@f00l My family still bugs me for fudge, brownies, cakes, peanut brittle, little pecan tarts, peanut butter cups and various other chocolates. These days it’s hard to get the wheel chair around in the kitchen so in their rebellion they got me a little chair that lifts and lowers while I’m on it. Sneaky little buggers they are. They just overlooked the fact that I’m up at night and it’s a bit loud when I bake!
@f00l I answered the question “no”, but I have made fudge before. I am not exactly sure why I didn’t consider that candy. Never really thought about it before, but I guess it qualifies.
Read up on the history of people using the “candy stages”: you don’t need a thermometer (way better to have one tho). People have been making candy for far longer than thermometers have been commonplace on kitchens.
If I were a someone who had never used the candy stage stage method. I’d go buy myself a candy making-thermometer. They’re just a few dollars.
@f00l it was actually more a question based on me not knowing how fudge was made in the first place, not a judgment on whether a thermometer was truly necessary just pure ignorance on the topic, i’m afraid
as it happens i have a thermo probe thing that can be used for liquids as well, i just have no desire or urge to make candy. also, the only fudge recipe known around here is the marshmallow fluff ‘never fail fudge.’ which actually specifically says not to use a thermometer. idk if you have marshmallow fluff where you live. (not marshmallow creme.)
i try to keep my sweets-making to a minimum as i’m usually the one that ends up eating most of whatever it is just because it’s there & i hate to waste food. so mostly xmastime, when i can give most things away every year my mom and i make spritz, peanut blossoms, and chocolate truffle cookies. last year i branched out a little and also made some jam thumbprints and raspberry coconut macaroons dipped in dark chocolate otherwise i’ll make brownies or cookies on rare occasions and a birthday cake or two.
@jerk_nugget Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter sandwiches are great too. On your thumbprint cookies you can use a nut filling (they make in cans if you don’t want to make your own) or put a Hershey’s kiss on it. Good on you for chocolate truffle cookies and since you dipped other cookies in chocolate try melting other flavors (if you don’t want to mess with bark or dots try just melting other flavored chips:white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, mint, etc.) some combos are great. I think it’s wonderful that you do this with your Mom.
I used to make caramel in an iron skillet to top cake or ice cream. For many years I made fudge to give as gifts for Christmas until I found out that my family members were bitterly fighting over it. Kind of ruined my enjoyment making it so I quit. I used to make what I called sludge, fudge with no marshmallow, just chocolate, butter and sugar. Crazy delicious. Never used a thermometer though.
@LaVikinga Not marshmallows, but marshmallow cream. It’s what causes it to set up so you can cut it. The chocolate, butter and sugar don’t have enough body to make solid fudge, it’s too soft to cut. There are recipes now online that don’t call for marshmallow cream, most of them use sweetened condensed milk instead. But this was back before the internet and the only recipe I had did.
@f00l I switched to making homemade butter with honey and cinnamon in it. My grandmother had this little churn that would take about a half gallon of cream, so I would make the butter and put it in pretty glass containers dolled up with ribbon and give it at Christmas.
@moondrake I’ve never made fudge with mm cream or sweetened condensed milk. I use the old fashioned recipe calling for cocoa powder or chocolate, sugar, milk, & butter.
Honey Cinnamon Butter sounds DIVINE!
Sometimes I make Apple Pie Preserves to give away during the holidays. It’s wonderful. Great on toast, pancakes or waffles, & delicious on top of a warm Brie instead of honey, or plopped on top of vanilla ice cream. My youngest sends a jar to her best friend now and then. Friend sends back a photo of half empty jar and a dirty spoon with the caption “lunch was delicious,” or something silly like that.
Candied pecans. 1 cup pecan halves, 1 cup white sugar, 1/3 to 1/2 cup water or booze or cream. Put in a 4-cup Pyrex mixing cup. Place cup in microwave for 3-5 minutes.WATCH IT. When boiling syrup turns light brown, take cup out with potholders. Pour onto silicon mat in cookie sheet. Spread with silicon spatula. When cool, admire before eating them.
@mollama Sounds like it didn’t quite make it to a high enough temperature before you took it off the heat.
