measuring ingredients and watching the temperature is incredibly important.
2. People who are impatient and think "well, I'll just turn up the temperature" or "it surely doesn't need to be stirred all the time" shouldn't make candy.

Disposable pans are terrific. Candy just pops right out!

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Candy post #1--non-TJOC recipes and a PSA for dog owners

So, several years ago I decided to make cookies for a bunch of my friends. I made dozens and dozens of cookies and sent them all over the country. I was so insane about this that I made cookies and sent them out days before having a rib removed and moving to Colorado at the end of 2006.

But I hate baking in Colorado because of the altitude, so I didn't send any cookies out in 2007 or 2008.

This year I started getting passive-aggressive comments from my friends about the lack of cookies, which were both hilarious and annoying. I didn't want to do the cookies again but I realized that I had a new love that I could make instead...candy!

Candy is actually better in Colorado than the midwest because of the low humidity. I thought they would take approximately the same amount of time as the cookies. That was incredibly wrong. They took me at least ten times as much time.

I made many types of candy, half from TJOC and half from other cookbooks. I went to Barnes and Noble and perused their candy-making section. It was four books. Only four books. I bought two of them. I actually bought fifty percent of their candy section. Not even half the titles--half of the books!

The first book I bought was The Field Guide to Candy. I was excited about this book! It was cute and colorful and had information on approximately every candy ever made! I decide to make several candies out of it! I started by making gumdrops.

This is what I ended up with:



That is not a gumdrop, even if you cut it. And it didn't even taste good. I threw it away. I figured it was my fault and made peppermints. An even bigger disaster that almost ruined my saucepan (I didn't even take a picture). DON'T BUY THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU JUST WANT TO LOOK AT THE PICTURES! I had been really excited about making cherry cordials for my father--I had the cherries soaking in kirsch and everything--and I decided not to try because I was not optimistic that they would turn out.

I had much, much better luck with Brittles, Barks, and Bonbons by Charity Ferreira. I made three recipes from it. I'm not going to do a step-by-step because these aren't TJOC recipes :)

Butter mints! I didn't know these little mints were called butter mints but I always take a handful when I see them out at a resturant. They were easy to make and delicious. They also don't require any cooking so they would be a good starter candy.



Peppermint bark is something that I've never been a huge fan of, but it's really easy to make. Believe it or not, I couldn't find candy canes at the grocery store. I certainly couldn't believe it. It always seems like there are hundreds of candy canes everywhere and I get dozens of them for holidays--and I don't even like them! It took a special candy cane pilgrimage to Walgreens (which has a wide selection of candy canes).



As I said, I don't like peppermint bark, so I have no idea how it tastes. But a coworker who loves the stuff said it was tasty. And it sure was pretty!

Rocky Road!



Personally, I love rocky road. And s'mores. I like chocolatey combos. This rocky road was just chocolate, marshmallows, and pecans and it was aaammmmaaazzzing. The book taught me a great trick--don't worry about tempering the chocolate, just melt the chocolate so slowly that it never falls out of temper.

I also made macadamia nut brittle. Incredibly good if you like macadamia nuts, although rather expensive to make.




PSA--I call my dog a little roomba because she is constantly eating everything that falls on the floor. I dropped macadamia nuts and didn't think anything of it. About ten hours later, I went upstairs to go to bed and called Duchess. She didn't follow me. I kept calling her and looked down the stairs and she was staggering up. I went to get her and her back legs weren't working--they were paralyzed. I immediately figured that she had probably eaten something she shouldn't have and I googled and found out that MACADAMIA NUTS ARE TOXIC FOR DOGS. I called the ER and they said that it should pass in 24 hours, just watch her. She was better in 24 hours but it was terrifying--it actually paralyzed her back legs but the poor dog still was wagging her tail :(


Finally, out of my 1964 TJOC, I made Maple caramels:



First off, the recipe was written in (apparently) 60's lingo. I was supposed to cook the candy over a "quick heat" and then cook the ingredients "slowly". Very vague. It took about an hour to get up to temperature. When I popped them out and cut them, they were extremely fragile and granular--I was sure they were wrong. I gave one to my father (who, unfortunately for him, is on the Atkin's diet and couldn't eat any of the candy) and he told me they were perfect--it was an old-fashioned candy and that was exactly what they were supposed to taste like. I found them extremely addictive--they only had four ingredients--maple syrup (spelled sirup, strangely, and the real stuff--very expensive at Whole Foods), brown sugar, cream, and butter.

