Peanut Butter Nougat Bars

It's Friday, Friday, Friday...  I'm sorry to those of you who now have that song in your head.  Those of you who don't know what I'm talking about should head to YouTube and search "Friday."  Go ahead, I'll wait... 

There we go, now everyone is in a good mood, thinking about which seat they'll choose and how they want a bowl of cereol.  I know, the song is super annoying, but it puts me in a good mood!  Fridays have taken on such a new meaning since I've started my new life in the real world.

Fridays are the last day of the week that I have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning.  Fridays are usually devoid of meetings at work and everyone heads out the door by 4:30.  Friday evenings are for relaxing with boyfriend, eating pizza, Chinese food or sandwiches.  Friday is payday too!  Woot, payday!  Friday also means that the weekend is upon us and I get to spend some time in the kitchen.

This weekend I expect to get lots of baking and cooking done.  You know why?  It's because I'm an awesome girlfriend.  While at lunch yesterday I stopped by the video game store and got boyfriend NHL 2012.  Something that he has been suggesting that I buy him for at least three months.  It was just released on Tuesday and he's very excited about it.  When I gave it to him last night he was all jazzed, then he told me I had to learn how to play...  Hmmm, that wasn't part of my distraction plan...

Ganduja & Caramel Candy Bars

Welcome to a new week everyone!  I hope that everyone is safe and sound from this weekends East Coast hurricane.  I am currently still in Buffalo, since my return flight to New York was cancelled yesterday.  That's okay though, it means I get to spend an extra day with my family and the puppies.  The crazy, lunatic puppies. 

They are currently running around the kitchen with me.  Busy romping around, playing with toys and biting each other.  Generally with one puppy you get used to keeping all of your precious things a few feet off of the ground.  This keeps them from geting little teeth marks all over them.  With two puppies, you have to keep up with the nibbling on things and a constant puppy fight.

These puppies are totally spoiled, with more toys than I had when I was little.  There are even doubles of all the toys, so that they can each have their own.  The problem?  You guessed it.  One puppy wants what the other one has.  They will even taunt each other with toys.  One puppy walking up to the other an waving her toy around until the second puppy leaps at it.  Then it's an all-out puppy war over the toy, then the toy is forgotten and they just bite each other.  Puppy war!

According to the vet, they're just like little kids.  Unless one of them comes to you bleeding, they're just fine.

Chocolate Taffy

Imagine my delight when I read this months Daring Baker's challenge.  Well, just read the blog checking lines...

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

Candy? Seriously? I was so excited, because it was like an extension of what I've been doing all year long! I've made so much candy this year (really, have a look under "Candy Challenge 2011" for all of my previous treats!) that I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to make for this challenge. I decided it was finally time to try again with the chocolate taffy. I also thought I would finally make a real candy bar, layers and all.

Today, I'm plying you with the chocolate taffy.  I tried to make this earlier in the year and neglected to read the part about "constantly stirring" the candy mixture.  This candy, unlike most of the others that I've made, requires constant stirring.  With most candies, you don't want to stir them while they are coming to temperature because this might cause crystallization.  This candy will burn if left to self-stir.  Get your arm muscles ready, you'll be stirring for quite some time!

Have fun stretching and pulling the taffy!  Just be sure to cut lots and lots of pieces of wax paper, this recipe makes about 100 pieces of taffy.  The flavor is something of a more chocolatey and rich Tootsie roll, delicious.

Raspberry Truffles

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and sharing some of their own memories of their furry friends.  Our furry best buddies really bring us lots of love and great times.  While Zoe isn't around anymore, at least I have years of wonderful memories. 

As a little bit of a distraction, I made us all some candy.  This week I decided to keep it simple, no boiling sugar, no pulling taffy and no whipping anything.  It's a good old melt and scoop kind of recipe.  Oh, and it's delicious.  Definitely something you can use to distract yourself.

Peanut Brittle

This one's for my mom!  If there's anyone out there who I know will be thrilled with this recipe, it's my momma!  I've been putting off this traditional candy treat because I wasn't sure I'd be able to reproduce that classic flavor.  Peanut brittle has such a specific taste, if it isn't right, then it isn't peanut brittle.  Luckily, this recipe turned out dead on prefect.

