Tasty Tuesday

For us, peanut butter and chocolate is a great combination!
These were easy and delicious!

Peanut Butter Temptations

1 bag if mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
1 stick of butter
1/2 C sugar and 1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C Peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 375. Remove wrappers from candy (delegate to the kids!). Mix ingredients together and shape dough into 1 inch balls and place into muffin cups. Do not flatten. Bake for 10 minutes and then take them out and immediately press peanut butter cup into the center.

The Art of Candy Making

Picture of perfection (left)
Reality (right and below).

Last night I decided to make some caramel apples. I had the recipe, all of the necessary ingredients and a picture of what the end result was supposed to look like, easy enough. The recipe told me to let the caramel simmer until it reached 270*, about 15 minutes. Then it was supposed to thicken while cooling for 6-8 minutes. Things were going well until the caramel boiled over and made a gooey, sticky mess all over the range. I cleaned that up while the caramel was supposed to be thickening. After a half an hour the caramel was still not sticking to the apples but just running off of them like a fountain.

Flashback: Last Christmas I attempted to make homemade caramels and they ended up being so hard that it took me three days to soak the caramel out of my pan layer by layer. I vowed that I would never attempt candy making again but time has a way of dulling such memories.

So I waited, and waited--keep in mind that it's Tuesday and Andrew plays basketball late, so I had a free go to bed early card--and waited. Eventually some of the caramel decided that the apple wasn't it's polar opposite and began sticking, a little. So I dipped and swirled and decided to call it a night.

My swimming apples

Lesson learned: I may be a baker but I'm not a candy maker.