Make Your Own Candy

Saturday was an entire afternoon devoted to lots of laughing and turning my dear friend Jane's kitchen into a candy making adventure.  Let me describe the scene...I always tell Jane that her house is my absolute favorite house I've ever seen.  Once you drive up an insanely steep driveway on a mountain, you see this gorgeous log cabin looking home sitting on national park land where deer and turkey roam freely on the lawn, Buddha statues abound, a fire pit, and gorgeous gardens designed with love and planted with composted soil.  Once inside, it is tranquil and serene.  Her kitchen is also one of my favorites to cook in.  She's the type of cook that doesn't need a recipe to make food taste fabulous.

We made a plan to make candy together since Jane brought an article into work on candymaking and neither one of us had ever tried it before. She even surprised me with a candy thermometer in my mailbox the next day.  I arrived to her house and she had every baking ingredient from her pantry out on the counter.

We settled on recipes - Espresso Caramel Bars and Honeycomb Candy.  We took a quick trip to the market to pick up missing ingredients and then the magic began.  First, we decided to work on the Honeycomb Candy which if you decide to make, patience is the key.  They were heavenly.  The taste can be compared to a roasted campfire marshmallow flavor.  We wound up making our own chocolate ganoche and dipped half of each candy piece into the chocolate.  It made an already delicious sweet treat even more delicious!

Honeycomb Candy



Next were the Espresso Caramel Bars.  They made the whole house smell like homemade pie.  Caramel was surprisingly easy to make and we used my candy thermometer.  They were sweet and beautiful.  We had so much chocolate sauce left over that we decided to pour it into little glass jars to give as gifts. 

What a fun afternoon.  There really is nothing better on a cold winter day than getting together with a good friend, being creative in the kitchen, putting on some good music, and lots of laughter. :)