I made a small batch this time, just to be sure that I got it right.  The only problem that I had with this recipe had nothing to do with anything that I did.  I'm sure that most of you living in the states got to enjoy the fabulous heat wave that rolled across the country.  Making hard candy in this type of hot and humid weather is not a good idea.  I made these on a dry day, but then the humidity rolled in and the candy made it's best attempts at sticking together.  What was a girl to do?  Eat it!

Strawberry Pate de Fruit

Do you remember what you wore on your first day of high school?  I do.  I thought I looked super cool in my overalls, pink Gap t-shirt and matching pink socks.  I also had on my brand new Aasics with the pink triangles.  I loved those shoes and wore them all year long.  The triangles always matched my outfit.  And I still own those pink socks.  Thankfully I no longer own those overalls, I think they were too short about a month after I wore them.

When looking in my closet last night I was faced with a similarly important decision.  What do I wear on my first day of work?  What could I see myself wearing on that all important day?  How would I remember myself as I walked through those glass doors?  This was an important decision.  As I mulled over my closet, boyfriend commented "I thought you would have this figured out a while ago!" 

Luckily, I didn't have too much to decide between.  Having worked in a university lab for the past seven and a half years, my wardrobe consists mostly of jeans and cute t-shirts.  My collection of business clothing is far smaller than my collection of white tees.  I'm going to have to go shopping!

Perhaps you're wondering, what did I decide on?  Sage green, silk button-down with a tie at the waist.  Black pants that I have decided are about a size too big after wearing all day.  Black patent leather ballet flats with a shiny silver buckle.  Today was a great day and I looked pretty good walking through those doors.

Coconut Joys

Summer is in full swing!  I'm reveling in these sunny mornings, hot nights and long days.  I've moved around a lot in the past few years and I always get very confused with the rising of the sun.  My hometown of Amherst, NY is situated right in the middle of the Eastern time zone.  I grew up with summer nights lasting until nine or ten o'clock at night.  Fireworks on the fourth of July couldn't start until at least 9:30 because it was still too sunny before that time.

When I moved to Wisconsin I moved to the leading edge of the Central time zone.  This meant that the days started earlier and they ended earlier, but it also meant that television was on a whole hour earlier!  I loved having Letterman on at ten pm.  Eleven o'clock shows on the weeknights are just too early for me. 

Moving to Colorado proved to be the biggest shock.  Not only is Boulder at the leading edge of the mountain time zone, but it's also the furthest south that I've ever lived.  As winter fell away from the mountains, it would bring the sun to greet you at 4:30 in the morning.  I was so confused my first year there, wonding how on earth the sun could be up at that hour.  Crazy sun, go back to sleep.  At least the Daily show was on at nine pm.  I could get my dose of Jon Stewart and Stephen Clobert and hit the pillows by ten.  The mountain time zone is great!

I joked that I was going to try and live in every time zone before I was thirty.  Since I've moved back to the east coast with only a few months left before the big three-o, I don't think that's going to happen.  But that's okay.  I like this coast, I think I'll stay here for a while.

Ohio Buckeyes

A Ted’s hot dog with a side of cheese. A stack of pancakes with a pile of crunchy hash browns. A Hershey bar and a jar of peanut butter. These are a few of my favorite things. What? You’ve never sat down with a chocolate bar and a jar of peanut butter? You should definitely give it a go. Chocolate and peanut butter is one of those quintessential combinations that so many people love. Well, most Americans. Seems like non-Americans can live their lives quite happily without a jar of peanut butter in the house.

I am a huge fan of the peanut butter and chocolate combo, so I’m not sure why it’s taken me this long to make this candy. If you are from Ohio, you know these candies as Buckeyes. They look just like the nut of the Ohio buckeye tree, just like horse chestnuts! (Seriously, have a look, it’s uncanny!) My roommate in grad school made something very similar to these and I loved them. In fact, I would sneak a few from the fridge when she wasn’t looking. They were so good! Why did I never make them myself?

So far in Candy Challenge 2011, I haven’t made something so simple and so delicious. The whole recipe took less than an hour (including chilling time) from start to finish. There is no boiling sugar, for once, there is no need for a candy thermometer and you don’t even need any fancy equipment. So get out your bowl, spoon and baking sheet.

Creamsicle Fudge

WARNING!!! This has been described to me as “The best thing you’ve ever made.” It was also described to me as “Disgusting, I think I’m going to lose my lunch.” These might sound like contrasting opinions, but they are in fact telling me the same thing. This fudge is downright amazing.

