| |
| |
|
Cooking Tips Information |
|
|
|
6 Tips for Perfect Homemade Hard Candy
There's nothing better than the juicy, flavorful hard candy from your local gourmet candy shop . . . unless you make it yourself, that is! Making perfect hard candy at home is easier than you think. You just need the right tools, a few simple ingredients, and your imagination. Try these tips the next time you want to make something special in the kitchen. Your family will love it! 1. Stock up on basic candymaking tools. You'll need a medium-size saucepan (3 or 4 quarts) with a heavy bottom and straight sides. You'll also need a long-handled wooden spoon, a pastry brush (used to brush off any crystals that might form), and a good candy thermometer with a metal clamp that attaches to the side of your saucepan. 2. Get the weather forecast. Did you know that humidity has an enormous effect on the outcome of your hard candy? Because sugar attracts water, rainy days can wreak havoc on even your best attempts at homemade delicacies. Make it easier on yourself-wait for a clear, dry day to try out your recipes. 3. Test your thermometer. Test your thermometer by placing it in a pan of water and bringing it to the boiling point. It should now register 212 degrees at sea level. If it registers 214 degrees, you can correct it by adding two degrees to those given in the recipe; if 210 degrees, by subtracting. If it's more than a few degrees off in either direction, you need a new thermometer. 4. Use fresh ingredients. Sugar is the most basic ingredient in hard candy. Be sure to use a new package of sugar each time you make your recipes to ensure that the sugar hasn't been contaminated by other common kitchen ingredients. If your recipe calls for butter, be sure to use the unsalted variety. Salted butter and margarine can adversely effect the cooking time, texture, and taste of your efforts. 5. Go easy on the food coloring. Colors like green and yellow look much more appetizing when they're applied lightly, so be sure to add food coloring gradually. You can slowly add more until you reach the intensity you want. 6. Use the proper storage techniques. After cooling your candies, store them in airtight jars without wrapping them first. Never store hard candy in the same container as desserts that lose moisture, such as fudge. Ready to begin? Try this basic hard candy recipe--and have fun! BASIC HARD CANDY RECIPE Measure 2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup light corn syrup and 3/4 cup water into a saucepan and blend together. Place over low heat and stir until mixture boils. Cover the saucepan for 5 minutes so that any sugar crystals that have formed on the sides ofthe pan will be washed down. Now put in the candy thermometer and let the candy boil without stirring. Using a pastry brush or a fork wrapped with muslin and dipped in water, wash off any crystals that might form. After the candy reaches 280 degrees, lower heat so as not to discolor the candy. When candy thermometer registers 300 degrees, remove pan from the heat and allow it to stand until all the bubbles have simmered down. Then add the flavoring and coloring. There are many to choose from but one favorite is anise along with red coloring. One teaspoon of a flavoring extract should be used for this recipe, while only a few drops of an oil such as peppermint, wintergreen or cinnamon are enough. Coloring should be added gradually until the desired intensity is reached. It is important to stir these in as gently as possible. Too much stirring will cause the syrup to solidify into a hard sugary lump. Now the candy is ready to be formed. It may be poured into a pan, 7 by 7 inches, and marked into squares as it begins to harden. Or it may be poured in rounds on skewers or sticks to form lollipops. Vanessa Kirkland is publisher of the cherished recipe collection, "Candymaking Secrets," by Virginia Pasley. This long-lost collection includes 67 vintage recipes for making delicious old-fashioned candies at home . . . without a single cooking class. Find out more at ===> http://www.CandyMakingSecrets.com/
MORE RESOURCES:
