Busy Candy Making

Sorry for the lack of bloggitiness, but I'm snowed in with my kidlet and busy making candy. Hopefully, the rest of my supplies will arrive tomorrow, but until then I'll be busy making a few more filled nummies along with Pecan Toffee, peanut Brittle, and fudge if I can make it to the store to get 4 oz. of unsweetened chocolate.

 

Until I can get back on track, I'll leave you with this visual.

 

 

 And if you want to know why molded chocolates take so long, here's a link to my pictorial on how to mold chocolates.

Later, Peeps! And stay safe in the ugly weather!

Foodie Friday -- Making Truffle Filling

I know it's a little early to be thinking of making Christmas candy, but I had huge blocks of Ghirardelli chocolate in the freezer and virtually all the ingredients to make nine out of eleven fillings.

--this is called planning ahead. I bought all those blocks of chocolate last spring because I knew they would disappear over the summer months!

Some are new flavors. Some are tried and true flavors that I simply didn't have enough filling left to make a batch of candy.

I tried to measure and time everything so I could tell you that it's a 'one size fits all' procedure, but I can't.

The fruit purees took up to 45 minutes to boil down (and boil over in the case of Bronx Cheer, a raspberry filling--walk away for one measly second to read a food blog and BAM! Oh, the flames! The sizzling! the mess!), while the liqueur syrups were finished in less than 15 minutes.

Some of the fillings needed more cream than others (the ones made with dark chocolate, for sure), while the ones prepared with white chocolate didn't really need any cream.

Shoot, I had to remake a couple of them because they didn't harden like I expected them to after they cooled down. Cherries Jubilee was one of those culprits, while Pilgrim's Progress (maple) had the opposite problem of setting up while I was stirring in the chocolate. I packaged it anyway, but turned right around to fix the problem.

Though they are in the freezer, I have a feeling I'll have to rework Mango Madness and Bronx Cheer. I really don't want to add more chocolate to harden them up, because it will change the flavor profile. Ugh!

In one or two of the flavors, I added a touch of salt to cut the sweet and enhance the flavor.

I also checked the temperatures while I was cooking them down.

And no, there was no magic number here. Some of them were at the perfect syrup texture at 100 degrees Celsius, but other syrups were finished at 90 degrees C.

I added sugar to all of them, but it varied too. I didn't want them too sweet since the chocolate could push it into the overly sweet category--especially white chocolate, as it can be a little cloying!-- but if there wasn't enough residual sugar in the liquor or fruit, then I needed the sugar to make the syrup.

So while I was making the fillings, I was tweeting about it. A few people responded, but I had fun making up names to go with the fillings--some are lame, but some are very fitting!

This is what I made yesterday:

Pilgrim's Progress -- maple, made from 100% dark amber maple syrup
Midnight Magic -- blackberry and Crème de Cassis puree, it's a beautiful deep purple
Mango Madness -- No mangos, so I tried a Bare Naked smoothie with vodka, a gorgeous yellow-orange color
Bronx Cheer -- raspberry, yanno, Raspberries with raspberry pucker-- a simply divine red with a hint of pinkness
Honey Bear -- honey, Barenjager liqueur with dark chocolate
ButterShots -- butterscotch, Buttershots liqueur with dark chocolate
Cherries Jubilee -- Frozen dark cherries (we don't really get cherries here) and a Bacardi Rum Reserve (I didn't have any brandy!:-()
PomPom -- Pomegranate juice
Cup o' Joe -- coffee, Kahlua liqueur in dark chocolate

I still need to make Strawberry Margarita (I didn't have any limes) and Black Forest (no cherry pucker). The difference between the two cherry fillings: Black Forest and Cherries Jubilee is the liquor the fruit is macerated in and the type of chocolate, dark chocolate for Black Forest, and white chocolate for Cherries Jubilee.

Once my fillings are finished, I can experiment with some various caramels that I want to try.

Why am I starting so early?

Because molding chocolate is a time-consuming, back-breaking job that uses ALL my available counter space, including the stove! I simply don't want to stop what I'm doing to make a filling.

