Caramel covered homemade marshmallows

Following the theme of recreating Williams Sonoma food gift ideas, I wanted to share with you another knock-off. It's the caramel covered marshmallow treat. Also called Modjeskas, these candies were purportedly named after a beautiful Polish actress by an admirer.

Anyway, they look a heck of a lot more complicated to make than they actually are. These make great gifts wrapped in wax paper. Especially when you aren't paying $27 a pound for them!

To make the marshmallows:

Ingredients
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water (about 115 degrees)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Oil bottom and sides of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners' sugar.

In bowl of standing electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, hot water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240 degrees, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing mixer beat on high speed until white, thick and nearly tripled in volume, about 6 minutes. In a large bowl with cleaned beaters beat whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and sift 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to 1 day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto large cutting board. Lifting up 1 corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and let drop onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallows into roughly 1-inch cubes. Sift remaining confectioners' sugar into a large bowl and add marshmallows in batches, tossing to evenly coat. Marshmallows (without caramel) keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature for 1 week.

To make the caramel:

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
16 marshmallows (see recipe above)
Wax paper

Directions
Cut the wax paper into 2 inch x 3 inch wide strips. You may need to adjust the size of your wax paper depending on how big your marshmallows are.

Place the sugar, water, cream, and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the butter until it is melted. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the caramel reaches 238 degrees, then remove from the heat.

Stir in the vanilla and salt. Allow the caramel to thicken and cool for 10-15 minutes until it cools to about 175 degrees.

To dip the marshmallows:

Using a fork, drop a marshmallow into the caramel and turn it over until it is completely covered. Remove the marshmallow from the caramel, letting excess caramel drip off. Place the marshmallow on a piece of wax paper.

Continue dipping with the remaining marshmallows. If the caramel becomes too stiff, place it over the heat for a minute or two until it becomes easy to work with.

Allow the candies to set fully at room temperature before wrapping. Store excess candies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Related posts:
Chocolate peppermint bark
Holiday gift basket
White chocolate raspberry jam

Chocolate covered candied orange peels

I wrote up this recipe almost three years ago and made some for holiday presents and I still have people asking me to make some more. I better get on it this year...

You can modify this recipe to make more or less. This year, since I'm all about non-toxic ingredients, I've edited it a tad, but if you can't find organic chocolate or sugar to your liking then do what you can.

Ingredients:
Peels from 5 medium size organic oranges
4 cups granulated organic sugar
2.5 cups filtered water
6 oz organic, fair trade chocolate (milk or dark or white or mix it up)

The process is fairly easy.

Step 1. Scrape the inside of the orange peels to remove the residual orange from the pith. If the pith is really thick, scrape it out with a vegetable peeler or a knife.



Step 2. Cut the peels into strips about 1/4" in width, removing the parts where the stem and the orange end are and any parts that don't look good.



Step 3. Put the strips into a medium sauce pan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil to blanch the peels. This helps remove the bitterness of the pith. Repeat the blanching process one more time (if you removed a lot of the pith) or two more times if you left a lot of the pith on (like I did).



Step 4. Drain the peels and rinse with cold water. In the same saucepan add the water and sugar and bring to a boil. It will start to boil somewhere around 210 degrees F.



Step 5. Once the sugar syrup is boiling, add the peels and bring the temperature back up to boiling. Simmer the peels on medium low until they become translucent. Depending on how much pith is on the peel this will take anywhere from 1/2 an hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes (this is how long it took mine).



Step 6. When the peels are looking translucent, use a pair of tongs and remove them from the pot, placing them on a rack set over a cookie sheet to catch the drips. If you want you can roll the freshly removed strips in additional sugar but I found this to be a huge mess.

[You can strain the sugar syrup and use it as a simple syrup in a variety of recipes - just make sure you refrigerate it.]



Step 7. Leave the peels out to dry. If you want to speed things up you can put the whole cookie tray/rack combo in the oven at 250 degrees F for an hour or two (just skip the non-stick!).

Step 8. If you want to dip the strips in chocolate, melt the chocolate over a double boiler and dip, laying the strips down on parchment paper to dry.

