How does one, in the thick of things, get stuck on sweet confections?
I have so very much to do in the next week and a half, little of which I'll accomplish without divine intervention, but I'm (weather appropriate) frozen on one thing.
So, quickly now.
If you like chocolates and candies and gummy things, pick your knee-jerk reaction, "that sounds good," top 10 picks from the list below.
ANY OR ALL WILL LIKELY VARY FROM THE DESCRIPTION, AS I GO A BIT MAD ON CONFECTING DAY AND THROW A BIT OF THIS AND SOME OF THAT INTO EACH POT, SO FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR OWN TWISTS.
1. peanut butter buckeye balls (creamy peanut butter inside coated with semisweet)
2. mint balls (peppermint patty meets candy cane crunch coated in semisweet chocolate)
3. nut rocha (toffee layered with chocolate sprinkled with almond pieces)
4. sponge candy (light, airy, melting crunch of inside covered with semisweet choc.)
5. spiced nuts (pecans, walnuts, and maybe almonds toasted, spicy hot with cayenne...and sweet with Christmas spices)
6. Sugared nuts (same as above, only toasted spicy sweet only..nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, etc.) OR
7. dark chocolate mint bark with white swirls
8. pecan-caramel "turtles"
9. jellies (cherry, mint, vanilla, anise, etc.)
10. cinnamon hard candy
11. butter mints
12. chocolate-chip-cookie truffles (cookie dough truffle inside wrapped in semisweet)
13. crunchy praline nuts (kind of like brittle, only with more nuts and less brittle)
14. tiger bark (peanut butter, white, and semisweet chocolate)
15. chocolate covered cherry jellies
16. espresso truffle (dark chocolate ganache with the crunch of roasted coffee, rolled in sweet cocoa powder or nuts)
17. almond truffle (smooth almond-chocolate ganache rolled in chopped almonds)
18. raspberry (melting raspberry-dark chocolate ganache center rolled in sweet cocoa or nuts or dipped in semisweet or white chocolate)
19. maple cream (covered with semisweet)
20. lemon cream (covered with semisweet)
21. orange cream (covered with semisweet)
22. rum cream (covered with semisweet)
23. coffee cream (covered with semisweet)
24. rum truffle (rum-flavored chocolate ganache covered with whatever)
25. mint truffle (mint-flavored dark chocolate ganache rolled in confectioner's sugar)
26. chocolate-orange truffle (dark chocolate ganache flavored with orange oil and orange zest)
27. hand-pulled taffy (peppermint, anise, cinnamon, lemon, orange, raspberry, molasses, etc.)
Do you see why I'm frozen?
Narrow my focus a bit, please, with your favorites.
You are making many of these? Boy, I thought I had some baking to do, my feats are nilch in comparison to yours! I will have to say that my favorites are truffles (all listed sounded scrumptious) and Buckeyes! The maple cream, rum cream and orange cream sound wonderful too! *oops,I guess I picked out more than ten* Hope this helps a tad. Just reading about them make me feel like I gained 15 lbs!
ReplyDeleteHmm, looks like you have some assembly line chocolate making in your near future. I wish I could forward this along to Charlie, but I'm not sure if he'd find the humor in it, he's so past that movie, and so much more into cows now.
ReplyDeleteMy favorites:
Peanut butter buckeye balls, nut rocha, butter mints, chocolate-chip-cookie truffles, espresso truffle, almond truffle, raspbery truffle, lemon cream, mint truffles, and chocolate-orange truffles.
Happy creating, 1 more final to go!!
-SAGS
Chocolate covered cherries.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the stuff you have on that list sounds good, but I'm one of those "Easy way" kind of guys.
Mix up a huge pot of chocolate. Dump in tons of cherries.
Cool.
Then stuff your face.
Various brittles are pretty easy to make and some can be pretty good.
Skip the taffy. (But then, I'm more for baked goods. Taffy always strikes me as the kind of thing you let little kids make to amuse them, not because it is a particularly stunning dessert.)
skip all the hard candy. Why bother?
Nuts are good, and not too hard to do. (Those are one of those things you can kind of do last minute)
As for truffles . . . hint: you have a few too many truffles on that list. (Were you deprived of truffle as a child?)
If you do one truffle and cut out the purely hard surgar candy it "might" be a do-able list.
Then you can ask Titi what we're having for Christmas.
well, being the chocoholic that i am, I'm sure you can guess my favorites. :)
ReplyDeletemint balls, dark chocolate mint bark (probably #1 favorite), espresso truffle,raspberry truffle, rum truffle, mint truffle. I can't imagine how someone could say you have too many truffles on the list!? the only error you could possibly make is to have too few! :)
-chelle belle
I put mine in number form....
ReplyDelete1,2,4,8,11,19,7,6,27
And it is one NINE although-you could put any of the other numbers as a fill in for number 10. They all sound scrumptious! Wow. Of course, whatever you decide to make, you must-yes MUST, post the recipes (though I will give you until AFTER Christmas to complete such a task...)
