Making chocolates or sweets

Kazipoo

nic2075 wrote: »

Hi, I also made fudge a few weeks back and it didnt go quite hard enough, I just ate mine soft :rolleyes:, but Kazipoo I think it was , reheated hers and added dark choc to it, it then hardned up ok.hth

Yes mine was soft.... although I did not reheat the fudge, I just melted the chocolate and mixed it in and it ended up lovely and stiff!! I used dark chocolate and with the sweet taste of the fudge it worked lovely, although I did a batch with white chocolate too, that didn't firm up quite as much, but still good.

scotrae

Jem - well done for giving it a go. I'm glad the peppermint crisps worked for you.

There are some fabulous ideas on this thread now. I'm hoping that I can get my godson and his brother to help me and my boys make some when they come one day next week. I've found some unused sellephane card-packs from my craft-making days, which will save me buying new festive gift bags this year.

One of my friends at uni used to bring 'porridge oat truffles' from her mum and I remember seeing a recipe on the Quaker Oats site, so I'm going to look that up and see how I get on while I'm at it.

OOPOS491

What a fabulous thread - I have read ALL the posts and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I made batches of sweets last year for presents and they went down a storm so I am doing the same this year. I got lots of my recipes from Nigella's Christmas book which has been mentioned here already - but nobody has mentioned the chocolate peanut butter cups which are heavenly and an absolute doddle to make. They taste very like Reeses peanut butter cups - yum. You need:
For the base - just mix together [I use a food mixer but it wouldn't be hard to do it by hand]:
50g soft dark brown sugar
200g icing sugar
50g soft butter
200g smooth peanut butter.

You end up with a sort of sandy coloured paste. Get some little sweet or petit four cases and put about a teaspoon of the mixture in the base of each case then add a teaspoonful of the topping, which is just 200g milk chocolate and 100g plain chocolate melted together. I use either Morrisons or Asda's value chocolate for all my sweets which I think taste great, especially as they are so cheap. Nigella adds lovely gold buttons or stars to decorate or you could add Christmas sprinkles or just leave them as they are. Put in a cool place to set and that is it.

Nigella suggests making 2 days ahead, but I found they kept well, in an airtight tin, for much longer. They are freezeable too.

Re peanut brittle. I am glad I am not the only person who has trouble with this. I followed Nigella's recipe last year [the same recipe on here actually] and it ended up in the bin. The recipe said to boil it seriously for 10 minutes but mine was burnt long before the 10 minutes was up. I was thinking of trying again, but reading of others' disasters as well makes me reckon it might be best left alone - lol.

NEgirl

I would try boiling it for around 6 -8 mins max - i did mine for that long and it turned out fine

spurschic1

Can anyone let me know how long the Baileys truffles keep for? I want to make some for xmas presents but not sure how much in advance I can do it.

Have already made some and they are gorgeous, don't think the 1st batch will last long!

cappuccino_2

I was planning on making Nigella's Christmas puddini Christmas pudding truffles from last Saturday's show for LO's teachers but i ran out of time.So after reading this thread i saw the recipe for 'After Eights'.I had 100g bar of value chocolate(29p)in the cupboard and bought 1 packet of Strong Mints for 42p.They tasted nice and i had enough to make 3 bags for her 3 teachers.We wrapped them in cellophane and her teachers loved them and gave her a cuddle.I can't believe they were so cheap to make,i'm never buying a box of the real stuff again!!Thankyou whoever posted the recipe.

nic2075

i was going to make dd's nursery teachers (x4) snowman soup as they went down well last year, but after reading this thread and having a chocolate fudge and bounty balls stashed in the freezer I might just give them these. My oh very kindly got me cello bags from lakeland when he was in Glasgow for me, so I have to use them some how. Cant decide now lol

scotrae

I have just found this recipe for porridge oat truffles, which looks increidbly easy - mix, ball, roll. The thoughest bit sounds as though it will be leaving them to cool

It doesn't sound the same as the one my friend's mum used to make but I'll let you know how it compares.

Valli

kemo_2002 wrote: »

Im planning on giving sweets/chocs in jars, my question is, if i put the sweets in now (shop brought) are they likely to go soft? sweets are things like allsorts and miget gems...

also homemade cookies/muffins/biscuts ect , if made now will they keep for xmas??

Shop-bought sweets like allsorts or midget gems should be fine. You would have more of a problem with boiled sweets as they start to collect moisture slowly and go sticky.
Lidl do very acceptable bags of liq allsorts BTW (I have tested them to make sure;))

If in doubt think about old fashioned sweet shops (we have one in our market hall) they store some sweets in lidded jars (boiled for instance) but Lion products (midget gems; sports) in lined cardboard boxes as they don't need to be airtight. That gives you a tip on how to store/pack!

HTH

I have made the white chocolate and cranberry fudge (on line at Mr T's website) and it''s so yummy I have had to store it in the car boot because DS likes it!

mardatha

how do I put photos in here ?