Sesame Candy, Again
Sometimes cutting corners works (although at this moment I can’t think of an instance when that’s true). Sometimes it really doesn't. Last week, I thought I could fudge my way through a simple recipe for sesame candy.
And then I wrote this: " This is the recipe I made, a variation of it. I halved it by eyeball but I don’t recommend that because the texture isn’t quite right. And to be perfectly frank, I choose the rice syrup because the honey I have is raw and expensive so I wanted to save it. But the candy has a slightly but not wholly unpleasant bitter after taste: could be the sesame seeds, which tasted that way raw, or the rice syrup, maybe that happens when it cooks down. And I only cooked it to soft-ball stage, perhaps it should have cooked longer because they aren’t really hard candies but soft wilt-y things. Next time I will choose honey and do the recipe correctly, to hard-ball stage."
Not content to leave well enough alone, I made this recipe again using the correct measurements, honey not rice syrup, and cooked it to a hard-ball stage.
Boy oh boy the candy of my childhood is now cooling in a pan by the windowsill. No bitterness [must have been the rice syrup once cooked] and very honey-esque. It had been so long since I’d had it, I forgot that honey was the essential flavoring for this treat.
So just an update for you all. Candy making, like baking needs exact recipe-following. No fudging and this includes your truly!
And then I wrote this: " This is the recipe I made, a variation of it. I halved it by eyeball but I don’t recommend that because the texture isn’t quite right. And to be perfectly frank, I choose the rice syrup because the honey I have is raw and expensive so I wanted to save it. But the candy has a slightly but not wholly unpleasant bitter after taste: could be the sesame seeds, which tasted that way raw, or the rice syrup, maybe that happens when it cooks down. And I only cooked it to soft-ball stage, perhaps it should have cooked longer because they aren’t really hard candies but soft wilt-y things. Next time I will choose honey and do the recipe correctly, to hard-ball stage."
Not content to leave well enough alone, I made this recipe again using the correct measurements, honey not rice syrup, and cooked it to a hard-ball stage.
Boy oh boy the candy of my childhood is now cooling in a pan by the windowsill. No bitterness [must have been the rice syrup once cooked] and very honey-esque. It had been so long since I’d had it, I forgot that honey was the essential flavoring for this treat.
So just an update for you all. Candy making, like baking needs exact recipe-following. No fudging and this includes your truly!
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