And since I just defrosted the freezer, there's all sorts of room!

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- How to Lose Weight While Eating Bonbons

Two days ago a writer friend posted a link to J. A. Konrath's blog.  Joe is the creator of Jack Daniels, a female detective, and the stories are suspense. Joe is also a huge advocate to self-publishing. Since he left traditional publishing 1) he's made more money, 2) sets his own deadlines, 3) been far more productive as a writer.

That aside, he posed a challenge to his blog readers: publish a story in eight hours, by doing everything yourself, cover, writing, and editing.

This was the kick in the tookus that I needed. I had been wanting to take my blogs and somehow merge them with my candy recipes. When I started putting the blogs together, I just became overwhelmed by the process.

Until this challenge.

This challenge excited me as a writer. Guess I do thrive on deadlines!

The book would be relatively short, only 10,000 words or so. And some of it has been cut and paste, a couple blogs and my recipes.

On Monday, I designed the cover using Amazon's Cover Creator.

And on Tuesday I started writing, and merging blogs, and writing, and editing, and spell checking, and formatting, and tweaking.

This is my final product.

And here's the link to How to Lose Weight While Eating Bonbons.

The price is currently set at $1.99, BUT will be free this weekend!

But those of you who have enjoyed my insight with my Weighty Wednesday blogs or want a couple of candy recipes, then please take a look and buy this book!

Not very subliminal of me, was it?

And no, it's not under my 'real' name. I wanted something fun and catchy. Yes, I know it sounds like a porn star's name, but, well, there you have it.

Later, Peeps!

Candy Making update

Well, folks, any new recipes will be delayed due to my continued candy making.

--Yes, I'm getting very tired of making candy. If I could simply invent fillings and let someone else do the hard work of filling them, then I'd be all over that.

So far, I've made 55 pounds of candy and have about 10 more pounds to make before I spend the day packaging 50+ boxes.

I'm slowly getting there. Today, I should be able to finish.

I have to make five or six more molded chocolates: Kahlua, Berry Caramel, Caramel, Bananas Foster caramel, Grand Marnier caramel, and Cherries Jubilee.

Next week, I'll give you an updated version of what I made.

Later!

Computer Snafu

Yesterday started off so well.

I had an awesome walkies. Fog had settled in, so I waited a little before I started walking. As I walked the sun burned off the fog, leaving behind crystalline spiderwebs lining the chain-linked fence.

It was beautiful. Oh, and I walked for 58 minutes.

As I tried to tweet my comments about my observations and my walkies, my computer hosed up.

An aside about Twitter--98% of the time, okay, make that 99.9%--I forget to use a hashtag. I post mainly for myself, to keep accountable about my walking, but sometimes I post observations. If the post didn't go to my Facebook page, I doubt if anyone other than @MarilynPappano would actually see it!

Back to the hosing up issue. It was taking forever to load, so I decided to reboot it to get its panties out of the wad it was in.

It wouldn't reboot.

This was seriously odd. I waited then I decided to really piss the computer off and did a hard shutdown (non-comp literate people--this is where you push the button on the actual computer, not the monitor).

It wouldn't shut down.

I held the button down for 8-10 seconds, then it finally shut down.

While I waited to start it up, I rotated the laundry from the washer to the dryer.

I returned and turned my computer on. It started up like normal, but then went to a black screen.

Hard-Disk Drive Failure.
Press F1 to initiate restart, F2 to initiate utility program.
(I think this was the exact wording. You would think I would remember since I looked at it all day!)

Oh, crap!

I pressed F1. It went to a blank screen and then my computer shut off.

Double crap!

I turned off everything at the wall and started it up again.

Hard-Disk Drive Failure flashes on the screen again.

grumble, grumble

I text hubby message--I knew the poor thing would be in meetings all day and I try not to bother him. "Computer gave me hard drive failure. Just leave it alone?"

And then I took a shower.

He texts and then calls me back about thirty minutes later when he was on a break. He could have walked me through another start up, but I could survive without it for one day.