Someday I want to try my hand at Chocolate Covered Honeycomb/Seafoam candy.
@LaVikinga thus my “oh i was supposed to use a thermometer?” Vote. The recipe said not required (also said to cook in microwave for 3 minutes but i discovered half had boiled out of the bowl i used (smaller than one recommended in recipe) at 2 minutes).
@mollama Actually, no thermometer is necessary if you can figure out the difference between "soft ball/hard ball/hard crack, etc. Scroll down to read @accelerator 's recipe. That “ball & water” method comes in handy, especially when you’ve shattered the candy thermometer at the worst possible time.
I tried making hard tack candy once. It tasted great, looked great, never hardened. It had the consistency of a soft caramel. Very sticky. Would’ve made a very tasty paste.
My wife makes candy (caramels, hard candy, etc.) for neighbors and family every Christmas. I’ve stirred and watched the thermometer, but to say I made the candy would be overstating my contribution.
@InnocuousFarmer
Brownies aren’t candy. They get their final form and consistency from the flour, eggs, and other traditional baking ingredients.
Candi involves heating a solution that is mostly sugar to a certain temp in order to get a certain hardness and consistency in the result once it cools. It’s all about sugar chemistry.
… we all know that brownies are not candy. They are highly addictive drugs. Also known (on the street) as “Oven Lovin”, “Bes’ Squares”, and “Brown Cocaine” (“brownies” being a derivative form of the latter).
Making caramel without a candy thermometer:
Heat butter, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, on a medium flame, stirring constantly. When the boiling mixture begins to thicken and the bursting bubbles start making a “cheeping” sound like a nest of baby chicks, spoon out a bit of the mixture and allow it to drop into a glass of water, one drop at a time. When the caramel mixture forms a soft ball when it hits the water, this indicates the caramel is ready to stop cooking, for soft creamy caramel icing. If making caramel candy chews keep cooking and testing drops in water until the caramel forms a hard ball when it hits the water. When the caramel gets to your desired consistency, take the pan off heat and immediately place it in a sink full of ice and a little water. Vigorously stir the caramel as it cools in the icy water. When cool and before it gets super hard, in the case of caramel candy “hard ball” stage, pour or spoon it on to a chilled, buttered cookie sheet and allow it to completely solidify. Cut in to squares and wrap or serve. In the case of “soft ball” caramel icing, immediately spread on the cake or cookies and allow the mixture to finish solidifying.
Banana cake is my favorite to add caramel icing to but a chocolate turtle cake is awesome too.
@accelerator mmm banana cake. i go through phases where i don’t want anything to do with bananas. this is not one of those times. been eating them all week, saved a few to make a bread this weekend, bookmarked a couple banana desserts, and our local soft serve ice cream shop is now open for the summer and has banana soft serve on deck. i like it with strawberries or chocolate dip or chocolate ice cream, but i don’t know why i never thought to get it with caramel. duh!
my mom for ages (and still occasionally) would make butter crunch candy every year for friends at christmas. the candy is sandwiched between two layers of semisweet chocolate.
i have no interest in that sort of thing but a couple times as a kid i landed myself in a ‘wrong place wrong time’ situation and found myself getting stuck* with stirring the candy as it cooked. you were certain it would go on forever or at least until your arm fell off.
*pun not intended but i’m not mad about it either.
@LaVikinga Silicone for molding wasn’t always so available. I made a 3-piece plaster mold of the bottle. I didn’t have a recipe, I just tried to wing it, and the results were not successful. No ceilings were harmed.
I’ve made candies before. A pecan toffee brittle with chocolate was the most favorite thing. Marshmallows are interesting, but a little messy if you’re trying to color it a bunch of different colors. White mountain frosting which is basically marshmallow minus the gelatin is yum. A quick pan caramel of butter and brown sugar cooked over bananas make a great topping for Dutch baby oven pancakes.
I think that’s the extent of the candy stuff I’ve made by myself. I used to help my mom as a kid, but can’t remember it much.