Ummmmm, MMMMMMMM! They sound divine! Make sure you post what you make and PICTURES of such sinful pleasures as these!
Oh-and I am jealous. I am sticking to making mostly cookies this year for lack of fundage for candy making supplies. Ho-hum BORING.
ReplyDeletehmm . . .
ReplyDelete(By the way, Rundy, I once got out a confectioners book, and it talked about how to make chocolate covered cherries. It's actually much more complicated, and their actually called cherry cordials. You either individuallly dip each marishino (sp?) in a cordial coating, or wrap it in cordial paste, and then individually coat them in chocolate. The reaction between the cherries and the cordial coating turns it into a juicy-gooey cordial inside of the chocolate covering in about 12-24 (I think. don't remember exactly how long) hours. Very cool, and I'm sure very good, but not quite as simple as you made it out to be.)
Taffy would be great fun to make with the kids, but I'm with Rundy, it's not really a great treat to eat.
I do vote for chocolate covered cherries, because they are so cool. (And I, unlike Mom, like chocolate with fruit.)So that is vote one, for contestant 15.
I would like to know how come there is no coconut option?!? I love almond joys, and I don't think I could pass up the chance to make something similar.
Let me see. . .my nut choices would be Nut Rocha, Pecan-caramel turtles, praline nuts, or almond truffle. I would put in a definite vote for the praline, contestant number 13, because it is easy but sooo good. (That's two votes.)I'll put the other's on hold till I see how many votes I've got left.
I vote for contestant number 12, the chocolate-chip-cookie truffles (that makes three votes), because they are so unique, sound yummy, and then you can get out of making chocolate chip cookies. (Tee-hee!) That makes three votes, and I have nine left. Hmmm. .
I vote also for Contestant 16, the esspresso truffle, because I don't drink coffee but it sure does go good with chocolate. Only make sure you roll it in the nuts, not the cocoa. Don't all women want to eat chocolate/coffee combos? Particularlly dark chocolate? That's 4 votes.
I need to vote for either contestant 7 or 14, because they are both so efficient. (7 is dark chocolate mint bark with white swirls, and 14 is tiger bark of peanut butter, white and semisweet chocolate.) So many flavors for the price of one admission! I'm not really a peanut butter kind of gal, so I vote for contestant 7. That's. . .um. . . my 5th vote. 5 more left.
Now we have a fruit selection to choose from. #18 is raspberry-dark chocolate ganache, #20 is Lemon cream, #21 is Orange cream, and #26 is dark chocolate ganache flavored with orange. I'm going to vote for #18 and #26, and use up two more votes, so I've only got three left.
I think I shall vote for more nuts. I see Nut Rocha (#3), Pecan turtles (#8), Tiger bark (#14), and Almond truffle (#17). Pecan turtles seem rather ordinary for such a momentous occasion, so I'll cross them off the list. The Almond truffle definitely sounds good, so I'll vote for number 17. Oh, what the hey, I'll vote for the rest too, and use my last two votes on contestants 3 and 14.
There. That's my ballot. Let me know if my canidate wins!
(BTW, I can't do such a variety over here. I have to make so much of any given thing in order to have enough to go around, I couldn't manage such a variety. Teman needed cookies for his Chirstmas party at work, so I made about 220 chocolate chip cookies, half for his party and half for us. Of course, everyone over here ate their 8 cookies in short order, and I think they are ready for more. . .)
Yeah, sure, the professional way of doing cherries is a lot of work. But I would just mix up a big vat of chocolate, dump a lot of cherries in, and then poor it out on a sheet to cool. Might end up more like cherry chocolate bar than chocolate covered cherries, but . . .
ReplyDeleteIt would be easy!
Like Titi said, I don't like mixing chocolate and fruit. But I love chocolate and nuts. That's the only kind I think should be in a candy box. No creams, no caramels, no chocolate covered cherries, just chocolate covered nuts. Okay, I will allow coconut, but only with dark chocolate, and really, it ought to have an almond tucked in, too. No jellies, no taffy, no hard candy, no sponges. Why waste the calories on them, therefore why waste the time making them? Peppermint and peanut butter are okay; if I'm desperate for chocolate I will condescend to an admixture of the two. But for my calorie budget, I'd go with espresso truffle, the crunchy praline nuts or the sugared nuts, rum truffle, and the nut rocha. How did you get to be such a candy maker? Is a Christmas tradition with your family? We are more the cookie types, but, as Titi said, a LOT of a few kinds of cookies. But please post recipes and pictures if you wind up actually making some. It sounds way too ambitious for a pregnant woman with two young children, even if her husband was watching the kids the whole time. But then, I don't believe I've ever made candy, so what do I know?
ReplyDeleteAmazingly enough, the tallied votes (including my mom's votes sent via telephone), were almost identical to my own.
ReplyDeleteGarnering the most votes were...
Nut Rocha
Espresso Truffle
Raspberry Truffle
Peanut Butter Buckeyes
Mint Balls
Chocolate-Orange Truffle
and
Mint Truffle
I used my power as Candy Maker to determine which of the others to make (which tied at two votes apiece...
