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Mar. 24th, 2011 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickUpdates on the easter candy front.
Prototypes made for Coconut-n-lime chocolates. Success, as they were well-received by the test audience. Lime extract (juice of 2 limes, zest of 2 limes, 3 Tbsp sugar, heat just until sugar is no longer grainy, avoid extensive boiling) appropriately lime-flavored for any and all lime needs you might have in a baking sort of way. It's awesome stuff. Go me!
Coconut-n-lime chocolates tecipe:
1 can A Taste of Thai or other regular (not the low-fat kind) coconut milk. Put this in a saucepan and cook it down until it looks creamy and thick. Put in fridge to cool. Is it a complete solid when fridge temp? If not, try again. Let this firm up in the fridge. It will be your binder.
1 bag of Baker's Secret sweetened moist coconut flakes.
Lime extract (see above)
Put coconut flakes in large bowl. Add some lime extract, maybe 1 teaspoon. Do not worry about flecks of lime zest, as the target audience adores lime and will not care about zest flecks. Also, texture of zest in mouth is identical to shredded coconut. No worries! Stir/mix it in pretty well. Add about 1/3 of the coconut milk binder. Mix it in well, perhaps kneading with your hands. Does everything stick together nicely in a lump? Look like it will freeze into a solid that can be dipped? Try forming some of it into a ball. Is it OK? Good. Now taste. Taste OK? (If too dry, add more coconut binder. If not lime-y enough, add more lime stuff. It will not be insufficiently sweet as this brand of coconut flakes is plenty sweet in and of itself. However, if you want more sugar, you can add some powdered sugar AND then increase the coconut binder stuff to retain moisture. But really more sugar will not be needed. What are you anyway, some kind of sugar-loving pervert?) If not OK, fix, remix, retaste. If OK, move on to rolling up the filling.
On large sheet of parchment paper, put line of filling about 4" from one edge of the paper. Make it so that it will be a mouth-sized piece when you roll up the parchment paper and go to slice the candy filling into discs. More than 1" diameter is overkill. Less than 1/2" diameter is chinchy looking. But y'know, if your people are from the oh-mah gawd mph-mph-mph school of candy eaters, maybe you should make slightly bigger pieces. You know best. Tuck edge of parchment paper over and kind of "firm up" the roll of filling. The 4" of parchment paper is so that you don't get the filling all over your fingers and have a good surface to tuck with. And then roll up the thing until it's all rolled up. For the coconut-based fillings, you do not have to secure the ends. The coconut stuff is nonliquid enough to stay put.
Put filling roll into freezer for later. It should hold there a couple of weeks, no problem.
I am also making plain coconut flavor, for people who like "sweeter" coconut egg style stuff and no lime. I can't really go for the overly sweet coconut eggs but this is a nice compromise. I used about half-a-can of cooked down coconut milk binder (see above), added 2 Tbsp sugar and a fork full of cornstarch. Cooked over lowish heat, stirring, until the stuff thickened up. To that, I added about half a bag of coconut flakes like above, worked the material until evenly went and cohesive, made a roll, and froze it for later. I think this is really too sweet, but it tastes about "normal" for people who like more traditional coconut eggs.
Peanut butter filling is also popular and I entertained a request for those, so I made peanut butter filling, which is currently setting up in my freezer. We'll see how well I did later tonight. What I did was get some peanut butter from the store, one of the ones where there is one ingredient: peanuts. The kind that the oil sits on top and has to be stirred down? I think it's made for tree huggers and stuff. I got that kind. Open the jar, stir the stuff up, and put a reasonable amount in a bowl. Add salt and stir, tasting until it tastes more like peanut butter than it did before you added the salt. You want a hint of salt coming through on the flavor but not too much. Use a shaker to add the salt. And then get a big bag of powdered sugar. Add powdered sugar to the peanut butter, a spoonful or two at a time, stirring it all in before adding more, until the stuff you have is a properly thick texture for chocolate covered candies. (Remember, a little soft is OK because we're going to put this stuff in the freezer to make it easier to work during dipping.) Wrap and roll, obviously, and freeze for later. If you made yours on the soft side, secure the ends of your roll so that the peanut butter does not ooze out the ends.
I also need to do plain caramels and peanut caramels, but that probably won't happen tonight. Oh, and chocolate-covered poundcake squares.
The reason there are no measurements is that I don't really measure stuff like this. It's not *baking* and as long as it tastes good, my people will eat it.
