Finished Peppermint Patties

I loved making the peppermint patties.  I chose to use a simple recipe from allrecipes.com which required very little heating (only to melt the chocolate for dipping) rather than some of the longer, more cooking oriented recipes around the web.

This was the first time I’ve ever used sweetened condensed milk in cooking (most of my cooking experience to date has not involved baking). I was a little startled when I opened the condensed milk and discovered it to be much thicker than I expected.  I actually quipped that I wasn’t sure if the 3/4 cup of condensed milk the recipe called for required a “dry” measurement instead of a “wet” measurement.  In case you are wondering, it’s a wet measurement.

Mixing Condensed Milk, Confectioners' Sugar and the peppermint extract

This recipe was a very dough oriented recipe.  That concerned me a bit as baking was never a strong point for me, but I had a recipe that didn’t have a warning for potential death in it, which made me feel a little more confident.   I began mixing the condensed milk and peppermint extract with a very small amount of confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer.

The paste was a yelowish color which concerned me as it didn’t look very tasty at all, but the aroma of the peppermint made me happy.

I continued mixing in confectioners’ sugar in very small amounts and mixing thoroughly; however, as the mixture began to thicken, I noticed that the peppermint smell had gotten very weak.  I recalled the experience with the lollipops wherein the recipe recommended extract amount did not produce much of a strawberry flavor and decided I better add a little more peppermint to make sure the flavor was strong enough.  Overall, I added about another teaspoon of peppermint.

Peppermint Patty Paste Turns Doughy and begins to clump

As the mixture thickened, it occurred to me that I’d have to give up on the electric mixer I was using before putting all 4 cups of confectioners’ sugar into the paste (which was quickly becoming a dough).  I’m fairly lazy when it comes to mixing anything, so the idea of having the mix the paste without the electric mixer haunted me as it got thicker, and thicker… and thicker.

Finally, the paste was more of a dough and the electric mixer was causing it to crumble into something that reminded me of feta cheese.  I now had yellowish feta cheese in a large mixing bowl – but it still smelled wonderful.  I had barely added three cups of confectioners’ sugar and still had one to go, but it was time to stop with the electric mixer.  The recipe offered no advise on how to continue, but I like to improvise.  I sprinkled another 1/8 cup or so of confectioners’ sugar into the dough (formerly paste) and grabbed a fork.

Peppermint Patty Dough.

It wasn’t really mixing at this point so I decided it was time to knead the remaining sugar into the dough.  I managed to get a bit more sugar into the dough before realizing that my efforts were fruitless as I almost had the consistency hot yeast rolls!  I checked back to the recipe, “Beat in enough confectioners’ sugar, a little at a time, to form a stiff dough that is no longer sticky.”  I’d say, at 3 1/4 cups of confectioners’ sugar, I had made it to that stage.

I could now move on to the next stages, rolling the dough into 1″ balls.  This is were the recipe went from exhaustively mixing to very fun.  The dough was firm and heavy and had a nice pliancy to it.  It was softer than Playdough and significantly less crumbly. In fact, I thought they should make Playdough out of this – then it wouldn’t have tasted so awful when I was a kid.

Rolled Balls

I spent the next several minutes frantically pulling the dough into bits and rolling those bits into 1″ balls.  I say “frantically” because as I started rolling, I noticed that the dough was already starting to harden slightly and I was concerned it would crumble.  So much for the Playdough theory.

I begged for help from my Sister-in-Love, Shannon,  She began pressing the balls into 1″ patties while I continued rolling them.  Looking back, it’s possible that I was being a drama queen as I imagine the dough would have survived the additional 5 minutes or so it took me to finish rolling the balls, but it was nice to have a safety net.

Pre-chocolate dipping

Shannon and I finished the pressing of the balls into round patties and it was time to wait.  I let the patties sit for an hour, as stated in the recipe, and noticed that the yellow color was starting to lighten to more of an off white.  After an hour passed, I turned the patties over (accidentally forgetting one) and waited some more.  Another hour had to pace before the patties would be ripe enough to dip.

