The Girl is home sick today – not terribly sick but feverish and shaky – and she is terribly, terribly disappointed that she couldn’t make it to school, because her French teacher had announced that they would make taffy in class today, like little Canadian girls have been doing for centuries on St. Catherine’s Day (which is actually tomorrow). So obviously it’s time for me to dig out my candy thermometer and make some taffy with my little Canadian girls.
Candy-making is quickly fading from practice, I suspect. Home baking is still quite popular, since almost any home baker can out-perform store-bought cookies any day of the week, but candy-making seems to be a bizarre and troublesome thing, with a high likelihood of failure – much like medieval alchemy. It’s really not, of course – like most things, it’s much easier than you might first think, and it’s also fun.
I was thinking, when I started writing this that I really never make candy, and then I started making exceptions. Well, I thought, I do make lots of marshmallows around Christmastime – my stand mixer makes astonishingly quick work of them. And then The Girl makes LOTS AND LOTS of fudge and even the Baby made some candy last year while she was still an actual baby (if by "made" you mean "stirred the bowl and licked the spoon"), and we make scads of chocolate truffles and candy popcorn and even the occasional batch of taffy. And I’m not saying this in a "Look at how virtuous I am!" sort of way – it’s easy! It’s pleasant! It makes a tasty something that than makes a nice gift for friends, too.
I do like cooking maybe more than most people, but if I have a philosophy of home life – and I think I might – it revolves around the idea of making the home a fun, sweet place to be, a place where good things happen, and what better symbolizes that than making candy? And I love the way that food ties us to other times in our life, the way a gingerbread boy now brings you back to a gingerbread boy back when you were four, sitting innocent and small on your grandma’s knee, the way a batch of taffy links you into generations of other girls, standing with buttered hands and laughing in their Canadian kitchens on the 25th of November.
(and in other news, Cuisinart Canada has their Counter Intelligence online community up and ready to join right now – there are forums and recipes and give-aways. Go have a look!)
I want my home to be as you describe. Truly.
We had an actual SWEET 16 for my eldest daughter’s 16th b-day. She invited 3 of her best girl friends over and we made candy – fudge, lollipops and taffy! It was a blast!
OK…so last year in honor of all things Narnia I tried my hand at Turkish delight. A bag of sugar, two bottles of strawberry flavor and a whole lot of frustration later and still no delight. I don’t care for candy making. Maybe the directions weren’t so good.
For me, cooking is all about stirring and licking the bowl.
I do like making fudge. Perhaps I will have to give it a go again this year. (Oh, and my mom makes a delicious concoction out of red jello powder, coconut and other ingredients to form strawberry candies. Yum!)
my mum used to tell me about making taffy at home as a child in India! I have to try this.
Truffles were on the list for Christmas this year, but they’ve been replaced by the husband’s fabulous-sounding flavour concoctions for cake balls. Candy will be for another year, I’m afraid….me and my candy thermometer don’t get along all that well.
Count me in as another making-candy-phobe. Good luck with the taffy!
Making candy always makes me thing of Little House on the Prairie and how they would poor maple syrup into the snow and freeze it into candy. Loved that.
The only candy I make now is peanut brittle and fudge. Does that count?
Sounds good to me. I’m home with a sick kid today and baking apple bread. Seems like sick kids and mess in the kitchen must go well together!
I am so adoring your philosophy!
I think it’s great that you do that with and for your family. More homes would be happier, I think, if mommies and daddies spent time making the effort to make it a happy, sweet place. My “sweet thing” of the weekend was Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. Man, are they good. But candy is not something I do much of (unless you count caramel popcorn or the chocolate suckers I made with a friend in 4th grade). 🙂
I wish, when I read you and the things you do with your kids, I sometimes wish that they had you.
The great thing about making candy is that you don’t have to get into that scary boiling sugar territory anymore – try out easy fudge (using sweetened condensed milk) or candied nuts. I have a recipe for honey almonds where you cook roasted almonds in a bit of honey and butter then toss them with raw sugar – to die for, and way cheaper and better than any candied nuts I’ve ever bought. You can buy a huge bag of raw almonds for a decent price.
Becks – can you please post that marshmallow recipe. I’m going to post my homemade hot chocolate mix recipe on the Cuisinart website – sounds like a match made in heaven!!!
I’ll also post my honeyed almonds recipe, and one for tiger butter – completely easy and everyone actually thinks it’s fudge and that you are a culinary goddess.
boiling sugar is about the only thing that can leave pockmarks on my cooktop. I’ve not made candy since I bought it for fear of just such a thing.
Oh Dang it, I have been so busy I totally forgot St Catherine was coming. I wanted to volunteer in my sons class to make some. My son goes to a english public school (french immersion) and you would be shocked at how many people (teachers included) have never heard of St Catherine. I guess it is a french catholic tradition (the Quebec part and then the saint part). It makes me sad. It was such a big deal when I was a kid, we really enjoyed celebrating it at school. I mean what is not to love. Candy at school, it was perfect. I will put a reminder in my calendar now, for next year!
Mmm, that taffy sounds wonderful. We have been busy trying to perfect a dairy-free fudge recipe. It’s tough work tasting all those batches….