First, I attempted to make divinity. I'm not incredibly familiar with this candy but I remembered that he likes it so I gave it a shot. Wikipedia says that "Divinity is a nougat-like confectionery made mainly with egg white, corn syrup, and sugar." I could tell just from the description that this could not be made in to a healthy treat so I did not even try. After all, I wasn't really planning on eating these. I used a recipe from Paula Deen that you can find here. However, I would recommend doing more internet research than just this recipe because after the fact I found more information on how hot to heat the syrup and I think maybe I shouldn't have just blindly trusted Mrs. Deen in this case.
The process was unlike anything I have ever done. First of all I have NEVER used white corn syrup in my kitchen. I have also never beaten egg whites to stiff peaks (though I have seen it done on TV many times). I think I got the egg whites portion down...at least they seemed like stiff peaks to me.
Melting the sugar, corn syrup and water together was rather exciting. I loved seeing it bubble and using my new candy thermometer. The recipe said to use a heavy bottom pot so I chose to use my enameled cast iron pot. In retrospect this was not a great idea since the pot was too heavy to lift off the stove and pour the scalding hot sugar in to the mixer. I ended up using a ladle which worked OK but might have contributed to the gooey outcome I suppose.
Once everything was mixed together I had no idea if it was done. The recipe says to "beat until mixture holds its shape." No clue what that means...what shape? I beat it for about 5 minutes and decided it seemed fluffy and stopped. I think that was my mistake right there. Once I started to spoon everything on to the parchment paper it just oozed everywhere. Disaster. I tried to put some in to muffin tins...even after letting them sit for a day and a half they were still gooey and would not come out. In the end, a few of the thinner candies did dry out and tasted pretty good. Most of the mixture ended up in a Ziploc bag. It has the texture of marshmallow cream. I'm going to try to use it this week to make cookie sandwiches or something...I just hate to waste it. So, Divinity - 1 Ashley - 0.
Luckily, I think I redeemed myself slightly with the second candy attempt: Buckeyes. These were SO easy it was wonderful. Unfortunately, my non baker self kicked in and neglected to read or learn anything about melting chocolate correctly. I had seen it done a zillion times on the Food Network with the whole double boiler situation so I got that setup and dumped in the chopped up chocolate (I used half milk, half semi sweet). It started to melt but never got to the consistency necessary to dip the peanut butter balls in. So, I added a couple tablespoons of coffee (Ina Garten always uses coffee in her chocolate!) and it loosened up a bit but still not enough. So, I added a couple splashes of milk and voila! - I could easily dip the balls. Unfortunately, I guess adding all that liquid made it more of a ganache so it never really got very hard. They firmed up enough to be mighty delicious and pretty though so I didn't cry over it too much. Lesson learned for next time.
The last thing I made for him were Key Lime Cupcakes. But...you'll have to wait to hear about those as they definitely deserve their very own entry.
No comments:
Post a Comment