Candy cane themed holiday gift ideas

Here is a repost of a few easy to make homemade holiday gift giving ideas. I've included one food item and one beauty care item in case you prefer one or both!

I suspect I'm not the only one being bombarded by Williams Sonoma and Crate and Barrel catalogs all sporting delicious tins of chocolate peppermint bark. I've had the stuff from Williams Sonoma and it's mighty tasty, but for about $30 a pound, I knew I could do much better (Crate and Barrel's is something like $15 for 14 ounces).

So, even with using high quality Callebaut chocolate (on sale this week in the Seattle area at Town and Country Markets for $4.99 a pound) it's much, much cheaper to make it yourself.

Peppermint Bark

Ingredients

16 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 ounces high quality white chocolate, chopped
6 candy canes, coarsely crushed (about 6 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Instructions
Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Melt bittersweet chocolate in double boiler until it is melted and smooth. Stir in peppermint extract. Cool to barely lukewarm, about 5 minutes. Pour bittersweet chocolate mixture onto cookie sheet. Using a spatula, spread the chocolate so that it is about 1/4 inch thick. Chill for about 15 minutes or until it is set.

Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in a double boiler until it is melted and smooth. Cool until it is barely lukewarm (about 5 minutes). Pour the white chocolate onto the cooled bittersweet chocolate, using a spatula to spread out the chocolate to cover the first layer evenly.

Immediately sprinkle top layer with crushed candy canes. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and then chill just until firm, about 20 minutes. It can be broken apart or cut into rectangles. Store in an airtight container in a cool place or freeze. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.

You can pack the bark in glass jars that are decorated with red ribbon and candy canes for a sweet touch.

Candy Cane Sugar Scrub

Crushed candy canes are really just sugar right? So, why not add them to a sugar scrub to make a super festive beauty treat?

Ingredients
1 cup granulated white sugar
6 candy canes, finely crushed almost into a powder
1/2 cup sweet almond oil (or olive oil)
1/2 teaspoon vitamin E oil (optional - used as a preservative)
1 teaspoon cocoa butter (optional)
6 drops peppermint essential oil

Instructions
Mix all ingredients until well blended. Place into a clean glass jar with a tight lid and add a fancy label. I highly recommend the 1/2 pint wide mouth canning jars and wide mouth plastic storage lids.

Shaving gift set giveaway

A mom friend of mine, Anne, from our kids' school is also the owner and mastermind behind Seattle Sundries, where she sells soaps with the most unique names and designs. An immense amount of thought goes into all of her products and their ingredients and it definitely shows.

For the upcoming holidays, Anne offered to have me host a giveaway of one of her Men's Shaving Sets. This would make a great holiday gift for the man (or even woman!) in your life. From her website:

Seattle Sundries' soap is GREAT for shaving... smooth with creamy lather. The shaving set comes with a black ceramic shaving mug, a badger hair shaving brush with a faux ebony handle, and TWO BARS of frothy shaving bliss (of your choosing).

Each bar is 3” wide and just over 1” deep weighing 4 ounces or more. As with all handcrafted artisan soaps, there may be some variation in color and slight irregularities in shape. This is a result of being cut and trimmed by human hands rather than by a machine If you find that your soap “sweats” when left out, don’t be alarmed. It’s simply the natural glycerin in the soap attracting moisture from the air.

If you need some tips on how to build great shaving lather, read our blog post on the topic!

Seattle Sundries is known for its Backwoods Soap, Pottymouth Soap and Sasquatch Soap that's rumored to help "tame the smelly beast in all of us." Her bars were also featured on Pioneer Woman's blog a while back (if you want to see 8 billion close up photos of the soap :).

You can even work with Anne to create your own custom soap with private label, which makes for a great holiday gift as well. Hmmmm... maybe I should have her work on a "Clean your Duker" soap to give out to everyone for the holidays this year.

