First and foremost: Happy New Year everyone!
For this Christmas season, I fell on the rotation of being the one who was sick for the holiday. A few days before I started getting a scratchy throat and felt like someone was slightly choking me. My chest tightened and I found myself using my inhaler a lot more than what I usually do. Stupid asthma. I did everything I could think of to keep myself from getting sick. Nothing worked. I’ve been sick for almost three weeks now but it’s just been reduced to a cough that isn’t as bad as it was.
My candy thermometer
Anyway to get to my point, I don’t buy very many gifts for people for Christmas. One, I can’t afford it and two, I never know what to get people. So instead I bake. Everyone always says that they like my cookies and what-not and it’s fairly cheep. Being sick though, people got a rain check on baked goods this year.
A few days after Christmas I decided to try penuche. It was a recipe I found while trying to find a dairy-free fudge recipe. Penuche is a brown sugar fudge that doesn’t have any chocolate into. I had all the ingredients in my kitchen so I figured what the heck, why not?
I forgot two of the basic things about candy-making because that is what fudge is. Once the sugar, corn syrup and water mixture completely dissolves into simple syrup you cannot stir it too much and you must LEAVE THE TEMPERATURE ALONE. I kept stirring it and adjusting the temperature on my stove. What? My head was in a cold medicine induced coma of sorts.
- Simple Syrup
Needless to say, it crystallized and did not turn out very good. I didn’t like the texture of it or the taste. There were a few other things that could have added to the failure. I will try this recipe again once my cold is completely gone with fresh ingredients. I think my brown sugar wasn’t too good.
All I can say is recipe fail… until next time.
A Celiac's Adventure Through Food 