I’d make more candy if it helped you to lose weight, lol.
oh, and in addition to the items listed earlier in the topic, i also made this candy for a new year’s eve party once…all you need is a microwave and a freezer to make it.
dark chocolate, orange scented marshmallow, whisky caramel, more chocolate, and crumbled bacon. (i also did half with flake salt instead of bacon.)
that year i also made anise biscuits…i should really make those again. i think i’m the only one i know that likes them, but that’s okay in this case
When we were kids we would routinely make taffy, caramels, and a few kinds of hard candy (peanut brittle, some clear stuff whose name escapes me, etc) with our mom. I don’t really count fudge or divinity (and doesn’t meet the thermometer test that you included), but we made that kind of stuff too.
One of my fondest memories is of all of us kids buttering up our hands so we could pull taffy. I remember the first time seeing one of those machines that does it and thinking, “What the heck do they need that for?”
Sigh. I don’t think I’ve made anything other than the fudge and peanut brittle as an adult. I sometimes baked cookies with my kid, but now I’m feeling guilty for depriving her of the experience. On the other hand, she’s a damn fine baker now–and I’ll take a little credit for that (it’s partly the maths and understanding science, so I give me a little credit for that too, if mostly just in the DNA ).
(And motherfuck it all that I feel self-conscious about saying “pulling taffy” and “making fudge.” Shame on you if your mind is as polluted as mine.)
We did an experiment where we made peanut brittle in my high school chemistry class. So, yes I’ve made candy using a thermometer; we even used Bunsen burners. As I recall it was on the last day before Christmas break.
(We also made ice cream as another experiment, but no thermometers or Bunsen burners were used for that one.)
/image caramel
More than once or twice, by far. Perhaps hundreds of times. Fudge and divinity for the holidays. But pretty much all before I went to college.
Since then, I don’t think so.
/image fudge
@f00l it’s time for me to make some caramels again. Soooo good! Wrapping them is kind of annoying, tho.
@f00l My family still bugs me for fudge, brownies, cakes, peanut brittle, little pecan tarts, peanut butter cups and various other chocolates. These days it’s hard to get the wheel chair around in the kitchen so in their rebellion they got me a little chair that lifts and lowers while I’m on it. Sneaky little buggers they are. They just overlooked the fact that I’m up at night and it’s a bit loud when I bake!
@WTFsunshine
That’s more than cool.
I say, go bang bang clatter clatter at night all you want. They want the end result, don’t they?
/image brownies
@f00l I answered the question “no”, but I have made fudge before. I am not exactly sure why I didn’t consider that candy. Never really thought about it before, but I guess it qualifies.
@DrWorm do you need a thermometer for fudge though?
@jerk_nugget
A thermometer makes it much easier.
Read up on the history of people using the “candy stages”: you don’t need a thermometer (way better to have one tho). People have been making candy for far longer than thermometers have been commonplace on kitchens.
If I were a someone who had never used the candy stage stage method. I’d go buy myself a candy making-thermometer. They’re just a few dollars.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_making
@f00l it was actually more a question based on me not knowing how fudge was made in the first place, not a judgment on whether a thermometer was truly necessary
just pure ignorance on the topic, i’m afraid 
as it happens i have a thermo probe thing that can be used for liquids as well, i just have no desire or urge to make candy. also, the only fudge recipe known around here is the marshmallow fluff ‘never fail fudge.’ which actually specifically says not to use a thermometer. idk if you have marshmallow fluff where you live. (not marshmallow creme.)
i try to keep my sweets-making to a minimum as i’m usually the one that ends up eating most of whatever it is just because it’s there & i hate to waste food. so mostly xmastime, when i can give most things away
every year my mom and i make spritz, peanut blossoms, and chocolate truffle cookies. last year i branched out a little and also made some jam thumbprints and raspberry coconut macaroons dipped in dark chocolate 
otherwise i’ll make brownies or cookies on rare occasions and a birthday cake or two.
@jerk_nugget Counting fudge would have changed my answer from “No, never” to “Ohhh – I was supposed to use a thermometer?”