I tweeted my computer dead comment on my phone. Well then I  talked to my friend Cyndi to see if she got the crit I did of her short story. It was bleeding on the first two pages.

On an aside: When I crit, I don't pick apart grammatical issues. That's for people who know their grammar. I'll mark something if it doesn't sound right, but that's about it. I tend to look at the logistics of the thing. Plus Cyndi's hero skied in to rescue the captive damsel, and I had serious issues to many of the skiing parts of the equation. I'm a skier, and have skied for over 25 years. I've boarded once and was on my butt so much that it nearly froze off!

When we talked on the phone, we found a better and far cooler answer to the skiing problems.
  Dude became a snowboarder. The clothes are less constrictive and loud. The boots are easier to walk in than plastic ski boots. All around it was a better choice!

And then I made candy.

Pecan praline nuts (seriously addictive!) and peanut butter fudge (good, but it 'cooked' my vanilla. Still haven't figured THAT one out!).

I also did laundry, read more of The Hobbit and watched judge shows.

I lost the one day this week that I knew I could work on my non-fic book. Oh, well, there is always a reason for the way things happen.

Today I have numerous errands to run, Weight Watchers, visit my bro and his granddaughter who stopped in town for a short visit, eat lunch with my mom, bro and grandkid. Pick my girl up from school. Run some more errands before taking her to an intrasquad swim meet at 6:15.

Nope, I don't see any time to sit down and work on anything.

Oh, well.

Later, Peeps

My week in a Nutshell

I have so many blog posts that I want to write, but not enough time to do it. In fact, I have a sticky note by my keyboard with ten very different topics, ranging from Harry Dresden (wizard at large) to Doppelgangers to the KDP Select program on Amazon to how romance is becoming less romantic (I think I've written something similar before!) to the physics of exercise and to weight loss head games. And this is just a few of the totally random stuff that dumps out of my head!

I'll write on one topic only to think of three more that are very pertinent. Shoot, I have enough Weighty Wednesday blog ideas to take up two months, but I want to write them NOW. I need to get them written, because the longer I take to write them the less I remember what struck me as important about the topic.

Yes, I have the attention span of a gnat.

Over the holidays, I read a lot of books, many of them I'm itching to tell you about, er . . . but most of the topics aren't reflected kindly upon the author. I accomplished reading 50 books last year and have already finished 2 books for this year. The third one is seriously slowing me down with a heroine that is TSTL (too stupid to live) and lust instead of romance. Yes, my eyes have rolled so much that I was afraid they would get stuck. Guess I'm getting too old for the 'new' romances that authors are cranking out. I want romance to come back again! And I have to say that this is a sad, sad state of affairs in publishing when a story bought by one of the big NY publishers and is fully edited happens to be this sloppy.

Which leads me to the topic of writing my own stories and editing. I'm woefully behind with editing TROLL. Last December, I started red lining a hard copy of this story. It bled the first fifty pages with a variety of problems, and then around pg 60, it flowed better and the story improved. I have to fix the first 50 pages. Now that doesn't sound like much, but when we're talking middle grade stories,we're talking the first 1/3 of the book. Editing won't cut it. I'll have to rewrite it from scratch. I'll take the basic topic of the chapter and go from there with it.

I've been trying to figure out what was missing from this story. I knew the voice of Kyte wasn't quite right, but I couldn't figure it out. You would have thought I had the voice nailed, considering I had just finished editing FAERIE and rolled right into the new story, but I didn't. Part of the reason might have been that I was working off a logline, but not bullet point chain of events.

Anyhoo, I figured it out two nights ago, actually, two mornings ago. I woke up and was laying in bed wondering about her emotional state. Kyte wasn't angry. She needed to be angry. The first anniversary of her dad's death was coming up. This should stir up a hot bed of emotions in a pre-pubescent girl. Now I need to reread part of GNOME to get the exact time of year her dad was killed.

I think this is what was missing. But I won't know until I start writing this story again. AND I'm not even getting into having to change the sneak peeks at the back of FAERIE. Yes, I'll have to correct and republish that one!

