Monday, October 31, 2011

Make candy corn: Done!

Happy Halloween folks! This task wasn't actually on my list of things to do, but I saw an article in Lifehacker last week that showed how to make candy corn. I have no kitchen skills at all, but this seemed so intriguing.
Here are the ingredients I used:


In the bowl:
  • 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1/4 cup dry powdered milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
In the pot:
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup corn syrup
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter (or use salted butter and don't ad the 1/4 teaspoon of salt)
On the side:
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Red and yellow food coloring (3 yellow drops for yellow; 2 yellow + 1 red for orange)
For some reason, I always think sifting flour/powdered sugar is for sissies, and so I severely underrate the value of sifting. And I always pay for this later. The problem is that I don't cook/bake often enough, so I always forget how much of a hassle it is to fix later. I apologize to the friends who found little lumps of powdered sugar in their candy.

I also undervalue candy thermometers. I've read that you can't make candy without a candy thermometer, and I have no idea why I keep thinking that I can be the first non-expert candy maker to defy that rule. (Other über-failed candy attempt: marshmallows.)
Reading the comments from another candy corn recipe, it seemed as though it was harder to fix overdone candy rather than underdone candy, so I erred on the side of lower heat. The comments also provided a link to a Washington Post article that contained temperatures, so I'm bookmarking it here for future reference.

More about the process... Once I had 3 bowls of the taffy-like candy, I rolled out ropes of each color across a cookie sheet and then flattened it. This rolling-out step took way longer than expected, so the softness of the candy was actually advantageous in this case.
Looks like bacon!


Finally, I cut each strip into the familiar triangles.



If I make this again, here are the things I would do differently:

  • Sift the confectioners' sugar
  • Ask friends if they have any powdered milk rather than buy a ginormous box
  • Use a candy thermometer
  • Make thicker ropes of candy. Once I have a triplet of ropes, I can then squeeze them and make the whole thing thinner.

-T

1 comment:

  1. Omg! Candy corn is one of my most favorite guilty Halloween pleasures! I did without this year, because buying a huge bag seems wrong. Never thought to make my own!

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