It was time to melt the chocolate.  I used Hershey’s brand semi-sweet chocolate morsels combined with a little shortening (as per the recipe), and within a few minutes, had a nice, smooth chocolate sauce for dipping the peppermint patties.  I was concerned that the heat of the chocolate might melt the patties, so I made sure that I didn’t get the chocolate too hot.

Chocolate dipping peppermint patties

I’d never dipped anything in chocolate before, but with friends that are chocolate professionals, I thought, “How hard could it be?”   While it wasn’t hard, it was a bit messy.  The patties would soften a bit upon dipping them into the chocolate, but in spite of that, I managed to do nearly 3 dozen patties and only broke one… slightly.  I fixed that by dripping a bit more chocolate on top.

These were tremendously successful.  I took about 16 of them to the office as a treat and another eight to my employer’s wife, Ann, who is a peppermint patty afectionado. By the end of the day, one peppermint patty was left (in an office of 6 people) and Ann was raving that in her 57 years of eating peppermint patties, these are the best she’s ever tasted.

Boiling Milk, Sugar and Syrup - Mkaing Milk Caramel

I had really hoped to be successful at making milk caramels since they are my mom’s favorite candy. Unfortunately, it went terribly wrong from the start. In hindsight, I should have started over as soon as I realized I misinterpreted the instructions by adding 2 cups milk to the 1 cup corn syrup, rather than one cup.

I realized my mistake immediately after pouring the milk in with the corn syrup. Since I hadn’t mixed the two together, I simply poured a cup of milk out and began heating the two with the sugar.

The recipe I was using was supposed to be an “easy” recipe. In all likelihood, it would have been if it weren’t a bit cryptic. For example, it stated to heat the milk, corn syrup and sugar together, stirring until dissolved then bring to the soft ball stage (about 248 F). No problem, right?

I’m not sure if you’ve ever brought milk to a boil or not, but when you do, milk tends to expand in large bubbles. Considering the recipe stated to use a medium saucepan and considering that corn syrup and sugar is a bit frightening, I should have used a large saucepan. I was struggling to keep the milk syrup from boiling over all the way to 248 F.

Now, going back to hindsight, it’s very possible that I heated the milk and syrup too quickly (medium heat). Maybe a double boiler would have helped – or maybe, I just needed a larger pan.

Because a larger pan was the only option I could manage midway through the recipe, I thought I’d give that a try. I was concerned that pouring the mixture into a cold pan might cause a problem (even though you cook it three times adding milk and butter and such along the way thus lowering the temperature). Thus, I warmed the large sauce pan before pouring my mixture into it. Big mistake… HUGE even. The result was sizzling caramel.

I quickly started pouring in the second cup of milk (as the recipe stated) in an effort to stop the sizzling. It work, and everything seemed o.k. from that point. I didn’t even note any sugar crystals forming, a good thing.

I brought the mixture back up to 248 F and begin adding the third cup of milk and the butter and salt as the recipe called for. At this point, you have to bring the mixture back up to 248 F and then cooking is complete. I did so and my whole house smelled divine.

I was getting really excited about my caramel as it smelled fantastic and looked pretty darn good… until I poured it into the awaiting pan to cool. That’s when I saw it… little brown crystals formed all along the bottom of my pan which found their way into the cooling pan.

Okay… maybe they will sink and I can salvage at least some of the caramel.

I waited for the caramel to set… 20 minutes… 40 minutes… an hour… Although after the hour it was much more firm, it was gooey, not semi-soft yummy caramel like candies. I spooned some out to taste and decide whether I should throw it out or see if it will firm overnight. It had a nice caramel flavor, but the sugar crystals had done their work, giving it a bit of a gritty texture with bites that were much sweeter than others.

I decided there was nothing to loose by waiting until today to see if it sets. This morning, I found my gooey caramel had stiffened, some. Unfortunately, still not enough to cut into candies.

