Monday, December 13, 2010

An Experiment in Candy Making

There are a few things I like best: Marshmallows, chocolate, peppermint and walnuts. Soooo....how to put them together...hmmm.....


I used, roughly:
  • One bag of large marshmallows
  • One package of walnuts
  • About 12 oz. Hershey's Milk Chocolate
  • Six peppermint candies
As you can see, I chopped the walnuts. I used a chopper made for the purpose and chopped them quite fine.

Then I pounded the candies in a plastic bag until they were in very small pieces.

Next step was to melt the chocolate in what we used to call a "double boiler." Basically, that's:  Chocolate in a pan, first pan in a second pan of simmering water on the stove, and then stir.

When the chocolate was melted I stirred in the peppermint candy. I thought it would melt, but it stayed lumpy ..... hmmm.

Now for the fun part: I pierced each marshmallow with a toothpick and dipped it into the chocolate and then rolled it in the nuts. I put the candies on a cookie sheet and let them set in the refrigerator overnight. This morning I tasted one and experienced a nice combination of chewy, crunchy and peppermint chocolate.

I named them DIRTY SNOWBALLS:



So, they taste good today. The final test is to see how well they keep. I wrapped each candy in foil and put them in an air tight Tupperware (of course) bowl. Now I'll have to eat one every day for a few days to see how well they keep. Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.

If my taste test is good tomorrow, I'm sending some off in the mail. Will the "lucky" recipients please send me a review after they are received?

This was a fun experiment, and I think I've invented a new candy! Don't tell Mars, Inc., OK?

3 comments:

Paul said...

I'll be happy to taste test. Have you thought of replacing the peppermint candies with peppermint extract/oil? Not sure if it would mix with the melted chocolate or separate out, but might we worth an experiment.

Just don't make one using lemon and call it "yellow snowballs". :)

Carol Shoemaker said...

Good idea on the extract. As for the yellow, you don't think that would sell......?

Anonymous said...

Ha! Paul beat me to it! I was going to comment that I was grateful no yellow food coloring was involved. They sound really hyummy!!!!
Jude *