May - The Month Of . . . (Part I)

 

CANDY MAKING!

 

We're fatties, it's fine.

 

It's Jon here. I figured the wife was planning on just putting together one big blog for the months adventures; but since they don't quite all go together, I wanted to do it in chunks. So let's get started.

 

Last week, me and the misses, and the chubbs, house sat for Steph's older sister. And during that house sitting, her cousin Megan and aunt Shari came to visit for the weekend. Natural, of course, they wanted to participate in the sugared festivities. And by they, I mean Megan. And by participate, I mean Shari just wanted to eat the results.

 

All hail the mighty diabetes!

 

The idea for this first recipe I'm not going to explain, because we're going to try this again. So for right now, you're just going to call this experiment Turtle Guts. And here's why:

 

We thought we'd try making turtles. You know, those delicious chocolate bites filled with caramel and pecans. Amazing stuff. Natural, we jumped on the compy, and made our way to Allrecipes. Found a great recipe. Super simple. If you want to see what's in it, just go here.

 

The problem was this: we didn't have a candy thermometer with us. Turns out, caramel is really easy to screw up without a thermometer. Now time for pictures:

 

Mmmmm, delicious melting butter:

 

 

And the cousin, Megan, adding some sugar:

 

 

 After all the ingredients are added, stir occasionally for 15-20 over low heat, until the caramel reaches 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

 

Then just plop the tablespoon size balls on a buttered cookie sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that face:

 

 

See, now here's the problem. Look at those, they look amazing, don't they?

 

 

Of course they do. If you want bricks for paving a nice little garden walkway in your backyard. Although they were delicious while still hot, and soft enough to eat, since we didn't have the thermometer, we of course cooked them too long, and when they cooled: way too hard. What you're left with: fossilized Turtle Guts. 

 

So, we didn't end up making any actual turtles, because there was no way possible to actually bit into these things once they hardened. But they sure do look good:

 

 

Side note: Shari and Megan put together this wicked sweet basket of candy making stuff for us, so expect awesome things later this month!