Recipe gone bad - Ruined milk caramel on spoons

Because of the sugar crystals and the sugary texture, I concluded that I cannot use the batch as caramel candies; however, I found a solution to make the caramel not only usable, but a nice treat.  I set out to the store, bought some disposable spoons and a new roll of wax paper, put large globs of gooey caramel on the spoons and turned them into coffee sweeteners. The hot coffee melts away the gooey caramel (including most of the crystals) and results in a pleasant caramel coffee – however, some residue does wind up at the bottom of the coffee cup in the end and it isn’t pretty.  It reminded me a bit of when you dip a biscotti in coffee and the crumbs settle to the bottom.

Below is a copy of the recipe I attempted from recipezaar.com – one I will throw away and never use as is again.  You’ll not the “repeat cooking process” instruction, which for a beginner, caused me a great deal of confusion.  A quick recommendation: Stick with very detailed recipes with temperature guides for all “sugar syrup” based candies until you are very comfortable with the stages of sugar syrup – you’ll thank me later for the tip.

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
3 cups milk, separated
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Heat the sugar with syrup in 1 cup of milk.

Stir until dissolved.

Then cook to 246-248 or firm ball stage.

Stir occasionally, slowly adding the 2nd cup of milk.

Repeat cooking process.

Add remaining milk, butter & salt.

Cook to 246-248 (until a ball in cold water is firm as desired for firmness in caramels). Remove from heat; add in the vanilla extract.

Immediately pour into a buttered pan.

Let cool before cutting into squares.

For hard candy made with sugar syrup (which I learned is a combination of corn syrup and sugar), you have to bring the combination to the “hard crack stage.”  To do that, I had to add the light corn syrup, water and sugar to a medium sauce pan and heat on medium high – stirring until all the sugar was dissolved. It took abut 4 minutes to get all the sugar to dissolve. I noted that the goo was very foggy and began to become concerned that I’d have opaque candies in the end.

Thankfully, as the mixture got hotter, at about 175F, it began to clear. It didn’t take long before it was at 225F, but I had to get this lava mixture all the way up to 295F. I began to worry again as it was already boiling and turning and looking very scary.

Sugar Syrup Very Near the Hard Crack Stage

The temperature stalled a bit at 235F, but after waiting a few more minutes, it hit 250F and then seemed to skyrocket on up to 295F very fast from there.

I had set out to make star candies, which now I realize have sharp pointed edges making it difficult to eat, but I also had way more candy liquid than I thought I’d have and needed another mold – fast. I grabbed a mold I have that’s way too large for hard candy, but would shape it into pretty flowers and prepped both molds.

The temperature hit the magic number and I quickly poured in red food coloring and strawberry extract, mixed as swiftly as I could with a spoon and began filling the molds.

Hard Crack Stage Sugar Syrup In the Star Mold

The stars were tough to fill as the mixture was getting stiff quickly. Little candy strings were appearing between the spoon and mold as I would dip it into the pot, pour and lift it back to the pot. Of course, these strings cooled very fast and I couldn’t resist scooping them up and giving a taste. They were very sweet and only slightly strawberry… oops.

Pouring the mixture into the large flower molds went much more smoothly. I used about four spoon fulls per flower, but only one spoonful went to the stars.

Hard Crack Stage Sugar Syrup On the spoon

After putting it all in the mold, it occurred to me that I now have a spoon covered in hard candy and a pan full of remnants as well. But how to get it off? I decided to lick the spoon at first, which turned out to be one of those – this is gonna take forever – kind of  moments.

Then, I realized it will all dissolve in water. I filled up my pan with hot water, dropped the spoon in and let it sit over night. Like magic, no more candy (except where I dripped on the side of the pan… crap).

Homemade Hard Candy Star Pattern.

Overall, for my first time making candy, it went well. It’s almost edible (if not for the pain of having a star point jabbed into the back of your throat or having to disengage your jaw to get a giant candy flower in your mouth). I’d prefer a stronger strawberry flavor, but I followed the recipe amounts, which is a mistake in regular cooking, so it must be a mistake in candy cooking too.

Way Too Large Hard Candy Homemade Flower

As for the giant flowers that require one to detach their jaw in order to suck on them, I couldn’t convince anyone to even try one.  People were more than willing to try out the stars (in spite of the points); however, the flowers were just too much – but gave us all many laughs.