Rum Cream (my mother's choice)
Chocolate Chip Truffle
and
Chocolate-covered Cherry Gummies (for my brother Pete's tastebuds)
*And I'm making one surprise, but it's for my mom, so mum's the word.
I left out anything with coconut and sugared nuts due to lacking funds, not because I don't love coconut chocolates and sugary, toasted nuts. I'm a candy-lover, for Sam's sake!
Rebecca,
Cookies are never boring! As far as the cost of chocolates goes, I keep the cost quite low by using Aldi chocolate chips (which are really good at 99 cents/ 12 oz. bag) and buying heavy cream when it's on sale. It can be frozen for later use when used for truffles, so I snatch it up when the costs dive. The Buckeyes, Creams, Sponge, and Mint Balls are even better for thrifty confecting, because they're only dipped in chocolate and contain no heavy cream. Also, for most of the flavorings, I use flavoring oil instead of extract (e.g. raspberry/orange/peppermint flavoring oil, which lasts a long time and can be found at Walmart for 1.99 for two bottles). I've been using the same bottle of peppermint oil for the past two years. I also use my mom's raspberry jam and regular coffee for flavoring. If we had our 'druthers, we'd all use high-end imported chocolate and vanilla beans, but, c'est la vie!
Even so, after buying 14 bags of chocolate chips, I was glad to justify the cost by the fact that they will be made into gifts! Let me know if you want any of the recipes emailed to you before Christmas. The truffles, especially, are extremely easy to make, and so yummy that I, like Elizabeth, feel like I've gained weight just thinking about them!
SAGS:
How could he possibly give up candy for cows? I know cows have their finer points, but still, he got the Golden Ticket!!!!! I think he just hides it well.
A DEFENSE FOR NOT MAKING CHOC.-COVERED CHERRIES:
I LOVE chocolate-covered cherries, but the recipe I have calls for the chocolates to ripen for two weeks before eating, and I don't have two weeks! Plus, one of my Dad's Christmas traditions is to buy way too many boxes of Cella's dark-chocolate covered cherries for us kids, and since I'm giving these chocolates as gifts to my siblings and their families, it would be overkill. Alas...
CHELLE BELLE,
I agree on the worthiness of truffles, as you well know. :)
TITI,
I'm planning to make about 20 dozen (?) cookies, some here and some at my mom's, but I have the luxury of doing it in fits and spurts without the finished product disappearing as fast as I make it! I sure hope, too, that Teman gave you fair warning this time...
I'm using an easy make-ahead base to make a variety of cookies. It's cool, because you can make the base and store it for up to four weeks, then you add to it to make lots of kinds of cookies. I'm going to make Almond Butter Sticks (scrumptious), Toffee Bars, Raspberry Jam Thumbprints (rolled in crushed walnuts), and regular sugar cookies from the base. Debbie's using the same base to make Peanut Butter Blossoms (it should please Rundy that she's also making one of my all-time favorite cookies- Baked Chocolate Covered Cherry cookies). I'm making Nut Kolachki (a Polish cookie family tradition), too, but they're a separate thing entirely.
All this to say, if you want me to send you the cookie base recipe and the 11 or so recipe variations you can make with it, let me know. Although it'd still be a pain to make a variety, given the crowd you're baking for, it'd be easier than starting from scratch for each kind of cookie. ("Hmph, easier?" you say. "Let's see YOU bake for 14 people!") :)
KATHY,
Truffles are an easy candy to make, especially if you roll them in coatings instead of dipping them in chocolate. I usually only make them this time of year, and I make them while the girls are napping and after they fall asleep, because, otherwise, well, I get crabby in the time crunch!
Cookies are a huge tradition in the Johnson family, as in many families, but I started making chocolates so I could give gifts to my siblings that were different than what they'd munch at mom and dad's on Christmas Day. I'd experimented a bit with candy when I was younger, but usually the cheaper stuff like taffy and divinity.
My mom echos your sentiments regarding nuts, and, by the way, I love chocolate and nuts, too. But, oh!,the delight you pass by with specific tastes! I embrace candy fully and unreservedly, in almost any shape, flavor, or size! (You could say that I lack refined candy tastes, though, and I'd have to agree. When it comes to sweets, I'm not the most discerning eater; though I recognize differences in quality, I still happily eat all.)
Hey, Abby! I guess I got here too late for the vote, but I would have voted for several of the top contestants anyway. I do hope you are making some special just for the twins! LOL Actually, I am sure I don't need any more sweets. Just went to a cookie exchange Thursday night with 6 dozen or so cookies, and brought home at least that many. I would say half are gone, and alas, too many have been shared with the twins!! I am starting to "pop" a bit more now, but of course, probably never enough for YOUR satisfaction. Looking forward to seeing you (and your yummy morsels) in a short time!
ReplyDeleteThe twins get their very own batch (which means you do, too, incidentally!). I can't wait to see you guys! WAHOO!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't worry about your cookie exchange cookies disappearing. Between what Debbie makes and what I'm going to make, we'll refill your cookie jar in no time. :)