My Grandsons love getting their hands into the peanut butter and confectionars' sugar to make dozens of "PEANUT BUTTER BALLS" These little treats are good for any occassion and you can add to them most any dried fruit or nut. I add chocolate chunks, raisins, coconut and sometimes a marshmallow center as a fun surprise. My measuring cups and spoons are set aside when I'm making these and I go with the feel of the ball. I want it to be fairly dry which you can adjust by the amount of confectioners' sugar used. It does however need to be moist enough to form into a ball. Once we have all the balls formed we dip them into our waiting melted chocolate which has been in a warm oven around 150 to 170 degrees. I use a BBQ skewer inserted into the ball then dip it into the bowl of melted chocolate, encourage the excess chocolate to drip off the ball then placing it on a sheet of wax paper to cool using another skewer to help release the inserted skewer if necessary. If you want to add sprinkles to the top it must be done before the ball begins to cool and harden. If however, you want to add an additional color like white chocolate you must wait until after the ball has hardened to dip a second time to get a white top.
Needed: Peanut Butter confectioners' sugar melted chocolate
MOLASSES POPCORN
Using a skillet add brown sugar, butter and molasses with a pinch of salt, bring to a boil stirring to prevent it from boiling over until it reaches the forms the soft ball stage. My Mom, many decades ago, in the 1950s taught me to test this by dropping a small amout of the candy from a spoon into a cold glass of water and with your finges try forming it into a ball. If sucessful you know your candy is ready to remove from the heat. At this time you can pour your hot mixture over the popcorn. I have my popcorn ready in a large roasting pan with the bottom and sides greased to prevent the candy from sticking. The kids can get in on this part using a wooden spoon to mix the candy with the popcorn. The candy is very hot until it has been mixed with the popcorn and I would suggest adults only for heating and pouring the candy molasses mixture. Again I leave my measuring cups aside and use approxametly equal portions of molasses, butter and brown sugar. 
HOME MADE MARSHMALLOWS
My boys love their hot chocolate and marshmallow and have discovered their fondness for these marshmallow treats which I often include in their after school snacks. The kids can get involved once the cooking portion is complete and the marshmallow is ready to be cut. The cookie cutters come out and they get to make all their favorite shapes. The treats pictured here I have dipped in melted chocolate followed by sprinkles.
DIRECTIONS:
About 1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 &1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water divided
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
Oil bottom and sides of a 13 X 2 inch pan and dust well with confectioners' sugar. In a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup of cold water, and let stand to soften. In a heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Slowly increase heat to bring mixture to a boil, no longer stirring, until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. (about 12 minutes) Pour over gelatin and water mixture that have been standing, stir until mixed. Using an electric mixer beat for about 6 to 10 minutes until it is white, thick and nearly tripled in volume. Pour into your oiled and dusted pan, dust top of marshmallow with confectioners' sugar and let stand until set. Mine is usually set with in an hour though some directions say to wait several hours or overnight. Once set turn out on a surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and start to cut the shapes you want. Dust all cut edges well with confectioners' sugar to prevent from sticking.
No comments:
Post a Comment