The table got incredibly full--and this wasn't even all the candy!



Hooray for candy-making!

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Penuche (p. 876)

I love candy making. I ADORE candy making. I think it's the scientist in me--confections require a precise recipe and following directions to the most minute point, which I enjoy. And I love fudge.

I decided to make Penuche (p. 876). First things first, you pronounce penuche puh-noo-chee and it's a Mexican brown sugar fudge. I haven't made non-quick fudge in a long, long time (quick fudge utilizing marshmallow fluff).

I mixed brown sugar, salt, half and half, and heavy cream over low heat until the sugar dissolved.




The heat was then raised to medium until the temperature reached the soft-ball stage. DON'T STIR! It's so difficult not to stir but it will ruin the texture of the candy.




Butter and vanilla were added without stirring. The pot was then immediately sat in a water bath and allowed to cool to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.



The penuche then had to be stirred. I think this would be fairly easy if I had a marble slab--I would have just poured it out and waited for it to cool and then kneaded it (and, believe it or not, they sell marble slabs at Williams-Sonoma, I'm just waiting to be able to buy it). The penuche was almost impossible to stir. I handed it over to Josh, who had to put some serious effort into stirring.



Coconut and pecans were added in and it was then poured into a buttered pan.



It was delicious! If you hate coconut, stay far, far away from this recipe, but I like coconut (and pecans and fudge and brown sugar) so I loved it! A little goes a really long way, so cut it into tiny squares. I will definitely make it again. Are there any other candy-makers out there?

Soft-boiled eggs (p. 194) and Chocolate cream caramels (p. 865)

I'm going to admit it--this blog and the four following it are randomly split up. I made all 13 recipes in three days and several of the recipes that go together were made over several days. So I decided to break them up over multiple entries.

I wanted to make something fast (and TJOCy) for breakfast. Unfortunately, I hadn't been grocery shopping and the cupboards were essentially bare. But I always have eggs! I made a couple Soft-boiled eggs (p. 194). I don't know how you all eat your eggs, but I can definitively say that I never order them soft-boiled. In fact, I think I've only ever had a soft-boiled egg once (at dad's).

I boiled some water, reduced it to a simmer, added the eggs, and cooked for four minutes. When they were done I cracked the top off.



I could have easily eaten it in an egg cup but, alas, I don't own egg cups (does anyone?). How were they? Very very runny. If you don't like runny yolks AND runny whites, soft-boiled eggs are not for you. I like runny yolks and I throw the whites away (or give them to my mom or Josh, depending on who is with me), so I enjoyed my egg with some toast. That being said, I can't imagine making these again.

I have been thinking about candy making for a while now. I really like making candy. It requires a totally different skill set from cooking or baking. I have relatively bad circulation and cold hands, which are a terrific asset for candy-making and pastry. I like watching the candy thermometer--and I have three awesome new candy thermometers. And I had a terrific experience making marshmallows. I decided to make Chocolate cream caramels (p. 865).

Sugar, corn syrup, salt, and heavy cream were mixed and brought up to 234 degrees Fahrenheit. It took about twenty minutes and needed to be stirred constantly. The mixture went from this:




To this--a nice caramel color:




Actually, that was after I added another cup of cream and brought it back up to 234 degrees. I then chopped up three ounces of unsweetened chocolate.



I really hate using baker's chocolate because it's poisonous to dogs and my little dog is constantly at my feet when I'm cooking. Josh and I put up the baby gate to keep her out of the kitchen (just in case). I added the chocolate to the sugar/cream mixture, briefly stirred it, and then poured it in to a buttered pan (without scrapping the bottom).



Perfect! I let them dry overnight and then cut them into squares (using kitchen shears) and individually wrapped them in plastic wrap. They were really good--chocolaty and smooth with a terrific caramel flavor. I can't wait to make the cream caramels now.

