August Roundup & 2 Year Anniversary!

Candy Bars! Thanks so much Nancy for jumping in this month with a great challenge! Such a fun idea.



Have the Cake is 2 years old! Wow! Thank you so much for keeping this little idea alive and kicking.

Homemade Rolos

Posted by -vivian thiele

I loved this challenge... even if it was messy! I don't know why but whenever I work with chocolate I end up having myself covered in it!
I have a truffle candy mold so I thought that maybe using caramel instead of a truffle filling would give me a Rolo candy.  Didn't quite have the taste of a Rolo, but it was pretty darn good!  I only had dark chocolate on hand and I think using milk chocolate would have been much better.
Homemade Rolo Candies
Caramel filling:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate coating:
1 pound dark chocolate,  tempered and ready to use

Directions:

Combine sugar, corn syrup, milk and margarine in a saucepan.  Stir an heat to 248 degrees F.  Remove from heat, add vanilla and pour onto a well butter cookie sheet.  Set aside to cool.  At this point you can score into sections the size you desire. I took sections and rolled them into small marble size pieces and covered with chocolate.

Many people fear tempering chocolate but it really is an easy process.  Use a good quality chocolate, not chocolate chips or the candy coating bark most grocery stores carry.  The quality of chocolate will determine the taste so spend a bit of extra money on it!
I use a double boiler to melt the chocolate, but care must be used to not  get water into the chocolate.  Water in chocolate can cause the chocolate to "Seize" up.  This problem can be fixed but it is best to avoid it altogether and just be careful.  Using a candy thermometer, melt the chocolate and let it get to 110 degrees F. Remove from the heat and let it cool to 89 degrees  F. Return to the heat and warm it up again.  Simple. There are other techniques out there but this is how I was taught.  If during the second warming it gets to warm, just remove it from the heat.  Any chocolate you don't use can be dried and stored again until next use; it doesn't need to be tempered again.  Tempering the chocolate gives your candy the nice glossy look one desires when making candy.

turn over the molds and let the excess drain out.

Craisinets

Posted by - Rena



I know, I know... you're thinking that making Raisinets is a cop out. You'd be wrong.



I have a very bad relationship with melting chocolate. I've done it once successfully and all the other times ended in disaster or as a messy clump of hard chocolate. I was thinking about all the yummy candy bars I love including Twix, Mounds, Baby Ruth and decided that I couldn't be left alone in an apartment with a whole batch. It's still summer and I still have no will power. Raisinets seemed like a good compromise. I went to my local Fairway to find chocolate and raisins but they didn't have any dark raisins! They had golden raisins and some funky raisin I had never heard of but I didn't want to risk it. I wound up getting dried cranberries.



With two ingredients I couldn't possibly fail but in the end, I have a large clump of chocolate covered cranberries. They are delicious but I didn't managed to get individual pieces. I'm not sure if that's even possible without hours of work (or maybe some technique) but they do taste like Raisinets and I melted the chocolate with ease. Any excuse to bust out my $5 green 1970's double boiler!

and this is where I gave up shredding the chocolate and threw the whole chunk in the boiler