Sunday, November 06, 2005

Thank You, Jacques Torres

Thank you for laughing in the face of my wonderful idea to make candy canes for Christmas. Last year I made marshmallows and they went over well. Now I feel I have a candy tradition to uphold. Maybe candy canes aren't the place to begin the tradition. Some excerpts from the recipe (linked above):
  • Before you begin this recipe, please take a class from a professional on working with sugar.
  • Working with sugar will burn your fingers so know before you start that your fingers will develop burn blisters.
  • Remember, the sugar is at 320 degrees F, and that will burn you.
  • I use a special sugar box that includes a special heat source, If you don't have one, you can work in front of the oven. Set the oven to 300 degrees F. Open the oven door and place the silpat on the oven door. It provides a similar effect to the sugar box heater.
Given all that, I'm not completely discouraged. I don't know why. All I would need are some silpats, which I think they sell at Williams-Sonoma or the restaurant supply store in town. I even think they sell gloves made out of the stuff. And if I mention this crazy idea to my mom-in-law, she would be most encouraging for sure. Heck, she's probably done it before.

Here's more encouraging news. I haven't asked Martha if she has a recipe, which she probably does. And she will likely suggest that this recipe can be accomplished easily at home by a novice candy maker. It will be a good thing. The marshmallows of last year were from Martha, and even though I'm still finding bits of sugar & egg white stickiness all around the KithenAid, they were so worth it.

1 comment:

Mandy said...

Thank you for calling me a domestic goddess. I'm sure you're right until I run my white gloved finger over any surface in my house only to find dust piled high. Yes, I can bake. And sure, I can knit it up. But domestic goddess, I am not. Vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning in general are things I tend to forget about.

My child should be sleeping. He needs to be bathed. I must go.