Sweet Treats

I have a fascination with candy making. I guess it's in my genes. My grandparents owned Grimaldi Candies and were "inventors" of the famous chocolate covered potato chips.The funny thing is that I really don't have that much of a sweet tooth(although my husband disagrees).
My daughter shares this love of candy making and I often find her experimenting on her own.
The truth is that I find candy making in some ways easier than baking, and as the weather gets warmer who wants to heat the whole house up with the oven.
Unfortunately, I am under no delusions that any of my candy recipes are healthy they contain only natural ingredients.
To start making candy, the one thing that I strongly recommend is a candy thermometer. The one that I have has the candy making terms written next to the corresponding temperature, for example soft ball which is the temperature used for fudge making is 240 degrees.The only other thing you need is a pot or sauce pan.

So here are two of my favorite recipes-
Honey Sesame Taffy 

I adopted this recipe from Jewish Halva or Sesame Fudge.
It contains 2 ingredients.

Honey- 2 cups
Sesame Tahini 1 1/2 cup

First, line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
Rub the parchment with a little butter.
Next, heat the honey on medium heat to the hard ball temperature of 260 degrees
Meanwhile, in a separate pan warm the sesame tahini in a separate pan to between 100 and 110 degrees.
(this temperature does not have to be exact)
When the honey reaches 260 remove it from the heat and add the tahini, whisking it continually.
When the honey and tahini are thoroughly combined, pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.
When the taffy feels cool score it with a sharp knife.  It will take about an hour to cool thoroughly, at that time you may remove it from the pan and place it in an airtight container or eat it.








Peanut Fudge with Chocolate Chips
This recipe is similar in process to the sesame  recipe except I use sugar and don't cook it quite as long.
Ingredients
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

First, sprinkle the chocolate chips onto a 9x5 baking pan.
Next, in a saucepan, mix milk and sugar until sugar begins to dissolve.
Cook the sugar mixture on medium stirring occasionally until it reaches 240  degrees soft ball phase.
While the sugar is cooking warm the peanut butter on low to between 100 and 110 degrees.
Add the vanilla to the peanut butter and stir well.
When the sugar mixture reaches the correct temperature remove it from the heat and add the peanut butter mixture. Whisk until thoroughly incorporated.
Pour the mixture over the chocolate chips. Allow about an hour for the fudge to cool.

Enjoy!