My to-do list for this week:

• write four more blogs
• keep losing weight and set goal weight of 130 pound. Barely in the weight range for my height, but it's a great starting point
• keep walking
• start writing TROLL again
• Invent three more caramel recipes
• write mouth-watering description for my candy to post on Brenda Novak's For the Cure auction that will happen in May
• Oh, yeah, critique a sample from a potential CP (critique partner). I think I'll use her for my Mystic Elements stories.--I was dumped before we even traded samples. The  . . . erm, writer wanted a free glorified copy editor. I don't do copy edits. Put a crowbar in your wallet and pay for them. . . *sheesh*
• Crit another 20K from another friend. I don't know what type of crit she wants. I'll just have to ask when she sends it my way.

I think this is it, but you know how stuff and life creeps up on you and smacks you in the kisser when you aren't expecting it!

Later, Peeps!
Have a fantastic week!

Experimenting with Caramel

Sooo . . . I've been experimenting with making caramel fillings. Well, one actually. The sea salt recipe was such a success that I wanted to try different flavors for caramel.

I love caramel, its rich, buttery goodness with each bite. The stiffness of it before it gives way, leaving impressions of your teeth in it. The way the chocolate covering enhances the flavor of the caramel. Ahhhhh . . .

Okay, I just love candy.

AND making it, so I thought I'd experiment with other flavors. The first one on my list was--Whiskey! I love the earthiness of a good Tennessee whiskey that I thought I'd try to incorporate the flavor into a caramel. The first batch didn't have the deep flavor that I was looking for--and I used nearly two cups of the stuff. Part of the problem is that alcohol tends to hit the sinuses with its essence which adds another level of enjoyment to the experience. Well, the alcohol cooks out, and no, I'm not about to add it after the fact. 

The texture was a little softer than I wanted, I was shooting for a stiffer caramel that could hold up to being cut and dipped, but it was incredibility smooth and buttery with just a hint of flavor. Once it is dipped, it will be harder to detect that flavor. I'll just have to figure out a way to concentrate the flavor. Once I figure out the recipe, then I can try other caramel flavors. I still like the idea of rum caramel, bananas foster, and cinnamon. Any other flavors you might be interested in me trying to make?

Oh, you want to know what brought on this fit of madness?

A few years ago, Brenda Novak's youngest son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. She started a crusade to fight the disease and to provide money for much needed research, so she started an online auction that warped into For the Cure. With the exception of last year, I have donated a crocheted afghan--and I probably will crochet one again this year--but since I make 'artisan' candy, I thought I might donate a few boxes. I do have a few concerns about this, so it might not happen.

Yeah, I know it's a little

Anyhoo--I thought I'd experiment anyway . . . I have to get ready for candy season next year, right?

Weighty Wednesday--update!

As I mentioned last week, I gained weight--1.6 lbs to be exact.

Just remember:

Life happens.
Weight gain happens.
Challenges happen.

Don't beat yourself up if you gain one week. You might have done everything right and still gained weight. There are so many other factors that could have contributed to it. Just keep eating right and walking or exercising and it will show up as a negative the next time around.

It's how you deal with it that really matters.

Before I 'fess up to my weighty issues, I thought I would mention that I wasn't better at writing down my food intake, and I did eat Halloween candy.

BUT I did walk every day possible.
I did drink all my water (6 cups or more)
I did concentrate on eating more fruits and veggies (5 servings per day). Try to focus on the ZERO calorie veggies (non-starchy ones)

So how do y'all think I did?

Well . . . I lost the weight that I had gained (1.6 lbs) plus some more--for a weight loss last week of 2.8 lbs!

Total weight loss = 33.6 Pounds!!

Y'all know how I've been doing it, because I've been telling you about my journey. I'm not through with this journey yet, and I still have numerous challenges to face. Even after I reach my goal weight, it will be a daily challenge to remember where I was, weight-wise, and vow never to be there again.

The first challenge of the week is CANDY MAKING!

I'm making candy to hand out at the end of my talk on Saturday. I made my fillings last year and, other than tasting them to see if they were still good, I haven't sampled the num-nums. Why? I know they'll be good . . . though my first batch of Grand Marnier looks horrible on the bottoms. I let my chocolate cool down a little too much and they look terrible!

