Dessert By Candy

Holiday Cheers

I’ve accumulated so many backlog material to write this week entirely beyond my intention. I spent far more time in the kitchen or with my camera than in front of my computer in the last few days. Due to a malicious virus attack, I lost my entire hard drive in one fell swoop and I’ve been busy recovering files since. The damage of lost data is kept to minimal since I did a thorough back up in early August and incremental back ups are available online. It’s tedious work but the silver lining is an oddly liberating feeling of ridding my computer of many outtakes from photo shoots. Though not by choice, I now only have files of the best shots from a large collection.

So much for misleading you into thinking about holiday cheers! Well, actually, I do have plenty of that to share. As per my annual tradition, I prepared homemade gifts for friends and families. I’m still feeling the aftermath of cookie burnout from my fundraiser effort of 70+ dozens. Rather than a huge production of baking extravaganza, I scaled back this year to five recipes of homemade candies. My success with confectionary last year gave me confidence and experience to make a few crowd pleasers on short notice. Welcome back, Candy By Candy!

Two Gifts In One

An unwrapped present is my blank canvas. It is where I let my creativity shine without even lifting a paintbrush or sculpting a lump of clay. When I found out about Well Preserved’s Pimp My Preserve in the spring, I was very disappointed that I missed out on a contest so right up my alley. Lucky for me, they are once again hosting the contest this year and I prepared my entry well ahead of submission deadline! I present you Dessert By Candy’s Pimp My Preserve Flower Pot!

I set a 250mL wide mouth mason jar inside a galvanized flower pot padded with shredded Aspen wood fibres. The jar lid is decked out with a riot of individual handmade blossoms. A chalkboard marker and matching lilac ribbon completes the look. I know it’s chilly outside but this bit of spring can hopefully remind us of warmer days when I made that vanilla apricot jam.

Gift wrap can sometimes be a little wasteful once the recipient undress the gift to reveal the present within. Well, I’m happy to tell you this design is in fact two gifts rolled into one! The flower pot and chalkboard marker can be reused to plant some small herb. Plucking fresh rosemary from your window sill is always a treat especially in the dead of winter.

A group of these flower pots would make a fantastic centre piece if you’re so inclined. I can see it being used in a spring wedding if you are already thinking of giving your guests homemade preserve as favours. Simply customize it with names of bride and groom written on the chalkboard.

I encourage you to check out other contest entries at Well Preserved’s Facebook page. If you need help with voting, here are some helpful tips and directions. Of course, if you want to totally make my day, vote for my little flower pot!

Canning Jar Figgy Pudding

This is a post of a cool idea that I put to test but lacking in pretty photos. No matter, it is too cool to just keep to myself. Any British or anglophile baker reading this? Any procrastinators who missed Stir-Up Sunday and still haven’t made your Christmas pudding yet? My answer was an emphatic yes to all of the above as of last night but not anymore!

As I mentioned yesterday, I am smitten by Dan Lepard’s new cookbook Short & Sweet. The book has a number of British Christmas pudding recipes including plum pudding and figgy pudding. They all call for steaming the pudding in a traditional 2 pint pudding basin with a lid that you make out of parchment paper, foil, and string. The whole contraption is steamed in a water bath for hours until it is cooked through. Every recipe ends with the dire warning that you should not, under any circumstances, peek inside the lid after the pudding is steamed. During the month-long aging period, you want to minimize the risk of introducing mould to your pudding as it sits quietly in the dark cupboard. Water bath? A tight seal? Storage at room temperature? Sounds like canning to this home canning aficionado!

Indignant About Macaroons

I've been meaning to make Flo Braker’s Ultimate Coconut Macaroon for some time. Most macaroon recipes are quite straightforward with a simple mix of egg whites, sugar, and coconut but hers is different. I enjoy lots of great results from Braker’s Baking For All Occasions and her recipe promises a crunchy outside and soft tender inside. That’s exactly what I like most about coconut macaroons!

So what makes this recipe standout from the rest of the pack? First, the list of ingredients includes butter for richness and corn syrup for moist texture. As for technique, it requires cooking the batter over the stove until it reaches 120F before shaping and baking. This technique is very similar to that of making financier, a favourite treat of mine. I had high hopes for these macaroons.

The Reveal

It’s been awfully quiet here at Dessert By Candy because I’ve been buried in cookies for the last few days filling out bake sale orders. Thanks to everyone’s generosity and appetite for cookies, the final tally for the fundraiser has topped $1110.  You already know that I’m grateful for the outpouring of support so let’s move on to the more important stuff. What do you get for your $20 donation?

