Wordless Wednesday - Pretty pastels

(some of the bulk candy options at Central Market this time of year)

Tradition

As I was making my 4th batch of fudge in about as many days, Brianna asked me why I only make fudge at Christmas.  She's right--I don't really make it any other time of year.  It's not a conscious decision to reserve it for the holidays; it just doesn't really occur to me to make it during the rest of the year.  I'm like that with certain cookies, too.  Chocolate chip cookies are not Christmas cookies (though my husband would probably disagree with me there, since his grandmother made them during the holidays).  Spritz cookies are Christmas cookies.  My cookie press came with about a dozen different plates for various shapes, but the only one I've ever used is the Christmas tree.  What sort of treats do you only make during the holidays?

I don't usually make four batches of fudge, though.  The first one I made didn't turn out.  It was a recipe I hadn't tried before.  It's frustrating when something doesn't work--I always want to know why.  In this case, I think I didn't cook it quite long enough; it never got all the way firm.  I didn't like the flavor very much, either.  The second batch was one I've made before, a great recipe from Fine Cooking.  The third was this interesting cookie dough fudge that my friend Tracey posted recently.  It doesn't have quite the usual fudge texture, but it definitely tastes like cookie dough.  Batch number four was a repeat of the Fine Cooking recipe--I gave away most of the first batch and needed more.  It was one of the key components in my treat bags this year.  

I first made this fudge a couple years ago, when it showed up in the magazine.  It was the first fudge that I'd made that didn't use marshmallow cream or other shortcuts.  It starts off as sugar, unsweetened chocolate, corn syrup (helps keep the sugar from crystallizing the wrong way), cream, and salt.  Everything gets brought to a boil, and cooked until it reaches about 238ºF.  Then you remove it from the heat, add some butter (without stirring it in any way), and let the mixture cool until it's 110ºF.  This takes a while, so it's a good thing to make when you have other things going on in the kitchen to keep you occupied for a while.  Once the mixture gets to the right temperature, you beat the heck out of it.  I did try once to do it by hand, but my arm got too tired before I could get it to the right texture.  What the recipe recommends is using a hand mixer, and that works quite well, though I do usually worry that I'm going to overheat my mixer.  Once the fudge starts loses its shine and starts to thicken, you put it in a pan and let it finish setting up overnight (or at least for a few hours).  

The verdict?  I just love this fudge, both the recipe and the final product.  I've made it several times, and it always turns out great.  The texture of the fudge is very smooth.  I think the bit of salt in the recipe makes all the difference in the flavor--the new recipe this year tasted flat and just sweet without the salt.  I shared this fudge with lots of people, and while I'm not sure yet how they all liked it, but my girls seem to be big fans.

If you'd like to try the recipe for yourself, you can find it over at Fine Cooking.  If you're looking for ideas for goodie bags, I found my supplies at a variety of places.  The treat bags are from Target, the snowflake stickers are address labels that I got at Office Depot, and I find that Michael's is a great place to buy ribbon.  The papers are just standard mini muffin cups.  

A sweet anniversary

I meant to do this post yesterday, but with all of the holiday stuff going on, I just didn't get that far.  Yesterday was my blogiversary!  Hard to believe that I've been at this for two years now.  It's pretty amazing when I think about all the neat baking things I've accomplished since I started blogging.  And even better, it's great to think about all the wonderful blogging friends I've made.  Brianna and I made a brief stop at Starbucks yesterday so I could pick up some gift cards.  While we were waiting, she had to look at everything, of course.  One thing that she noticed was a bunch of madeleines displayed by the register.  She took one look and pointed out to me, "You've made those!"  And she's right, though I haven't baked any since we did them for TWD last year.  They're on the long list of new things that I've tried due to the influence of a baking group or blogging event.  It's not that I didn't do a lot to baking before I started blogging, but the interaction with others has definitely inspired me to try so many new things.  I'll talk about some more of them when I get to my year-end wrap-up next week, but there's one that I want to share for today.

I've certainly made lots of Christmas cookies this year, thanks to the 12 Days of Cookies.  I realized that I wanted to do something a little different for the daycare teachers and my employees, since they've already been the recipients of many of the cookies I've made this year.  So I decided to try my hand at some different sorts of candy.  I made fudge and caramels, but wanted something else.  Then one of my new Twitter friends mentioned making pralines.  That reminded me of a recipe in the Martha Stewart Holiday Sweets magazine that I picked up right at the beginning of the holiday season.  Pecan-Sour Cream Pralines sounded like just the right thing.

When I first started blogging, I'd rarely made caramel--maybe once.  It scared me, quite a bit in fact.  But over the past two years, I've made it many times, including here and here, and with very messy results here.  Thanks to all that experience, sugar syrup no longer scares me the way it did.

It helps that I have a great digital thermometer to help me with things that need to be cooked to a certain temperature, as the praline mixture did.  You start by melting a couple tablespoons of butter, then adding white and dark brown sugars and sour cream.  The mixture is brought to a boil, then cooked to a temperature of 240 degrees F.  I can set my thermometer to tell me when it reaches a certain temperature (either when heating up or cooling off).  Much less stressful than having to constantly check the temperature.  Once the mixture is done cooking, you turn off the heat and stir in bourbon and vanilla, which makes it bubble a lot.  Then after a couple minutes, you add the pecans and stir until the mixture starts to turn opaque and thicken a bit.  Working fairly quickly, you drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and let them cool until set, about 30 minutes.

The verdict?  These are really, really good.  Sweet, yes, but the salt helps a bit with that.  I've already made two batches because I gave away most of the first one as well as part of the second.  That's probably a good thing, since I've had to restrain myself to not eat them all.  How can you go wrong with pecans and brown sugar and bourbon? =)  They've been a hit with everyone else who's tried them, as well.  If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  I definitely recommend it!