Oh, well, I have 8 of them that I won't take to the meeting. So if you want to try my Grand Marnier truffles, get thee to Tulsa! :-)

I wonder if there is any way I could make some money at this?

Because, as we all know, I stink at marketing myself. Any suggestions??

Later, Peeps!

Still Making Candy . . .

Every year the hubster tells me not to get carried away with making candy.

--and every year I go nuts.  I enjoy making candy.  It's right up there with inventing fantasy stories.  I made six flavors of candy (40 candies of each flavor) yesterday: Black Forest, Strawberry Margarita, Limoncello, Amaretto, Chambord, and Kahlua (the unexpected one).  So, in theory, I should have only had four flavors to do today, but I ended up with SIX, possibly SEVEN! 

How did this happen?

Well,  I did make ten new flavors this year, BUT that doesn't mean I didn't have some flavors that I made last year and froze.  And yes, making and freezing candy fillings works.  I've done it for years.  Sometimes you end up with more filling than you expected.  Sometimes it's because the mold you are using is smaller than the other molds. 

I calculated the Limoncello and Chambord perfectly.  Oh, I could make a few more candies, but why?  I'm already making enough candy for 35 gifts with 5 extra candies/flavor in case of accidents (I did have some problems with the Black Forest mold).  I'll probably freeze the little bit of left over so I can taste it next year to remember the flavor. 

Anyhoo, I ended up with six flavors today:  Lime Gimlet, Whiskey Toffee, Frangelico, Peppermint Schnapps, Grand Marnier and caramel.  The Caramel was unexpected.  I wanted to try my hand at making a HARD caramel.  The recipe wasn't all that and I ended up with a soft caramel--too soft to make turtles.  So, I'll use it in a filled candy.

If I could hazard a guess, it will taste FANTASTIC! 

And then there is my peanut butter cups.  Yes, they do taste almost like Reeses, though creamier.

Enough talking about making candy.  I need to make some coffee, take some Aleve, pick a movie for the DVD player, and get my chocolate melted.

Later, Peeps!

Cyndi wanted my peanut butter filling recipe.  I think it's smoother than Reeses, but still very good.  It makes a huge amount, so you might want to halve the recipe or you can freeze the remainder.

18 oz. jar Jif peanut butter
1 stick melted butter
1 lb. powdered sugar

Mix peanut butter and butter together. Add powdered sugar and mix together by hand.
If it's too dry, add more melted butter.  If it's too moist add more powdered sugar.

That's it, folks.  I have a peanut butter cup mold. I place a paper cup in the mold and coat the bottom with melted chocolate.  I make a ball of peanut butter filling and press down, leaving space around the edges.  Add melted chocolate around the edge of the peanut butter filling and over the top.  Tap the mold against the counter to release air bubbles.  Place in freezer to harden. 
 

Busy Making Candy

Over the last two days, I've been busy making candy fillings . . . and I'm not even close to finishing. 

For the most part, I enjoy this task that I set myself every year.  I make my own truffle fillings for my filled candies.  I also make caramels, fudges, turtles, peanut brittle and toffee.  And I'm not like some people who keep their recipes a closely guarded secret.  If you want my recipe, I'll give it to you. 

BUT I make my candy fillings visually.  In other words, I eyeball everything--no measuring, which makes it difficult for me to 'write' down a recipe and duplicate it exactly.  I basically follow the same technique for most of my fillings.

I invented a Strawberry Margarita filling yesterday. Here's my rendition:

Take handful of frozen strawberry slices (roughly 1/2 cup) and place in glass cup measure, add roughly 1/4c tequila (Cuervo Gold has more flavor than the clear stuff) and add the juice of one large lime.  After the strawberries melt, blend together with hand blender (should be about 1 cup--add tequila to top off).  Pour into heavy saucepan and add enough sugar to sweeten (See?  Told you, I don't measure stuff), anywhere from 1/4-2/3 cup (don't over sweeten because you will be adding white chocolate to the mixture).  Boil down (alcohol cooks out, but the flavor stays), stirring regularly until it resembles the thickness of cold pancake syrup. Taste, adjust flavors (add sugar, tequila, or lime if needed).  Turn off burner and add white chocolate, stirring constantly until desired texture and thickness (again, no clue as to how much I use, probably 1/2 lb-ish). I store my fillings in a quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag.

