December 6, 2004
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Well, Candy Days have come and gone, and we had a lot of fun and ended up making somewhere around 70 pounds of candy, which we divided between the four of us . . . my mother, my sister Alice, my daughter in law Jackie and myself. This was the first time for Jackie so she didn’t really realize just how much candy she’d be taking home. She didn’t bring enough tins to hold all her candy and had to use a couple shoe boxes to pack up the rest of hers. It was a good time for my sister and mother to get to know Jackie a lot better since they’ve both only met her once. . . and for Jackie to get to know them too.
Here Jackie is dipping peanut butter bon bons and mom is molding chocolate covered cherries. Both jobs are very time consuming.
And here, Jackie and I are making several recipes of Microwave Toffee . . . YUM!!
Jackie is laying out the strips of candied orange rind in this picture. Of all the candies we make, I think this one is the most labor intensive. You peel the oranges in strips, then boil them three times, then boil them in sugar water till the water almost disappears and spread them out on cake racks to cool and dry. Then the next day you dip them in dark chocolate. If you like orange candies they are wonderful !! Jackie was a real trooper and was a tremendous help. Did I mention that she likes to clean up the kitchen too? Yes, you read that correctly . . . she LIKES to clean up the kitchen.
And finally, here is my sister Alice mixing up the orange cream fondant. It’s really sticky business and that’s why we wear the rubber gloves.
Comments (11)
These pictures are lovely. It looks like you had a very productive day… (you did this all in one day right?)
The candy looks very good.
No, it took us 2 1/2 days to make all that candy.
It was great fun… thanks for hosting us this year, Chris. :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat:
:wave:…welcome back, Chris!!! You were talked about while you busy. Pics and story delightful. Great pic of Alice – the best I’ve seen! Was trying to figuer out how Lola was constucting Chocolate Cover Cherries. Did she spoon the chocolate into the mold, then push in the cherry fondant and then, push the cherry into the foundant topping it all with additional chocolate?
…the orange rind candy reads as if its to die for! Perfect marriage, dk choc and orange.
…are you back to work today or taking a rest from your candy making genius? :love: MuSe
For the chocolate covered cherries, we fill the mold about 1/4 full with dark chocolate, then we place a small ball of the cherry fondant we mixed up into the mold, tap it down lightly, then cover that with a half cherry, and finally top off the mold with more dark chocolate. Then into the freezer for 5 minutes so it’ll pop out of the mold easily.
Yes, I was back to work Monday morning. It was a busy Monday too, because I was playing “catch up” from being off Friday. But that’s OK, because it was worth it.
The candy making looks like so much fun! :)
:goodjob:I love that pic of Alice.Could you make me one sometime? I really enjoyed working with Jackie . I hope her leg is healing nice.Thanks again to you and Mike for hosting us. :heartbeat: :heartbeat: :heartbeat:Mom
For those of you who might be wondering about Jackie’s leg and why it needs to heal, here’s the scoop. I was going to go up in the attic to bring down the cooler so we could empty out the freezer and thereby be able to use the freezer space for chilling the chocolate molds. Jackie offered to go up in the attic to get it to save my 60 year old bones from climbing the ladder. You guessed it; she stepped on one of the 2x4s and when her foot slipped she fell partially through the ceiling. Scared me half to death. Thank God the 2x4s were close enough together that she didn’t plunge all the way to the garage floor. Just scraped the skin off her hip and gave her a very large bruise. I shutter to think how much worse it could have been.
Do you have a recipe to share for the candied orange peels? That was one thing my grandmother (the one who died in August) always made. They weren’t dipped in Chocolate, but they were sugared somehow. I’d love to know how to make them.
Kristin (the blogger formerly known as MD64)
Mmmmm–all those yummy candies. I’m afraid I’d eat more than I saved!! Well, maybe not with 70 lbs. worth!!! You have a beautiful home, too. Love your dining room furniture.
I love the dining room
It looks like you all had an excellent time but how did you resist eating all the candies? They look so delicious.