Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Delectable Christmas candies



Creamy, sugary, buttery fondants!! Stopped dead in your tracks already? Better pop one in your mouth before anybody else does.
Candies add spice to any Christmas celebration. It is still a wonder how these small bean shaped, half an ounce of chocolate or cream filled candies can make even the most elite forget their table etiquettes.
Here's how:
Turkish Delight
Melt 1 oz. of gelatin in a cup of cold water and pour this into a saucepan adding one pound of fine sugar along with orange or lemon juice. Boil it up three times and then simmer for about twenty minutes till it feels sticky or chewy. Butter a soup plate and pour half the mixture into it.
Color the remainder with a few drops of coloring, pour it on to the rest and set it to stiffen.
Then warm the plate slightly to loosen it, transfer by turning it on to paper dusted with icing sugar, cut into squares, and sugar these as well.
Store in a container.

Almond butter crunch candy
2 (11.5ounce) packages milk chocolate chips, divided
2 cups butter
1 pound brown sugar
1 cup blanched slivered almonds, divided

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Grease a 14 by 18 inch cookie sheet.
Sprinkle one package of chocolate chips on to the pan. Place this in the oven until the chips melt which should take about about 5 minutes. Remove from oven, and spread melted chocolate over the pan; set aside.
In a large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, combine butter and brown sugar. Stirring constantly, heat to 300 - 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads. Remove from heat. Stir in 3/4 cup slivered almonds and pour onto pan with melted chocolate; spread mixture evenly.
Sprinkle remaining package of chocolate chips over the almond layer. The heat from the almond layer will melt the chocolate chips; spread melted chocolate evenly. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup almonds over chocolate.
Cut into squares, or allow to harden in a solid sheet and break it apart. Cool before removing from pan.

Chocolate Nut clusters
1/2 cup unsalted cashews, almonds, pecans or jumbo peanuts
2 (3 oz.) milk chocolate candy bars or 6 oz. milk chocolate melting wafers
30 caramel candies

Preparation - Preheat oven to 300°. Unwrap the caramel candies and place them a few inches apart on a buttered baking sheet. Place in oven baking at 300° for eight minutes, or until the caramels are soft but not syrupy. Squeeze in about 6 nuts into each melted caramel. Let it cool. Place the chocolate on a bowl in the microwave on full power for about one minute until the chocolate melts. Push the stop button to stir after 30 seconds. Spoon the melted chocolate on top of each caramel+nut mound. Allow the chocolate to cool and harden. Place each cluster in a paper candy cup.

For more delicious recipes, check out these websites:

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/christmascandy/index.htm

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art7330.asp

http://www.cdnbiz.net/xmas/candies.html

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search?q=christmas+candies

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