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Quote:
Originally Posted by mw1984
@oregonwoodsmoke,
Thanks for sharing, you know, some candy looks like a small square, I want my candy to be in that shape.
yeah, chocolate might be a good candidate for my initial experiment. Well, for candy thermometer and silicon mats, where can we buy them?
And thank you @kygman as well for your input.
And btw, I don't want it to be fudge but candy.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Amazon is a good source for many things.
Things like the candy thermometer and silicone mats can be found at WallyWorld among other places but I have no problems letting people bring what I need/want to me.
@oregonwoodsmoke,
........, some candy looks like a small square, I want my candy to be in that shape.
............I don't want it to be fudge but candy.
Fudge is candy. Candy that is a small square doesn't narrow it down at all.
Generally, if candy is in a square, it has been made as a sheet and then it is cut into squares after it cools. But small squares could be jellies, or caramels, or meringues, or brittles, or any number of other things.
Give us more of a hint.
You can buy all the silicon and sheet pans and candy thermometers at any big hardware store, Walmart, Costco, online at Amazon or other online stores, any restaurant supply store or cooking supply store.
@NYC refugee, sounds interesting, how did you do it?
I had a recipe, mostly sugar and butter and ground nuts. Cook to proper stage, spread in pan, cover with chocolate chips while still hot so they melt, and you just spread them out. When it's cool, break it into pieces. Nothing difficult other than constant stirring and getting to the right temperature.
Caramels a pretty easy. You will need a heavy saucepan and some sort of heat resistant spoon, because you are going to be holding it over a boiling hot pan and stirring and a metal spoon will get too hot to hold.
Follow the directions closely, use a candy thermometer to get the temperature correct. When it is done, pour it into a low sided pan to cool, and when they are cool enough to hold their shape, cut into squares and leave in the pan to finish cooling. Cool at room temperature, don't put it into the fridge to cool.
Home made caramels are much better than the store bought ones.
You can made any degree of hardness just by choosing which temperature to take the candy off the heat. You can get soft and almost runny to make turtles or you can go the opposite direction and made them hard and chewy enough to pull the fillings out of your teeth. The higher the temperature you cook them to, the harder they will be when cooled.
Hint: when stirring carefully cover every inch of the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.
You can cut them any size you want and you can have them be squares or roll them just a bit and get cylinders.
Adding this: melted sugar is like molten lava. Be careful to not touch or taste hot sugar or you will get a bad burn. It not only burns, but it clings and burns. Do not touch.
On stirring, I'll try chopsticks first.
Just curious, for Kraft Caramels, their level of softness, what would temperature it be?
And good to know, let them cool with room temperature instead of using fridge.
For "Hint: when stirring carefully cover every inch of the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.", I don't fully understand, wearing gloves while stirring? how does the the bottom of the pan would cause burning?
@steiconi
for soft candy, what temperature would be ideal?
i guess 212 degrees F is for hard candy.
.
No, 212 degrees is the boiling point of water, so you can see if the thermometer is accurate.
Read the beginner's guide I linked to in my earlier post. It offers a recipe for caramels, which says to cook to 250 degrees.
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