Candy Making Sharing

Wow!  Girls Made 50 Pounds of Old-fashioned Candy!

This was an all day meeting.  Everyone was asked to bring a bagged lunch so no time was wasted.  Some girls worked while others ate so the stove could stay hot.  We made 50 pounds of old-fashioned candy and split it amongst the families.  The cost of each pound was tallied ahead of time so everyone could choose how much they got and pay accordingly.  We did this meeting right before Christmas so it made wonderful little presents for neighbors or friends.  This kind of candy must be made when it is cold outside.
 
HARD CANDY
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup Karo Syrup
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons flavoring (www.lorannoils.com)
1 squirt coloring

Put the first 3 ingredients into a pan and boil until it reaches Hard Crack (300 degrees) on a candy thermometer.  Remove from heat.  Add flavoring and squirt of coloring.  Pour on a greased (with butter) marble slab.  Cut into strips.  Roll strips in powdered sugar and cut into bite size pieces.

We had 3 individual batches going on the stove to be ready at different times.  A long table was spread with a disposable table cloth.  The girls stood around the table with scissors in hand.  We had two slabs of marble.  We kept them in a cool place when they weren’t in use.  We used one at a time.  When a batch was ready it was poured onto a marble slab and then 2 girls cut the candy into strips.  They then tossed the strips to another club member who cut them in bite size pieces.  After a batch was complete all the bite size pieces were tossed in a bowl of powdered sugar.  This prevents the candy from sticking together. We placed the candy in a colander to shake off the excess powdered sugar.  We had another table set up with large containers each labeled with different flavors.  The powdered candy was placed in the appropriate container and the girls prepared for the next batch.  It was very important to work quickly or the candy hardened.  The club dues paid for each family to fill a canning jar with their choice of candy.  The children really enjoyed scooping the different flavors into their jars.

If we ever did this again, I would cover my floor with paper or have this meeting in the garage.  The powdered sugar seemed to get everywhere!!!  Also, instead of 3 pots I would have 5 pots.  After a batch was poured from a pot onto a marble slab, it took a while to get that pot clean and ready to go again.  So I would have all 4 burners full and 1 ready with ingredients while the other is being washed.  It took a while for each batch to cook so this would eliminate any downtime.  (Honey Brook, PA)

Candy Making With Candied Apples—Good Memories and Good Apples!

Our Keeper's group just formed last October. A woman who raised her daughter with the Keeper’s curriculum offered a meeting to help other women start their own groups in our area. This was a huge blessing. Several of the members of our group originated from that meeting.

We decided to make Christmas Candied Apples.  These appealing, old-fashioned treats hearken back to yesteryear.  We also liked them because they are rarely made anymore.  Anyone can make caramel apples; candied meant calling in the big guns!

Cathy’s mom, Judy, arrived at the house with her recipe.  It was deceptively easy:

• Dissolve ½ c corn syrup, 2 c sugar, ¾ c water in a pan.
• Boil.  Don’t stir.  Use pastry brush to dissolve crystals.
• Cook to 300° and remove from heat.  Add 1½ tsp cinnamon flavoring.
• At 310° plunge pan in ice water to stop cooking.  Dip apples.

Easy, right?  Fortunately, Judy had made a few dry runs.  We discovered the apples must be scrubbed thoroughly in hot water, soap, and baking soda to remove all traces of the waxy coating.  Otherwise, the candy slips right off, making the apples look like elephant legs. (They still taste wonderful.)  Then, we jammed chopsticks into the end for the handle, and refrigerated them until good and cold. The candy coating is a simple sugar candy, with plenty of corn syrup to keep the crystals down.  You must have a candy thermometer!  We cooked the syrup until the desired temperature, which takes some time.  Let the kids run free while the syrup boils.  We decided to make red cinnamon apples, using the red coloring already in the flavoring.  We made a second batch of peppermint apples, and added ½ tsp of green food coloring for contrast.  We also greased several huge cookie sheets with butter.

Now, here is the trick.  When the syrup reaches the right temperature, it is plunged in the pan of ice water to stop cooking.  Watch the thermometer to ascertain that the temperature has indeed stopped rising.  Then remove the pan from the ice water and set it on a wooden block on the counter.  All hands are needed on deck!  One mom grabs an apple and twirls it in the candy.  When lightly, but thoroughly coated, she hands it to second mom, who continues to twirl the apple to allow the excess candy to fall back into the pan. Second mom hands it to third mom, who continues the twirling action, over the cookie sheet.  First mom plunges a second apple immediately into the candy.  Third mom hands the first apple to fourth mom, who carefully places it on the cookie sheet.

You need all these helping hands because the candy cools quickly and will not coat smoothly. If everyone works in concert, you can make a hoard of beautiful, glistening apples that beg to be eaten!  It is a great lesson in careful, sober movements, since no one wants to get burned, yet everyone wants lots of apples. The end few apples get a bit gloppy, but no one minds if you let the kids eat the ugly ones right away. We also poured the excess candy out onto the cookie sheets for free-form candy ribbons and dots.

It was a fun experience to make these vintage delights, and even nicer to have a group of mothers and children in the kitchen working together to create memories. Since that is one of the purposes of Keeper’s, we thought other groups would like to share this skill to plan a truly wholesome Holiday celebration!  (Martinez, CA)

Keepers Club Builds a Well in India

We covered the candy making pin recently. It all began months previous to this, though, on a night when we discussed the plight of many countries the world-over: the lack of clean drinking water. The girls were shocked to discover that 4,500 children die a day from complications due to a lack of clean water. They were compelled to act and decided to raise money to build a well in India through Gospel for Asia. In the fall, the girls hosted a silent auction and raised almost $500. Later, they decided they could make candy for Valentines day in order to earn more money. We set up a blog, and emailed friends and family about our sale. We began taking orders and then set to work making chocolate truffles. We dedicated one meeting time to mixing the truffle dough and discussing the basics of candy making. On another night, we rolled the dough, which had been refrigerated since the last meeting, into hundreds of truffles and also spent time working on toffee for the hard candy element of the achievement. The girls worked at home with their mothers on the rock candy requirement.

At another meeting, we dipped the truffle balls, which had been frozen since they were rolled, in chocolate and decorated them. The girls then learned how to make origami boxes out of cute scrapbooking paper. At our final meeting on this topic, they packaged the truffles in boxed sets of 4, placed the lids on as well as a ribbon and decorative tag explaining the cause. As a group, they sold over 80 boxes of truffles and were able to earn well more than was needed to complete the well.

We felt this project was a great success because it not only taught the girls the basics of candy making, but it was for a lasting purpose. They were able to bring clean drinking water to a village in India in the name of Christ. They can now tell you how to make lovely sweet treats step by step, as well as being aware of how greatly privileged they are. They learned a skill for life and to reach out their hands to help “the least of these.”

Grateful for the privilege of being a part of the keepers community. (Franklin, TN)