Some Candy Recipes

[Jestgar]

OK, the goal here was to make gluten-free, dairy free, soy free corn free coconut free treats for a very wonderful person. Most of the recipes worked fine, but the last wasn't as good as I hoped. I'll write the original recipe, then my version.

Mexican cream candy

2 C sugar

3/4 C milk

--------cook to soft ball stage (238F)

take off heat and quickly add

--1/2 tsp baking soda

--1 Tb butter

--1 1/2 tsp vanilla

--1 1/2 C chopped pecans

stir until it begins to thicken, then pour onto parchment paper or greased cookie pan. Spread out a bit and allow to cool.

I used almond milk and omitted the butter.

This worked fairly well. Maybe a bit of almond butter, or palm oil would have made it smoother.

Peanut butter fudge

2 C sugar

2/3 C milk

----------cook to soft ball stage

remove from heat and stir in

--1 C marshmallow cream

--1 C peanut butter

--1 tsp vanilla

Pour into buttered 8 X 8 baking dish or pie tin

My version Almond butter fudge

2/3 C brown sugar

2/3 C white sugar

2/3 C almond milk

-----------cook to soft ball stage

remove from heat and stir in

--1 C marshmallow cream

--1 C almond butter

--1 tsp vanilla (I suppose you could use almond flavor, but that seems like overkill)

Pour into foil lined pie tin (you can peel the foil off once it has cooled)

Spiced nuts

mix together

--1/2 C sugar

--1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

--some nutmeg, ginger, and whatever other flavors you really like

in a wide dish or bowl whisk together one egg white and one tsp water

add 2 C pecans (or mixed nuts)

stir well and let them sit for about 5 minutes and stir again. If there is still a lot of egg white, add a few more nuts and keep stirring.

Add the sugar to the nut mix and stir some more

put in a single layer on a foil lined jelly roll/ cookie pan.

Bake 20-25 minutes at 300F. Don't worry about stirring.

When the nuts are looking done (a bit brown, more or less depending on your taste), remove from oven and dump into bowl or dish. You want to do this while they're hot so you can get them off the foil.

Almond butter toffee

1 C butter

1 C sugar

3 T water

1 T corn syrup

------cook to soft crack stage (290F)

Remove from heat and stir in

--1/2 C toasted almonds

pour into butter jellyroll pan

sprinkle with 3/4 C chocolate chips

when the chips have melted, spread them around and sprinkle with 1/2 C toasted almonds

Break into pieces when cool

My version (that didn't work)

1/2 C palm oil

1 C sugar

1/2 C almond milk

------cook to soft crack stage (290F)

Remove from heat and stir in

--1/2 C toasted almonds

pour into butter jellyroll pan

I got this far and realized that all the chocolate I had in the house had milk in it, so I didn't finish, but the candy already had a problem

I think that butter is an emulsion of protein and oil, and my palm oil/almond milk just wasn't the same. I ended up with fried sugar (which was still pretty tasty, but not what I wanted).

I remade this with 1/2 C butter and 1/2 C of almond milk, and it worked great, so I think the problem was the palm oil.

Any suggestions??

[RiceGuy]

Hmmm...

AFAIK, butter doesn't have much protein, so doubt that was it. Especially considering that the almond milk should have protein. The only thing that jumps out at me is that almond milk would have more water than butter. I think I'd try it with almond butter instead. If corn syrup turns out to be important to this or other recipe, I'd think you could probably use rice syrup, or sorghum syrup.

[jerseyangel]

OMG!!! Me mouth is watering