First off, I have to inform you that there is such thing as Cookie Emergency and I’m here to address this serious issue. Each bag of cookie assortment contains your emergency ration with two of each kind in case you’re stuck in this dire situation with a friend. The cookies are sealed individually in poly bags to ensure freshness because even in an emergency, a stale cookie is a sad sight to behold. In fact, feedback from testers indicated this kit was able to withstand a whole night of pouring rain without affecting the precious rations inside! Not that I suggest you try…but a pair of scissors would be good idea if you want to enjoy the cookies without a fight.

What About That Rumtopf?

The jars of rumtopf that I started back in beginning of summer are coming along nicely. All the berries are accounted for and they are ready for stone fruits. You can see in the photo that there are layers of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and Bing cherries. Apricots are going in tonight. I adore these small ones about the size of a walnut with deep pink blush. The peaches are the market are still semi clingstone. It must be a good year for Niagara peaches. Every single one I purchased in the last couple of weeks was honey sweet and dripping with juice. As soon as the freestone peaches arrive, I’ll add some to the rumtopf too.

You may remember that as a measure of risk management, I have four smaller jars fermenting. Two of them contain dark rum and the other two vodka. I could easily distinguish between the two when I first started but now I can hardly tell them apart without taking a whiff. The berries stain the spirit to deep burgundy.

Nifty Cookie Packing Idea

I read about this unusual chocolate chip cookies a long while ago made with mesquite flour. When I finally visited Austin, I didn't waste time and hit up Central Market immediately to pick up a couple of bags. This flour is so fragrant! The smell is not so much smokey but a warm mellow cocoa aroma.

My preference for chocolate chip cookies leans toward soft, cakey, and chewy. This recipe is right up my alley. Each ball of dough was about the size of a golf ball and it didn't spread much in the oven (11 minutes for me). As soon as they came out of the oven, I took a flat bottom bowl and a piece of parchment paper to flatten the cookies. That was my secret to getting perfectly round and thick cookie.

Almond Ding: Confectionery For Beginner

When I made brittle and toffee last year for the holiday season, I thought it was the thing to make for an easy introduction to the world of confectionery. Apparently, I was wrong. There are even easier candies to make that doesn’t require any thermometer! Behold, I present you Almond Ding. Yup, that giggling you heard was me. Food with funny-sounding names fascinate me to no end.

Funny name aside, Almond Ding is basically toffee-encrusted almond clusters. You cook blanched almonds (1 cup), butter (30g), and sugar (100g) over stove top at medium heat, stirring constantly. The stirring promotes crystallization and the heat eventually transform butter and sugar to caramel. When the whole thing turns deep amber colour, you add a generous sprinkle of fleur de sel and let it cool on silicone pan liner in a single layer. Once cooled, you break up the candy into bite-size clusters and that’s it! Crunchy buttery nuts that are so addictive I have to pack it away so I wouldn’t eat them all in one go.

I honestly thought I packed away my confectionery toolkit for the year after that extravaganza in Christmas. However, when I saw this easy recipe in David Lebovitz’s Ready For Dessert, I couldn’t help myself even though it was 3am in the morning. It took less than 30 minutes from start to finish including clean up and that includes the time I needed to blanch my almonds too. Too dangerously easy if you ask me.

My Nutella Valentine

If you’re not a fan of anything overly cute and precocious, look away and come back tomorrow. Still here? Good! Let me introduce you to another of my simple and effective creation. It definitely falls under the why-did-I-not-think-of-it-sooner category.

Let me present you Nutella Buckeyes!

I’m so proud of myself.

The buckeye recipe in BAKED Explorations has been on my to-cook list as soon as the book arrived (you can find smitten kitchen’s adaptation here with recipe). With World Nutella Day and Valentine’s Day both in February, there’s no better time for me to tackle this confection. My interpretation is very close to the original. The peanut butter is replaced by same amount of Nutella. With the cocoa content of Nutella, the candies are brown instead of beige. For a nicer contrast, I coated the candies with white chocolate tinted pink instead of dark chocolate. There you have it, Nutella buckeyes worthy of the sweetest Valentine!

Season's Greetings

Thank you for supporting Dessert By Candy. I wish you and your loved ones a very merry Christmas filled with laughter and delicious food! Now I'm going to open some presents and enjoy slices of stollen with a special someone.

I prepared this Christmas stocking for a loved one. Aside from the teddy bear peeking out from the top, there are 16 espresso biscuits inside. Of all the cookies that I make (and I make plenty), this is his very favourite and the only one that he ever requested. I really hope he likes this small gift on Christmas morning!