Dessert By Candy

Marshmallows In Many Flavours

I lied yesterday. I don’t feel like writing about chocolate today. I want to write about marshmallows. Since my first batch of homemade matcha kinako marshmallows, I made more, many many more. I feel like I am compensating for years of longing and neglect. Finally, I am not paying ridiculous amount of money for handmade marshmallows! It costs next to nothing to make at home and I get a large batch every time. I don’t recall a day since February when my house runs out of marshmallows. I’m in heaven.

Interestingly enough, I haven’t made any vanilla marshmallows even though that is most likely what I buy from stores. You know, the ones with fancy little specks of vanilla beans. I love the blank canvas of my homemade version and I took the opportunity to create a rainbow of pastel colours and delicate flavours.

Independent Woman

Today I want to rant and vent about something that’s been bothering me and it is entirely unrelated to food. Please feel free to come back tomorrow for my regular programming that is a whole lot sweeter. I promise the navel gazing stops after this post.

Since my return to singledom in February, I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong. It’s not the dissolution of one romantic relationship that has me baffled. There are actually a handful of them that mystify me to this day. So I ask the question that many single people inevitably wonder: what’s the matter with me that I cannot sustain any long term romantic relationships?

4C Bar: Cider, Crispies, Caramel, Cinnamon

I am learning quickly about candy making. An important part of my education is experimenting with different techniques and styles. I am familiar with making dry and wet caramel thinned with cream after the caramel reaches the desired degree of caramelization. However, I did not try making it with every ingredient all in the pot from the start. This was the reason that drew me to Liddabit Sweets’ Passion Spice Bar. The description of this chocolate bar is enticing enough on its own: passion fruit spiked caramel with a touch of cayenne and rice crispies enrobed in chocolate. Mmm.

I had one little problem though. It is not trivial for me to source passion fruit puree.  The uniquely tropical tart flavour of passion fruit cannot really be substituted. Thankfully, the recipe suggested an alternative of using three times the volume of passion fruit juice. While the caramel cooks, the excess water evaporates to create a more concentrated dose of flavour. I decided to take that idea one step further and used unfiltered apple cider and cinnamon instead. Cider, Crispies, Caramel, and Cinnamon. That’s 4 Cs in one!