Perhaps some explaining is in order. The first compliment came from my candy-loving boss. If there is any candy or chocolate in the building he will find it, and eat it. Which is fine, until I want an Oreo… and they’re all gone. He is always telling me I should go into business as a candy-maker. I don’t know how I should take that, since he’s my chemistry boss…

The second of the two comments came from my coworker. Last year, we were a small group of chemists, but by mid-year we had ballooned to a much larger bunch. Competition for the sweets and snacks that I brought in became more and more cutthroat. The compliments turned from praising to degrading, especially when others were within earshot. A little reverse psychology warfare was being played and it continues today.

Hard Candy Caramels

Sometimes things don't turn out exactly the way you had hoped.  Like that pixie haircut I got in college.  Let it be known that I can't pull of a super short look.  I embraced hats while I waited for my hair to grow out.  Then there was the summer that I bought a whole bunch of Bermuda shorts.  Plaid ones and brightly colored ones.  Shorts with animals on them and plain khakis.  I should have scrutinized them in the mirror a little longer, because once I had them at home I realized they were the weirdest lenght ever.  I'm mroe of a capri length kind of girl.

Expectations can be tricky, especially when you think you've got something down.  Maybe you've had batch after batch of perfect macarons, only the have a day of sad, flat, foot-less cookies.  Or maybe you finally got a handle on yeast and you've been making some beautiful breads.  Then one day, your yeast is lazy and your bread comes out flat.  We all have those moments, nobody can be perfect all the time!

I thought I had hit my groove with making candy, I've posted some pretty exciting recipes over the past few months (I'm particularly proud of my sponge candy and 3 Musketeers bars).  Plain sugar candies have thusfar given me trouble.  The salt water taffy wasn't the best it could be, I blame not waiting long enough to pull the sugar.  These caramels just didn't set up the way I wanted, I'm pretty sure my thermometer is to blame.

I was longing to make chewy, soft caramel candies.  I wound up with something more akin to a Sugar Daddy.  I think that if I put these on a stick, then I would have a perfect replica (you should give that a go!)  While completely delicious and very much a caramel, they weren't what I was hoping for.  To achieve a soft and chewy caramel, you want to heat your sugar syrup to 248 degrees F.  A little too late, I realized my thermometer had a bubble in it.  This threw off my temperature reading by 4 degrees, thus giving me a candy somewhere between firm ball and soft crack stage. 

Three Musketeers Bars

Some things in life are easier than they look. Like navigating a foreign train station. Or fitting all of those clothes in your tiny suitcase. Maybe even riding a bicycle and looking at your watch at the same time (something that I am totally incapable of doing!). This it also true with candy making.


We all do it. We buy a chocolate bar or candy cup or marshmallow treat from the store and chow down. At no point in the time when we rip open the plastic wrapper to when we’re licking chocolate from our fingers do we think about the work that went into making our snack. We think nougat, yum. Peanuts, yum. Caramel, double yum. I think it’s time we break into those tricky candies on Candy Challenge 2011!

We’ve conquered marshmallows and taffy, sponge candy and mallow cups. Now it’s time to make our own Three Musketeers bars! Yes, we can! And let me tell you, they will be delicious.

If you have made marshmallows before then this will be a piece of cake for you. If you have a stand mixer it will be even easier (if you don’t, then prepare to get some serious arm muscles!). This recipe makes a huge amount of candy, be prepared to share or get really hyper from all the sugar. I’ve accompanied this recipe with some step-by-step pictures. Don’t be too nervous, just be ready to clean lots of sticky bowls once you’re done.

Chocolate-covered Cherry Fondants

In the washing machine, on top of the stuffed deer head, behind the mint green ball gown. What do all of these places have in common? They sound like a pretty random series of locations, but they have one very important thing in common. The Easter Bunny thought they would make pretty good places to hide my basket of chocolate.

These are the hiding places that I remember best, because it took forever to find my Easter basket those particular years. The Easter bunny is crazy sneaky, even hiding my brothers basket in his room while he slept. It took him hours to find it, even though his whole room smelled of chocolate.

Sneaky sneaky Easter Bunny, always hiding my candy. Well, except the year you hid it in the fridge. That was silly. A girl wakes up in the morning and what’s the first thing she’s going to do? Get a bowl of Lucky Charms! Ta-da! Basket full of candy in the fridge! Who needs cereal, I’ve got candy now! That was a very hyper Easter Sunday.