Now that I have my ten fillings ready and chilled, I need to make a plan to fill my candy molds.  I have about 35 people (husband's coworkers and employees, both of our families).  So I want to make at least five extra of each flavor in case of accidents.  Accidents could be from too thin chocolate coating, or the filling bursts through the bottom, or the bottom slides off, or someone steals a 'sample'.  All have happened.   Candy molds are plastic and can mold anywhere between 8-12 candies per mold.  I prefer the hard plastic over the rubbery silicone. I've found working three to four molds at a time seems to be the most efficient, but for beginners don't try to do more than two until you get comfortable. 

I also use pre-tempered chocolate (Merkens).  This chocolate is very smooth and flavorful, giving me one less thing to worry about.  Get two work areas ready, laying down waxed paper:  one to fill the candy, and the other area for the finished products.  I usually use a sharpie to write on the paper, so I remember the flavors.  Before starting, pull the fillings out of the refrigerator to warm up.  The fillings should be thick, but malleable. If too thin, keep refrigerated until needed.  If too thick, you can pop them into the microwave for a few seconds.

I melt about 2-3 lbs of chocolate in the microwave.  Start at about 3 minutes, then take out and stir, continue nuking for 30 seconds at a time until melted.  Using a plastic spoon (trust me--the chocolate hardens on the spoon and you will want to nuke it) fill each mold to the rim.  Tap mold against counter to remove air bubbles.  Do this with each mold.  Return to the first mold, flip over and dump excess chocolate on the waxed paper (let harden and remelt as needed), roll the mold around tocoat the walls of the shell thoroughly.  Use flat scraper to wipe away excess chocolate and level the rims of the candy.  Pop mold into freezer.  Repeat with other molds. 

I used different mold shapes for different flavors.  I have a heart-shaped mold for Amaretto, a rose for my Chambord, etc.  I also wrote on a piece of painter's tape and put it on the mold so I can keep track of the mold and the flavor. 

Remove first mold.  Snip a bottom corner of the bag, squeeze filling into frozen shell until it is about 1/4 below the rim. If the filling is stiff, then gently press down to fill the air spaces.  If the filling is thin, pop into the freezer to firm up.  Repeat with other molds. 

When you 'top' off the candy, make sure your chocolate is warm.  If it has thickened and cooled too much, then pop it in the microwave to warm it up.  Using the plastic spoon take a half scoop of chocolate and spread over the filling, sealing the edges around the candy. Try not to make a mess as it will mean less work later. If the filling is too liquid and thin, the heavy chocolate will sink, causing all sorts of problems.  Thicker filling is better in the long run.   Seal all the candies in the mold and pop it into the freezer.  Repeat with remaining molds.  By the time you finish the last mold, it should be time to release candies. 

Take your filled candy mold from the freezer, flip over onto second area of waxed paper.  If the candies are ready, they will drop out of the mold.  If some candies fall out, but not all of them, take your hand and rub it over the outside of the mold.  The warmth of your hand will release the candy.  When you flip the candy out, try to do it as close to the waxed paper as possible.  If your chocolate shell was too thin, then the drop from the mold can crush the candy. Been there, done that.

Repeat a gazillion times.  Then you have to trim the excess chocolate from the bottoms of the candy (a sharp paring knife works well) and place in cute little candy cups.  I have a pair of cotton gloves that I use to handle the finished chocolates.  I don't want to melt fingerprints into the candy.  I store the candy in airtight containers.  I can usually fit two flavors in each 7 in. X 11 in. container.  Keep in a cool room until all candy is made.  Filling gift boxes is quick and easy as I make a circuit around my table.  Repeat until all boxes are filled.

Merry Christmas!