cooking tips - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Alone In the Kitchen: Stirring Up Mindfulness Put on your apron! It's time to stir up a batch of mindfulness.Julia Child, the trilling television chef who taught millions of Americans how to prepare French food without being hoity-toity, died in her sleep at the age of 92 recently. How to Bake: Bread on the Grill One of the slickest tricks we know is baking bread on the grill. Once you get to know your grill, it's easy-like baking your favorite recipe in the oven. Baking Perfect Breads, Cookies, and Desserts We're all looking for that perfect pie, or cookies, or loaf of bread. It doesn't always happen. Is Your Cookware Poisoning You? For over 40 years scientists have known that the fumes from hot non-stick surfaces can kill pet birds such as canaries. So just how dangerous are they to you?Several studies have been conducted into health concerns surrounding Teflon, the coating invented and patented by DuPont. Using Bread Machine Mixes in Your Oven You don't have to own a bread machine to enjoy the variety of bread machine mixes. And you don't have to make blocky, square loaves with holes in the bottom. How to Cook Rice Right The easiest way to make rice well every time is to use a rice cooker. If you don't have one, or don't want one, though, here's a no-fail recipe for rice that one of my grandmothers taught my mother, who taught me. Family Meal Planning Made Easy As moms, we have hectic lives. Whether we work out of the home, in the home or look after the kids full time, we definitely have our jobs cut out for us. Fine Tuning Bread Machine Mixes Sometimes bread machines can be tricky. We were trying to help a customer whose bread did not rise enough. Storing Fats and Oils The human body requires the intake of six types of substances for survival: Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals. Certain fatty acids are essential to our health and fats and oils are important components of our food and their preparation. Barbecue Success With The Rule Of Thirds Ever been to a barbecue party where the 'chef' placed as much food as he could possibly fit onto the barbecue grill, every so often stabbing the food with a fork and juggling it around so that it cooks evenly? Ever noticed how, within a few minutes, the flames start gently flickering under the food, the chef proudly standing back admiring the char grill effect that he's creating? Ever notice the panic that sets in when the flames suddenly leap up and around the food burning it black on the outside and leaving it raw on the inside?The difference between great char grilled barbecue food and burnt offerings lies in a few small precautions. The chef that we've just described made a few fatal errors that could easily have been avoided. 10 Simple Ways To Safely Store Food Storing foods can present its own set of problems. And different types of foods have different storage requirements to prevent bacteria from setting in. Bacteria and Food-borne Diseases Types of BacteriaBacteria are all around us, in the air, water, ground, on our skin and in our bodies. They are classified in a variety of ways, but for our purpose we can categorize them in a more basic way. Digital Kitchen Timers - Never Burn Another Dish Digital kitchen timers come in many shapes and sizes. Timers are an indispensable tool in the kitchen. Substitutions for Commonly Called for Ingredients What should you do if you are in the middle of a recipe and realize you are out of an ingredient? You could send your child to the local convenience store for cream cheese and end up having to serve your caviar with Velveeta because to a 13 year old they are both soft cheeses. This really happened when my Mother sent me for cream cheese. How to Cook a Lobster French chefs plunge them into boiling water; English ones, in an attempt to appear more humane, drive kitchen knives through their skulls before doing the same thing.No wonder the miserable creatures go red. Vegetarian Cooking - Three Basics For any of the many reasons people choose to eat vegetarian food - religion, politics, finances, or health - one thing in common is that everyone prefers food that tastes delicious and provides good nutrition. There are some basic techniques to vegetarian cooking which will accomplish that. Kitchenaid Stand Mixers - A Kitchen Work Horse Kitchenaid stand mixers are very popular in today's kitchens and it is easy to see why. These stand mixers have stood the test of time and have shown themselves to be kitchen work horses. 6 Tips for Perfect Homemade Hard Candy There's nothing better than the juicy, flavorful hard candy from your local gourmet candy shop . . Moms Easy Cooking - Fast Meal Ideas For Busy Moms Every busy mom worries about how to prepare fast, nutritious meals for her family. Working moms often find they have very little time for meal planning and preparation. Little-known Tips for Easy Holiday Baking Are you wondering if you have the time to bake homemade Christmas cookies this year? Every year at about this time we all start to get a little panicked that the holidays are coming up fast and we're not really ready yet. Here are a few little-known tips and tricks, for almost every type of cookie, to help you get the most out of the time you spend baking.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |
