Candy In Cookies

One of my favorite traditions every Holiday Season is baking cookies.  From the aroma to the actual task of shopping for ingredients, making cookies is an absolute treat.  Sometimes its even a full family affair. I was once invited to a friends family during Christmas and we spent the whole day sledding, playing board games and you guessed it making gingerbread cookies.  It was a riot of excitement and a true joy to share another family’s holiday tradition. There are many different types of cookies that end up getting made during the holidays, but there is an extra ingredient that gets added more often these days.  That ingredient is candy.  People are taking different types of candy boxes and adding them to cookies.

The different types of Candy that have been popping up lately is endless.  I have seen nerd cookies. The most popular are hershey kiss cookies and the ever more cookies brownie in cookies.  Where they use the cookie mix, add different types of candy, and actually pre-made chocolate chip cookies and add them into a brownie.  Thus it ends up making a chocolate chip, brownie cookie.  

The different types of cookies vary from gingerbread to sugar cookies, and the later being the more prevalent in the baking realm.  The skills of adding the candy to the cookies at the right time is impressive.  The different baking temperatures that are needed at different times is what makes the candy cookie rather complicated.  The reason is that each candy has a different melting point and each cookies needs to bake for a specific amount of time at the correct temperature to make it all work.  So the special baking needs that go into each different cookies are complex and well worth it. 

Some say the topic came from the new baking shows that keep pushing the envelope and I would imagine that they are right.  The idea for candy cookies didn’t come from a tv show, but they are popularizing it and pushing the idea to new concepts and to creative heights not thought of in the baking world.  Entire websites are dedicated to the creation of candy and cookies and all in all with more people staying indoors with a global pandemic, it seems to be a good thing. So the next time the holiday comes around and you want to try something new. Remember to pick up a few extra types of candy boxes on your trip and get to baking.

Halloween For Kids Made More Fun With Homemade Candies in Special Candy Boxes

Nothing seems to be more exciting and whimsical to children than spending time outside on Halloween, trick or treating. The spooky day is meant to indulge the kids’ love for fun and scary, but what can make the entire experience more enjoyable is for parents to make their children homemade candies. The holiday is special enough for the children but homemade candy wrapped inside candy boxes will surely put a terrifyingly fun smile in the faces of their children.

Fortunately, parents don’t have to have a lot of skills or cooking talent to make these sweet treats. Even the parents who are new to candy making can try out some simple tips to get them started to such sugary treats. Here are some of the most popular tips and ideas on how to make them:

Before making these candies, it’s important to make sure that the materials in making them are available. It’s important to get the right thermometer to measure the heating process of the candy. A candy thermometer should always correspond to the cold water test that’s normally used for sugar syrup. A good cookbook to learn the entire process of candy making is Sue’s Candy Kettle and Some of Her Success Secrets, which is a famous cookbook from 1951, and is being used for candy makers still today.

In making the candy, it should start by filling a whole cup or a wide bowl with cold water. The next step would be to drop in about a half teaspoon of the candy syrup that was just recently boiled. The next step would then be to form the syrup into a ball right directly under the water. Then the consistency of the ball formed under the water should then be observed if it is in the right consistency.

There are different kinds of candy depending on the kind of ball formed under the water. If it’s a soft ball, the syrup would be formed into a tiny ball but would lose its shape when it is removed off the water. The desired consistency for fudges and fondant would be 234-240 degrees F, depending on standard normal conditions. If what is desired is a higher altitude then one should add about 22-23 degrees to the temp of the boiling water.

If what’s desired is a firm ball, the syrup should form into a ball a several seconds after it is removed from the water, which would then flatten out. The consistency needed for caramels would be 240-245 degrees F under standard room conditions. When the maker wants higher altitudes, then one should just add 28-33 degrees F to the temp of the boiling water needed. If the desired ball would be crack, the syrup should easily separate when it hits the water; it’s also difficult to form this kind of syrup into a ball.

There are many candy recipes that one can use these candy forms, but some of the best homemade candy recipes would be sour lemon drops, sour orange drops and rock candy. Sour lemon drops are fun for kids, because they’re just tangy enough for them to make them want to have more of them. They’re also tart and sweet, which is always a delightful mix for kids. Sour orange drops are also fun and addciting to make, and food coloring would only be optional.