Candy making

“Next it was time to add all the peppermint flavoring. As soon as it hit the hot sugar, the peppermint aroma filled the kitchen. And boy was it intense! My eyes started watering being so close to it. And even though I oiled the granite slab, the sugar did nothing but stick to it. Plus it conducted the heat from the candy very well, which caused it to harden way too quickly too. Yikes! For my hands, I put latex gloves over my thermal gloves, since this sugar is still really really hot. Ultimately the latex gloves started falling apart and broke off my thermal gloves.”

“But I had fun and learned a lot. I poured hot peanut brittle on a cold marble slab in the cellar and watch it almost instantly harden. I simmered almonds in a sugary cinnamon bath, burned the first batch, and made them again, adding red food coloring.”

“I felt moved to post this because long ago I learned something from making Easy Karo Candy: I learned what candy is. This stuff is basically platonic candy. It contains fat, sugar, and a little flavoring. What makes it candy is the process—cooking it and then stirring in a bunch of confectioner’s sugar—which prompts the formation of the tiny sugar crystals that give things like fudge their distinctive texture.”