Now that I no longer live in my parents’ house, the Easter bunny has resorted to using the U.S. postal service. It’s a surprise in a big brown box! It’s just waiting in my mailbox, full of deliciousness and wanting to be opened and eaten. I know there is a Easter box on its way to me soon, but until then I will have to make my own candy.

I know, two candy posts in a row, but it’s Easter time! To me, that means pastel candies and daffodils. These cherry fondants are smooth and creamy. The chocolate coating gives them a great crunch and makes them look extra pretty!

Did the Easter bunny use to stop by your house and hide your basket?  Where was the craziest place the bunny hid your treats?  I love a good, basket in the oven story!

Banana Mallow Cups

In the words of Rachel Zoe, these mallow cups are totally bananas. I mean, I die.


I’ve been having a ball making candies this year during my Candy Challenge. Originally I started off with simple things, taffy, truffles, marshmallows. After several successful batches of candy I’ve gotten the confidence to try more and more complicated things. These mallow cups are pretty complicated, but worth the time you put into them.

The original mallow cup is something that I don’t see everywhere. It’s a milk chocolate cup, filled with creamy marshmallow and a slightly crunchy top. I’m not really sure what that crunchy top comes from, but it’s delicious. When I decided to take on the mallow cup I wanted to do something a little different, hence the bananas!

I brought these bad boys into work and put them in our break room without a note. Before I could send out an e-mail, a good portion of them were already gone and my coworkers were confused. “What was in those chocolate things?” They asked me. My answer? “Bananas! Or Bananas and peanut butter.” I had decided to take half of the batch and fill them with banana fluff and creamy peanut butter, but I neglected to label them differently. Two coworkers, who got two different fillings, were arguing about what was in the cups. Both of them were right.

Either way, these mallow cups were bananas. In such a good way! Whether you decide to keep them simple and fill them with just banana fluff, or you take a hint from Elvis and add in some peanut butter, they won’t last long. Personally, I ate at least a quarter of the batch.

Buffalo Sponge Candy

Sometimes, being a chemist comes in very handy in the kitchen. In my previous candy experiments you might have noticed the massive amount of molten sugar I’ve been working with. From the marshmallows to the taffy and the butterfinger bars, I’ve been going through pounds and pounds of sugar and my kitchen is getting pretty sticky. (I found some rogue purple sugar this morning while toasting a bagel!) This danger of the sugar is not what makes my PhD an asset, it is my familiarity with failure.

Failure Number 1

As a synthetic organic chemist, one gets pretty used to failure. You begin with a plan on paper and you set upon this path. A new project is exciting, you order your reagents and get everything in order.  At first things go well and your chemistry works!  Then you hit a wall. Perhaps a reaction that you expected to work one way does nothing at all, or worse, something unexpected. The reaction could even destroy all of the forward progress that you have already made, sending you months back.


Failure Number 2

Your original plan gets torn apart after a series of failures and you re-write your scheme. No matter how many failures you have there is still that end goal in sight, the completed molecule. You’ve got to finish the project! So, no matter how many failures you have and how many walls you hit you eventually find a way. Success comes to the persistent and persistence pays off (with candy).


At Last!  Sweet Success

This candy was a little tricky to make, only because I didn’t have the right recipe. Many people have sponge candy recipes, but they weren’t coming out like my sponge candy. So many recipes called for vinegar and baking soda, which turns out to be totally unnecessary for the desired reaction. This recipe was the first failure. The second failure involved a recipe that called for heating honey to 300, this causes honey to burn.

After a little research into how Buffalo sponge candy is made, I had worked out a recipe and right the method of how to put it together.  This final batch came out exactly like I remember it from Watsons and I’m sharing my recipe with you. Don’t worry, I’ve worked out all the kinks for you. These failures lead to candy gold.


Eat me

Grape Salt Water Taffy

Am I the only one who woke up this morning and wondered why it was still dark out? It’s 6am and my alarm goes off. I’m at my most confused and vulnerable at this time of day and the sun has decided to desert me! Now, I’m pretty sure I slept past 6am on Sunday (being that I didn’t hit the sheets until 3am, but that’s another story) but I thought the sun had been peeking over the horizon by 5:45 these days.

