Daring Bakers: Candylicious!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com/ offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

We were challenge to make two candies - one of the chocolate variety and one of our choosing, chocolate or otherwise. Lisa and Mandy provided several recipe options or we were free to use any of our own. I chose to use some of theirs, since this would be my first time making candy!! For my chocolate candy, I made White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio & Cherry Marzipan Bon Bons...and the name alone is certainly a mouthful!! These were super easy to make, tasted great and looked so elegant (or as I like to say, fancy-pants)! The second candy I decided to make was Peanut Butter Fudge. This, too, was super simple to make and while I'm not a huge fan of soft fudge (I prefer it a little firmer) this was incredibly flavorful and a big hit with the co-workers!!

Thank you to Mandy and Lisa for an amazing challenge!! I can't wait to try some of the other methods/candies that were listed!


White Chocolate Pistachio & Cherry Marzipan Bon Bons
Adapted from the Dublin Cook’s Academy curriculum

Ingredients

• 1½ cups Marzipan
• 1/2 cup Pistachios, shelled & peeled, whole or roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup Dried Cherries (like Craisins Cherries), Finely cut
• 1¾ cups (9 oz/250 gm) white chocolate

Preparation

1. Knead the cherries & pistachios into the marzipan until well distributed.
2. Using a small amount of icing sugar to stop the marzipan from sticking, roll out to a height of about 2cm.
3. Cut into squares.
4. Melt the white chocolate.
5. Carefully lower each square of marzipan into the chocolate with a dipping fork.
6. Tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate.
7. Place chocolate on parchment paper.
8. Decorate as you like. You can use transfers or sprinkle crushed pistachio or cherries. You can also wait for the chocolate to be semi set then use your dipping fork to mark the top of the chocolate
9. Once fully set, cut off any feet with a sharp knife

  

Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
• 2 1/4 cups firmly packed Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 3/4 cup smooth Peanut Butter
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3 1/2 cups Confectioners' Sugar

Preparation

1. Place butter into a medium saucepan and melt it over medium heat.
2. Add brown sugar and milk, stirring.
3. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla.
6. Place confectioners' sugar into a large mixing bowl.
7. Pour hot peanut butter mixture over confectioners’ sugar and beat until smooth.
8. Pour fudge into an 8 x 8 inch pan.
9. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.
10. Cut into 1-inch squares.