Prototypes made for Coconut-n-lime chocolates. Success, as they were well-received by the test audience. Lime extract (juice of 2 limes, zest of 2 limes, 3 Tbsp sugar, heat just until sugar is no longer grainy, avoid extensive boiling) appropriately lime-flavored for any and all lime needs you might have in a baking sort of way. It's awesome stuff. Go me!
Coconut-n-lime chocolates tecipe:
1 can A Taste of Thai or other regular (not the low-fat kind) coconut milk. Put this in a saucepan and cook it down until it looks creamy and thick. Put in fridge to cool. Is it a complete solid when fridge temp? If not, try again. Let this firm up in the fridge. It will be your binder.
1 bag of Baker's Secret sweetened moist coconut flakes.
Lime extract (see above)
Put coconut flakes in large bowl. Add some lime extract, maybe 1 teaspoon. Do not worry about flecks of lime zest, as the target audience adores lime and will not care about zest flecks. Also, texture of zest in mouth is identical to shredded coconut. No worries! Stir/mix it in pretty well. Add about 1/3 of the coconut milk binder. Mix it in well, perhaps kneading with your hands. Does everything stick together nicely in a lump? Look like it will freeze into a solid that can be dipped? Try forming some of it into a ball. Is it OK? Good. Now taste. Taste OK? (If too dry, add more coconut binder. If not lime-y enough, add more lime stuff. It will not be insufficiently sweet as this brand of coconut flakes is plenty sweet in and of itself. However, if you want more sugar, you can add some powdered sugar AND then increase the coconut binder stuff to retain moisture. But really more sugar will not be needed. What are you anyway, some kind of sugar-loving pervert?) If not OK, fix, remix, retaste. If OK, move on to rolling up the filling.
On large sheet of parchment paper, put line of filling about 4" from one edge of the paper. Make it so that it will be a mouth-sized piece when you roll up the parchment paper and go to slice the candy filling into discs. More than 1" diameter is overkill. Less than 1/2" diameter is chinchy looking. But y'know, if your people are from the oh-mah gawd mph-mph-mph school of candy eaters, maybe you should make slightly bigger pieces. You know best. Tuck edge of parchment paper over and kind of "firm up" the roll of filling. The 4" of parchment paper is so that you don't get the filling all over your fingers and have a good surface to tuck with. And then roll up the thing until it's all rolled up. For the coconut-based fillings, you do not have to secure the ends. The coconut stuff is nonliquid enough to stay put.
Put filling roll into freezer for later. It should hold there a couple of weeks, no problem.
I am also making plain coconut flavor, for people who like "sweeter" coconut egg style stuff and no lime. I can't really go for the overly sweet coconut eggs but this is a nice compromise. I used about half-a-can of cooked down coconut milk binder (see above), added 2 Tbsp sugar and a fork full of cornstarch. Cooked over lowish heat, stirring, until the stuff thickened up. To that, I added about half a bag of coconut flakes like above, worked the material until evenly went and cohesive, made a roll, and froze it for later. I think this is really too sweet, but it tastes about "normal" for people who like more traditional coconut eggs.
Peanut butter filling is also popular and I entertained a request for those, so I made peanut butter filling, which is currently setting up in my freezer. We'll see how well I did later tonight. What I did was get some peanut butter from the store, one of the ones where there is one ingredient: peanuts. The kind that the oil sits on top and has to be stirred down? I think it's made for tree huggers and stuff. I got that kind. Open the jar, stir the stuff up, and put a reasonable amount in a bowl. Add salt and stir, tasting until it tastes more like peanut butter than it did before you added the salt. You want a hint of salt coming through on the flavor but not too much. Use a shaker to add the salt. And then get a big bag of powdered sugar. Add powdered sugar to the peanut butter, a spoonful or two at a time, stirring it all in before adding more, until the stuff you have is a properly thick texture for chocolate covered candies. (Remember, a little soft is OK because we're going to put this stuff in the freezer to make it easier to work during dipping.) Wrap and roll, obviously, and freeze for later. If you made yours on the soft side, secure the ends of your roll so that the peanut butter does not ooze out the ends.
I also need to do plain caramels and peanut caramels, but that probably won't happen tonight. Oh, and chocolate-covered poundcake squares.
The reason there are no measurements is that I don't really measure stuff like this. It's not *baking* and as long as it tastes good, my people will eat it.
