Candy Making

Hey, All!

Sorry I don't have a whole lot of stuff to tell you, but I've been busy making candy this last week. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished, but still have a few days of candy making to do.

I've made 2 batches of MAG's Decadent Fudge, and wrapped the pieces in foil one batch of Sea Salt Caramel (dipped in dark chocolate), Aftershock cinnamon caramel. Of the molded truffle filled chocolates, I've made:

Maple Walnut, Strawberry Margarita, Cranberry, Limoncello, Whiskey Toffee, Amaretto, Rum Raisin, Porto, Grand Marnier, Key Lime, Frangelico, Gingerbread, Grapefruit, and Peppermint Schnapps.

I did take pictures for a tutorial Margaret-style, but I haven't had a chance to download them to even see if they are usable. I'll download them and then, hopefully, I'll have a chance to organize them into something to blog about next week.

Okay, I just looked at them. They're so-so. I have all the kitchen lights on and they still look yellowy and dim, but the ones with the flash are washed out. Seriously, I don't know how the Pioneer Woman does it!

During this process, I had to take Tuesday off--Weight Watchers, lunch with my 91-year old mom (we hung out and chatted until her dentist appt.), took her to the dentist, picked my daughter up from school, fix dinner and then off to dry land and swim practice. The only thing I accomplished on Tuesday was crocheting.

Then on Thursday, I had to hit the liquor store. I knew I was running out of some flavors and had to make some new truffle fillings. AND more than $222 later, I was home making flavors--Amaretto, Frangelico, Grand Marnier, Gingerbread, and grapefruit. The grapefruit one was supposed to have Blue Curacao in it, but when I added a small amount to the concentrated red-orange of the grapefruit-tequila combo, it would have turned into something totally gross. Who wants to eat a gross brown mess?

Yes, the gingerbread is kinda a gross brown color, but it tastes like gingerbread, while the grapefruit combo wouldn't have fit that look AT ALL!

Now, I have a decent size bottle of Blue Curacao and no idea how to use it!

Anyway, I have four flavors to mold today: Chambord (raspberry), Buttershots (butterscotch), Black forest (cherry), Barenjager (honey). The only filling in this batch made with white chocolate is the Chambord. I should have enough of the fillings for the molds, but you never know with some of the deeper molds, but I have supplies to make more if I need to.

These four will keep me busy most of the day after my walkies. I need to make at least 50 candies of each flavor and the molds only make 8 candies each. Let's do the math: I need to make at least 7 batches for a total of 56 candies. Extras always need to be made to account for breakage, leakage, and taste-testing. Now we take those 56 candies and multiply it by 4 flavors, which equals 224 candies.

It takes me roughly, 30-45 minutes to make one batch of candies.

In theory, I should finish them in 4 hours, but that doesn't take into account the trimming of excess chocolate, or putting them in paper cups. Trimming can take up to 2 hours on 224 candies, depending on the shape of the mold and how messy I am.

Just reading about this is giving me a headache! I finished watching all the Harry Potter movies last week. I think I'll watch The Mummy 1 & 2. I need a little Brendan Frasier to get me though.

After I finish the molded chocolates, I'm still not finished. I have the Buttery Pecan toffee (dipped in chocolate and coated with ground pecans), Turtles (caramel coated pecans dipped in chocolate), Sea Salt caramel (this time dipped in milk chocolate), Grand Marnier caramels to mold, regular caramel to mold, cherries Jubilee caramel and a mixed berry caramel to mold. I also thought I'd make a Kahlua filling--which is ANOTHER molded chocolate! 

I'm already running behind today, so I'd better get a move on!

Later, Peeps!