Chili Con Carne (p.513) and Mexican Orange Drops (p. 874)

More candy making! I had no specific reason to make candy but I was in a baking mood (probably because I'm stressed--I like to bake when I'm stressed!). I decided to make Mexican Orange Drops (p. 874).

The first step is to melt one cup of sugar. I have to admit--I didn't know that sugar would melt with no liquid at all.

This is what I started with. You can see the sugar starting to liquidate at the edges.



Eventually, the sugar looked like this:




And it ended looking like this:



I figured that was what the recipe meant when it said "rich brown"--I was pretty excited because this was a new experience for me--and a new skill!

The recipe than says to add in some boiling water or orange juice--because the recipe's name has "orange" in it, I decided to use orange juice. The sugar DID NOT like the orange juice being added and it spit it all over. It was pretty scary! I was glad I was wearing an apron (yes, I know, but it protects my clothes).



Hot evaporated milk, sugar, and salt are then added. This was scary! As the milk was added, the boiling mixture kept threatening to boil over--and I was not looking forward to the kitchen being covered in scalding hot sugar. The pot is then covered an cooked for a few minutes.







It then had to be cooked until it was 234 degrees. I was expecting to have a lot of time since the marshmallow mixture took FOREVER to get to temperature...but this was totally different! It hit 234 almost immediately. If you make this recipe, watch the temperature closely.





The zest from two oranges is then added. I really really recommend a microplane grater! I really despise zesting with a grater--but the microplane not only zests to the correct degree quickly (only zest, no white pith) but also collects the zest. It's fast and easy and I think every one who bakes should have one in their collection.





A cup of nuts are mixed in and the mixture is beat until creamy. Now, I don't know how they are supposed to get "creamy" but it started to make snapping noises and was almost impossible so I decided to quit stirring--it was almost breaking the wooden spoon.





The candy was then dropped on the foil. It was NOT easy to drop either--it was very sticky.




I was terrified that the candy wasn't going to come off of the foil. My solution was to let it dry for a day--and then they did come off. I wrapped them in saran wrap. They were very strange. The MODs were EXTREMELY citrusy--if you like orange flavor, these are for you. I'm not as into extreme citrus so I wasn't sure about them...the consistency was that of pralines. I LOVE pralines, so that worked really well for me. I'm not sure what MODs are supposed to look and taste like but these were great.



I needed something fast to make because it was a Wednesday night. Why does it being a Wednesday matter? Because on W, Josh likes to watch Bones and I like to watch American's Next Top Model, and I tend to watch it in my office, which is nowhere near the kitchen. I decided to make Chili Con Carne (p.513).

The first step is to combine onions, garlic (a lot of garlic!), a jalapeno, and some salt in a pan, until the vegetables are softened. Easy, right?




This was where I ran into chili-problem-number-one. I made a big error in judgment. I seeded the jalopeno and didn't immediately wash my hands. Why does this matter? Because I managed to touch the bottom of my nose and my lips with the jalapeño hand. And it felt like I lit them on fire. ALWAYS wash your hands after doing anything with peppers. I washed my face with soap and water, which helped, but it burned for about an hour.


Meat is then added. The recipe calls for three pounds of boneless beef chuck cut into cubes. I used stew meat that I bought at the grocery store.




I hate browning meat because it seems to toughen it. I think I overbrowned it because I was in the middle of making the candy and ignored it. A half cup of chili powder was then added (you can make your own but I just used purchased chili powder).




At this point I got totally overwhelmed. This was what my stove looked like:




Four burners--all full. Because I was so busy I didn't manage to get an "after" picture of the chili. But tomatoes, vinegar, and water are added to the mix, and it's cooked for a couple hours.

How was it? I thought the flavor was delicious but I hated the big chunks of meat. I think that's just a personal preference though--if I made it again I would use either finely diced or ground beef. I think chili is one of those things that everyone has very specific views on what is best--lots of beans or no beans, ground meat or cubed meat, spicy or not spicy. I have to make it again at some point because the following recipe is exactly the same as chili con carne, expect with beans, so I might make it with chili ground beef (ground with a larger diameter than normal ground beef).