It's a blob!  A blob of deliciousness!

It took me a full two hours to remember that we set the clocks ahead yesterday, then another two minutes to do the math and realize 5am was now 6am and the sun wouldn’t be making an appearance until I was just about the head to work. Like I said, my brain doesn’t start functioning properly until I’ve been awake for at least an hour. This is also why I like to get to work at 7am, no one is there. I don’t have to talk to anyone. Am I the only one that likes to be alone with myself this early in the morning?

This is not to say that I’m not a morning person. I most definitely am a morning person. I would much rather wake up at 5am than stay up until 2am. When the alarm sounds I reach for the off button and head to the shower. Even though the snooze button is about 1000% larger than the off button, I’ve never hit the snooze button. I don’t see the purpose of those extra fifteen minutes. Although, I will dive back under the covers if I happen to wake up two minutes BEFORE my alarm. I know, it’s weird.

So, the missing sun really threw off my routine this morning. Thankfully, the late-rising sun means a late-setting sun and a late-setting sun means spring is on its way. And it’s about time, I’m sick of dreary East Coast, winter-like weather. Bring on the sandals, sun dresses and bikinis, I’m ready to shed my Northface!

Apple Marshmallows & Apple-Cinnamon Crispy Treats

I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve had these marshmallows in my house for three weeks. I would come home from work and have one, you know, a little sugar to fuel my workout. Each marshmallow tasting like a fluffy apple pie. Now, doesn’t that sound tempting?

A big slab of happiness!

I have become addicted to making marshmallows. This is mostly due to Eileen Talanian’s book – Marshmallows. These marshmallows were to most fun batch yet, they are fluffy, springy and bouncy. They are so full of air and flavor. These little pillows have a hint of cinnamon and a subtle tartness.

Once I finished preparing, cutting and coating the marshmallows I had to decide what to do with them. These apple marshmallows were too fun to let them just exist as marshmallows. Sure, they make a wonderful candy, but I thought they could be even better. Then it came to me, in a rush of sugar-induced giddiness… Rice crispy treats! Apple-cinnamon rice crispy treats, drizzled in caramel.

And that’s just what I did. Let me tell you, these will rock your world. Now I’m sitting, leafing through Eileen’s cookbook, thinking of all the amazing flavors of crispy treats that I can make. Chocolate, honey, matcha, dulce de leche, the options go on and on. I’m also wishing I hadn’t shared my cooking plans with my coworkers, because I want to hoard these treats and eat them all myself.

Chocolate Butterceam truffles

I think it’s time for more candy! Last week’s Turkish taffy is now safely out of my house and in the hands of my mom and dad. I decided that taffy would be an excellent birthday present! So, I gave a big bag of taffy to my mom while we were in New York City this weekend. Although, I’m feeling like I need to make more since I only ate one piece!

This week we’re heading back to chocolate land! I decided to make some very fancy, artisan chocolates this week. I can call them artisan because I made them with my hands, right? This week it’s time for truffles. Since we are only in week four of Candy Challenge 2011, I decided to start with a simple chocolate truffle. Get the basics first, then try to launch myself into a wide array of truffle flavors rivaling that of See’s candies.

Here is what I have learned in making this first set of chocolate truffles…

1. Chocolate truffles are basically balls of hardened buttercream frosting. Delicious, yes. Healthy, no.

2. If you want to flavor dark chocolate truffles, you have to use some powerful flavors. (these were supposed to be orange truffles, the flavor was masked by the chocolate)

3. Do not make truffles on a warm day. In fact, you have a friend with a really cold apartment/kitchen. Go there. Bond over making truffles.

4. You will be covered in chocolate, invest in an apron. Not a cute one with ruffles, a black one. Reserve the cute on for less dirty tasks.

5. Rolling truffles in straight cocoa powder, following the recipe directions, will lead to a bitter outside, contrasting starkly with the sweet truffle. This might be a good thing in your opinion, I got mixed reviews from my taste testers. Although all of the truffles were eaten at the end of the day.

There we are, truffles are a little finicky and they took a full evening to make. However, if you are looking for a shot of chocolate in the afternoon, these will not let you down. They are rich and creamy (because they are made out of chocolate and butter). Be prepared for more truffles in the coming year, I’ve got some flavor combinations that are itching to be made!

What’s your favorite truffle flavor? Mine is Key Lime, yum.