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Spun Sugar

Candy Making Information For Hard Times

This article is to provide general candy making information... and to explain how it can become an economical and fun family experience, or even an ongoing tradition. It is a fact that one fun family activity on the rise in these difficult economic times, is candy making. That's right... a stay-at-home candy making night cost much less than an evening at the movies, or a day at an amusement park. Not only is it fun, it is educational and forever memorable. It is one of the few projects that children can enjoy participating in, and then enjoy eating the results.

One thing that makes this so memorable is that the activities can be easily personalized. You can create interesting creations... unique to individuals, or to families, because you can easily come up with your own concoctions.

Making Sweet Memories

One of the most exciting such memories I made with my children was making simple potato candy using nothing but a baked potato, powered sugar and peanut butter. To this day, I and my children, who are now all grown with children of their own, still talk about rolling out the potato-sugar paste like pie crust, and after spreading a good layer of peanut butter over "the crust," rolling the whole thing like a log and after cooling it in the refrigerator, slicing it into thick candy swirls. Still an exciting memory!

Enjoyed At Any Skill Level

Developing the skill of creating different kinds of candy is a process... a process that grows in sophistication as experience is gained. But the wonderful thing is that it is very enjoyable no matter what level you enter the game. So even if you start with the simplest recipes, the levels of fun, anticipation, and accomplishment are still there.

A Variety Of Candies

The point is that there are exciting family activities to be had in making candy together. Hard candy is one of the most easily successful candies you can make. It is simple and straight forward. It is made mostly of sugar, with a small amount of color and flavoring. Fruit drops, peppermint sticks and candy canes are example of hard candy. But the favorite just might be the random, formless candy crystals collected on a string.

Another variety of candy is the soft kind... like marshmallows, nougats and jellies. These take a little more skill to produce, which can make it a wonderful, and fun, family learning experience. These candies are, as with most candies, made mostly of sugar, but here, other ingredients make up no more than five percent of the entire batch.

The carnival favorite, cotton candy, is an excellent example of soft candy. A small amount of food coloring added to spun sugar that has been melted is all there is to it. Marshmallows, which many people still consider candy, are nothing more than air whipped into a mixture of gelatin, egg whites, corn syrup and sugar.

Candies such as fudge, caramels, chocolates, and a large number of other candies, use a larger proportion of ingredients in comparison to sugar... Chocolate-covered raisins or nuts, as well as most sugar coated candies, also fall into this third type of candy. One of the best known of this type is marzipan which is made with sugar, egg whites and crushed almonds. But perhaps the favorite, and most easy to make at home, is chocolate fudge. It is made from vanilla, milk, corn syrup, sugar and chocolate cooked together with butter until a particular consistency is reached, then allowed to harden.

In making this a family project, it is important to start with the simpler recipes, even if your personal skill level is high. This easier level gives others the opportunity to gain experience with the real joy of success. Again, rock candy is a great place to start because of the ease and because of the dramatic results of the endeavor.

My name is Rocky Sweet (Really) and I've been making candy at home ever since they gave me the nickname, "Hard Rock Candyman" in my 9th grade science class. A lot of teasing about my name, and a fortunate science class experiment, pointed me to a delicious hobby and vocation. Since then, I've gained a huge amount of knowledge about candy making, and my goal is to share the delights of that knowledge with the world. So I'd like to share my expertise and knowledge with you.

Rocky Sweet is a candy making expert. For more great information on making candy, visit http://www.makingcandyathome.org

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