So this week my goal is to get the Christmas cards out, and treats to the neighbors and friends delivered. Enter carmels. I found a recipe that looked delicious. Sea Salt Carmels. Yum. I have never made carmels by myself, but i have helped my Mom when I was young.
(This is the key point. The recipie was in the costco cookbook they gave out the weekend after Thanksgiving. I didn't think that the recipe would make costco size portions. Four cups of cream and four cups of sugar should have been a tip off ... and its said, "make in stock pot") So I start mixing everything my favorite pot, The LeCruset dutch oven, thinking "This will be plenty big." OOHHHHH NNNNOOOTTTT SSSOOOOO!!! Once the carmel starting boiling it was clearly not big enough. Not even close.
Here is the visual. Carmel is boiling over. I am shrieking "I NEED ANOTHER PAN!!! WHERE IS ANOTHER PAN!!!" I find another pan, all the while I am trying to clean up the spills, not let the paper towels ketch fire, and stir the carmel, and not trip over the dog, and then I finally dump half of the carmel in pot number two. Then I really look stupid. I am whisking 2 pots of carmel at the same time, for 10 MINUTES. My forearms were killing me. This is the exchange between me and Zoey that made me realize how stupid I must have looked.
Zoey: "Mom, what are you doing?"
Me: "Stirring Candy."
Zoey: "No, you're dancing!" (she said this with jazz hands)
In the end, I missed the "hard ball stage" and ended up with an entire cookie sheet of carmel that was supposed to be chewy. Its more like Werthers hard candy, but way better. Now I am stuck with dilemma, What do I do? The carmel is good. I mean, really good. Do I give it away anyways, and say its hard candy? Or do I attempt it again, and hope for the best? Hmmm. dilemma...
13 thoughts:
hahaha, "no, your dancing." is the funniest thing i've heard all day.
give it anyway, everyone likes a good werthers.
Roll with it, it may just be the next big hit. Bike geeks love candy, of any type.
Here is my advice. One for the devil over my shoulder, one from the angel.
angel: give it out
devil: (that is the perfectionist in me) i'd want to attempt it again as it was not what i invisioned.
Both! But I do love to bake, so that may not be the most practical advice you'll get. The hard candies look pretty darn good, though.
I say give it away - looks good to me!! YUM!
Soo funny! I can totally relate. I would give it away, or else I would eat it myself (but you probably have more self control than I do).
Have a great Christmas!!
Give it out and then if you still end up having time among all the other Holiday prep you can give it another try, but if you don't get to it, no biggie.
Give it away! Or eat it. No one has to know what it was supposed to be like. Love that costco cookbook. The pear cake in there was delicious.
this looks SUPER nummy!!! no matter what the intention - you still did a great job :)
I'm glad it tastes good!! Making treats on the stove is so tricky...I finally found a recipe for English Tofee that works EVERY time...let me know if you want it.
The hard ones are soo good! I think they are even better then the soft ones! Thanks for being so awesome!!
Rachael I just found your blog! I love those Costco cookbooks!! I only use them for parties now.
I LOVED them. Roland ate all the soft ones and I ate all the hard ones. I did think that one of my crowns was going to pop off! But it was worth the fear of the dentist.
So Yummy! Thanks.
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