Anyway, if you are interested in being entered in the Shaving Gift Set Giveaway, to be chosen by the random number generator, add your name to the comments of this post and let me know which soap from her site you would like to try. I think they are all fantastic, so it's going to be hard to choose! You have until midnight Saturday PST, December 4th to enter. Good luck!

NY Times handmade gift giving guide

Welcome New York Times readers!

If you are looking for posts on making your own gifts, be sure to check out the posts for my Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge, which encourages people to spend less on commercial gifts and either make them instead or buy from local artisans.

If you are looking for ideas for last minute gifts that are inexpensive and quick n' easy to make, then I've got some great gift ideas for you here.

If you've got more time, I've compiled a list of gifts you can make yourself that look interesting, but be forewarned, some are a little harder than others to make.

When in doubt, stick to the food gifts. You'll want to make sure that your gift is something special, so skip the basic cookie recipes and try to find something a little more out of the ordinary. And, I don't mean "weird' out of the ordinary, but more "Williams Sonoma" gourmet out of the ordinary, like chocolate cookies with cocoa nibs and lime. And, if you are tired of peppermint bark, give Aztec chocolate bark (with cayenne, cinnamon and ancho chile!) a try.

Oh, and if you are looking for the recipe for my Indian Masala Strawberry Jam (with Pinot Noir and Port), look no further than my food blog. You'll find other jam recipes over there as well.

Good luck! You still have enough time to make this holiday a memorable one, while saving some money at the same time!

Handmade holidays - last minute ideas

If you signed up for the Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge and you are just now realizing you only have a little bit of time left and you still haven't gotten all your gifts ready, you may be panicking. Now is the time to reassess what gifts you are giving and make it a little easy on yourself.

You can either kick things into high gear and start cranking things out, or give yourself a break from the expectation that you were going to hand knit everyone a new sweater from Vogue Knitting. So, pick out some new gifts that are easy to do.

If you can sew, then making some silk lavender eye masks or microwaveable heating pads are quick, easy to do, and highly appreciated.

If you like to cook, then whipping up some peppermint bark, homemade almond roca, handmade marshmallows and chili-lime spiced nuts can be done in large quantities. Don't neglect those pets! Homemade dog treats are sure to please even the most picky of pooches.

The candy cane body scrub I made last year was a big hit and super easy (and cheap) to make. The whipped body butter was also easy to make in large batches.

Finally, don't forget those jars of jam you canned last summer - just dress them up with some labels and fabric toppings for a more festive look. You did make some of my Masala Strawberry Jam with Pinot Noir and Port and Cinnamon Ginger Plum Jam with Lillet didn't you?

How are things going for your Buy Hand challenge? Are you getting desperate, or are things going okay?

Buy Hand for the Holidays ideas and links

If you signed up for the Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge and now are panicking over what the heck you are going to do, I thought I'd throw out a couple of ideas to get you started.

Want to get ideas of what to make? Craftzine should be your first stop. If you can't find anything inspiring there, saunter on over to Craftster for some awesome ideas, including craftastrophes, which would make some great joke gifts.

Keep in mind that, just because something is handmade, doesn't mean that it was "built green". In other words, you can buy some seriously environmentally unfriendly handmade items out there, that isn't much better than mass-manufactured plastic junk. So, keep this in mind when looking around. Choose natural fibers, fabrics and materials and, when you can, choose organic. Keep the packaging and shipping to a minimum as well, if possible.

The first place for checking out handmade stuff online should be the Buy Handmade site where people post links to their handmade wares. It's a little hard to navigate through the 45,000 or so posted links, so your better bet for searching for something specific is to go to Poppy Talk Handmade and Etsy.

There are a veritable shitload of craft how-to's out there, and I found a ton I like over on Purlbee, among other sites. I've listed a few I thought might be of interest here, some more difficult than others. If you have a middling talent at sewing, knitting and/or crotcheting, most of these shouldn't be too daunting. Although, I must admit, that some are far beyond my talents.

Crafts to get you thinking:

Woven Felt Placemats

Fabric Gift Tags

Crotcheted Linen Grocery Tote

Quick Dishtowels

Handmade Napkins

Handmade Ties!

