Making sweets as presents

eventer

So, as the cat seems determined to cost us a fortune (#225 this month and that's before treatment for whatever the heck it is that's wrong with him), I decided only family get actual bought presents this year, and everyone else gets sweets I have made.

First stop, coconut ice (finding a large bag of dessicated coconut in the cupboard prompted this - still have no idea who bought it or why!). All going well until I add the coconut, then mine ceases to look anything like the recipe describes. It is now in the bathroom cooling, but my expectations are low!

Next up will be fudge, then some toffee....I have this feeling we may be struck off some people's gift lists after my efforts this year, so feel free to share your tales of culinary woe!:rotfl:

LJD1_2

Lol, this made me laugh (sorry)! We tried truffles......they just blobbed, we made toffee.... it was everlasting! We've stuck to making those advent calender chocolates. Everyone's really impressed and my children are really good at them now. Good luck with the rest of the sweets and I hope you realise you'll be finding sticky patches all over the kitchen for months to come!

glenstan

years ago used to enjoy making homemade peppermint creams , my late father adored them, will try to find recipe for them now

eventer

Ah, at least I raised a smile! I think I'll need the luck, thankyou, and as for sticky patches...I am resigned to it, and the mud the cat brings in (and me too after a day on site for that matter)...plus my other half has a much lower mess threshold than I do, so my input to cleaning is often minimal!!

eventer

glenstan wrote:

years ago used to enjoy making homemade peppermint creams , my late father adored them, will try to find recipe for them now

Oh please do - for some inexplicable reason we have a kilo of icing sugar in the cupboard too

glenstan

peppermint creams recipe
1 pound icing sugar
1 egg white
oil of peppermint. or peppermint concentrate.
plain cooking chocolate
beat egg white till frothy
sieve icing sugar mix with the egg white and add peppermint to taste.
(the exact amount of icing sugar depends on the size of the egg white) mix and knead ingredients to a firm paste. roll out mixture onto a board dusted with icing sugar. cut into small rounds and leave on waxed paper to dry. ( the paper from an empty cornflakes pack is ideal). leave the sweets overnight to dry, dip them into chocolate to half coat if desired at this stage.
i would make the carton for the sweets to go into and decorate with a green bow. the shop bought peppermint creams were no competition in taste as more of the concentrate could be added to give a stronger flavour to home made ones

Luna69

lol.. I attempted coconut ice some years back and it never set, was just a tray of runny globby goo that got binned. Don't think I've had any luck making sweets yet.. might have been okay with the peppermint creams one year.
I was going to attempt to do truffles, fudge, and chocolate marzipans this year. Will see though as I'm rapidly running out of time this year, also have no money right about now, so am pretty much stuck.

Yvonne

kathyd_2

I posted the following recipe a couple of weeks ago. They really are quick and easy
I made some chocolate covered coconut balls last night and they were so easy to make I'd like to share them with you.

8 oz (225g) desiccated coconut
4 oz (125g) icing sugar
7 fluid oz (190g) condensed milk
13 oz (350g) chocolate

Mix coconut and icing sugar thoroughly into condensed milk (if coconut is very dry use a little less than the quantity given).
Make into small balls, set on baking parchment and chill in the fridge.
Melt chocolate in a small bowl and use to cover coconut balls.
Return to the fridge and chill.

I made mine last night and chilled the coconut balls in the fridge overnight. I covered them in the chocolate before I went to work today and returned them to the fridge to set. Unfortunately, when I got back home my son found them in the fridge and set about tasting them for me. I've rescued what was left and they are now in the freezer ready for Christmas. I covered some of mine in white chocolate and some in milk chocolate. I will now have to make some more and I think I'm going to cover some in dark chocolate.

I did make more - with the dark and milk chocolate I drizzled white chocolate over the top and with the white chocolate I drizzled dark chocolate over the top. They look like something you would buy out of Thorntons. And they're still in the freezer with only a few 'missing'

Chocmonster7

I started on my Christmas sweets today. Made peppermint creams, marzipan balls and some truffles which are made up of ginger cake, chopped apricots, ground almonds and a little orange juice.

Now just waiting for them to set before I can start adding chocolate to them!

kathyd_2

Chocmonster - how long will the peppermint creams and truffles keep and how do you store them? Would love to make some but not sure when to do them.

comping_cat

Im planning on trying some of these recipes to give as pressies, but do have one question, how long before xmas do you make them? i dont want to make them to soon and then find they go off!!!!