Plaid Pillows (from men's shirts)

Handkerchiefs

Easy Lace Scarf (knit)

Springtime Scarf (crotchet)

Needlepoint Pillow

Cashmere Fingerless Gloves

Wool Blanket

For the kids:

Tooth Fairy Bag (I need to get making a couple of these cuties!)

Skirts for Girls

Felted Christmas Trees

Lunchbag

Felt Aquarium Magnets

Sidewalk Chalk

Felt Doll (these are amazing!)

Elf Skittles

Bobble Dress (Crotchet)

For those pet lovers:

Homemade Dog Biscuits

Cat Scarf

Pet Leash

Quick projects (for those who wait until the last minute):

11th Hour Scarf

Cozy Quick Blankie

Embroidered Plushies

Soaps and Scrubs:

Homemade Lavendar Dishsoap

Moisturizing Kitchen Hand Scrub

You'll want to wait until we get closer to the holidays before making the following food items (if that wasn't already patently obvious), except for the jar recipe. I'm including these here for planning.

Foods 'n Stuffs:

Homemade Almond Roca

Pumpkin Biscotti

White Chocolate Brownie Mix in a Jar (I plan on livening this up a bit by adding 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper to the mix and calling it Mexican Chocolate Brownies)

Homemade Fortune Cookies

Aztec Chocolate Bark

Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate Cookies with Cocoa Nibs and Lime

Homemade Beef Jerky

Odds and Ends:

A hand made recipe book compiling old family and favorite recipes. If you start now, you could also include some pictures here and there. If you're worried about printing it out you can make it entirely electronic either as a PDF file or even creating a family recipe website.

Make a family calendar, including pictures of family and friends for the months and including birthdays, anniversaries and the like

Make handmade soap or wax candles

Make homemade liquors

That's the list for now. I'll be compiling a list of links to reader's stores, so if you sell your handmade stuff, send me the link.

Happy planning!

Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge

I really like doing the Buy Nothing Challenges, mostly because they make me think about the purchases I make and keep the spending down considerably. Well, at least from my end of the credit card. I wanted to do another one this year, but it always gets more difficult as we near the holidays as people have a lot of shopping they need to do, not only for gift giving, but also for holiday celebrations, parties, dinners and the like.

So, I got an idea that I'm pretty excited about. It's a new challenge that I'm unleashing on you and I'm calling it the Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge. What's with the name and what does it mean?

Well, the goal of the challenge is to have you do one or more of the following:

hand-make your gifts

buy your gifts that are handmade by someone else (like from Etsy or a local craftsperson)

buy it used either at a thrift store, yard sale, Craigslist or Freecycle, etc.

barter for your gifts

Giving you all these choices allows that you can still get products for gifts if you don't know necessarily what to make, but you aren't contributing to new purchases and all the environmental impact associated with that. Now, I know this is a HUGE chunk to bite off, so I'm going to let you be flexible about it. Some of you might try to shoot for 100% Buy Hand and some will choose to buy certain objects they know they can't get away with otherwise.

I'm announcing it so bloody early in the season because I know it's going to take a lot more thought, planning and, in many cases, energy to pull off a Buy Hand Holiday. As the season wears on, I'll be posting skads of suggestions for gifts that you can make, ideas for sticking to the guidelines and open it up to you guys for suggestions. By telling us what you're doing, it will give the rest of us great ideas for gift giving.

If you are willing to sign up for the Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge add your name to the comments, including any ideas you have about what to give, just to give people an idea of where to start. If you would like to promote the challenge on your blog or site, you can add this code for the button doohicky:

<a href="http://www.thecrunchychicken.com/2009/09/buy-hand-for-holidays-challenge.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDKj_094ldfPLI58TdUO0Km7xCB8NCfyHi64GG10b4afBTU-72hveB4xavORva4FhpH0mXewYhYrKFc384QIbvelUY7i_iev3pJJIZ6YBhP0FCpkELdqb_kINPyIKfCNsTHySgODwA0siK/s259/BuyHand.jpg" border="0" alt="Buy Hand for the Holidays Challenge - 2009" /></a>