@jerk_nugget Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter sandwiches are great too. On your thumbprint cookies you can use a nut filling (they make in cans if you don’t want to make your own) or put a Hershey’s kiss on it. Good on you for chocolate truffle cookies and since you dipped other cookies in chocolate try melting other flavors (if you don’t want to mess with bark or dots try just melting other flavored chips:white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, mint, etc.) some combos are great. I think it’s wonderful that you do this with your Mom.
I make eye candy all the time.
Every time the wife jumps into bed.
Sometimes with me in it.
I used to make caramel in an iron skillet to top cake or ice cream. For many years I made fudge to give as gifts for Christmas until I found out that my family members were bitterly fighting over it. Kind of ruined my enjoyment making it so I quit. I used to make what I called sludge, fudge with no marshmallow, just chocolate, butter and sugar. Crazy delicious. Never used a thermometer though.
@moondrake You STOPPED??? You silly! You were supposed to make more, and MORE FUDGE!!! (Fudge shouldn’t have marshmallows because, no.)
@LaVikinga Not marshmallows, but marshmallow cream. It’s what causes it to set up so you can cut it. The chocolate, butter and sugar don’t have enough body to make solid fudge, it’s too soft to cut. There are recipes now online that don’t call for marshmallow cream, most of them use sweetened condensed milk instead. But this was back before the internet and the only recipe I had did.
@moondrake
Just send it to me. I’ll deal with the fighting.
PS. I just always used the basic candy ingredients. No marshmallow anything.
You and I grew up when people actually knew how to cook
@f00l I switched to making homemade butter with honey and cinnamon in it. My grandmother had this little churn that would take about a half gallon of cream, so I would make the butter and put it in pretty glass containers dolled up with ribbon and give it at Christmas.
@moondrake I’ve never made fudge with mm cream or sweetened condensed milk. I use the old fashioned recipe calling for cocoa powder or chocolate, sugar, milk, & butter.
Honey Cinnamon Butter sounds DIVINE!
Sometimes I make Apple Pie Preserves to give away during the holidays. It’s wonderful. Great on toast, pancakes or waffles, & delicious on top of a warm Brie instead of honey, or plopped on top of vanilla ice cream. My youngest sends a jar to her best friend now and then. Friend sends back a photo of half empty jar and a dirty spoon with the caption “lunch was delicious,” or something silly like that.
@LaVikinga @moondrake i need to get on your xmas giving lists
Candied pecans. 1 cup pecan halves, 1 cup white sugar, 1/3 to 1/2 cup water or booze or cream. Put in a 4-cup Pyrex mixing cup. Place cup in microwave for 3-5 minutes.WATCH IT. When boiling syrup turns light brown, take cup out with potholders. Pour onto silicon mat in cookie sheet. Spread with silicon spatula. When cool, admire before eating them.
@OldCatLady Thanks! I will try that. Easy & delicious, count me in.
@OldCatLady what kind of booze works? Like Kahlua, or more like flavored vodkas etc?
I’ve made beer with a thermometer. That’s close, isn’t it? And if you start with liquid malt extract, it really is candy.
I tried to make nut brittle (almond) a few weeks ago, it came out like nugget. Still delicious but i need to try again.
@mollama Sounds like it didn’t quite make it to a high enough temperature before you took it off the heat.
Someday I want to try my hand at Chocolate Covered Honeycomb/Seafoam candy.
@LaVikinga thus my “oh i was supposed to use a thermometer?” Vote. The recipe said not required (also said to cook in microwave for 3 minutes but i discovered half had boiled out of the bowl i used (smaller than one recommended in recipe) at 2 minutes).
@mollama Actually, no thermometer is necessary if you can figure out the difference between "soft ball/hard ball/hard crack, etc. Scroll down to read @accelerator 's recipe. That “ball & water” method comes in handy, especially when you’ve shattered the candy thermometer at the worst possible time.
I tried making hard tack candy once. It tasted great, looked great, never hardened. It had the consistency of a soft caramel. Very sticky. Would’ve made a very tasty paste.
@emt305 I distinctly remember that happening once or twice when we were kids.
My wife makes candy (caramels, hard candy, etc.) for neighbors and family every Christmas. I’ve stirred and watched the thermometer, but to say I made the candy would be overstating my contribution.
@smyle Stirring is important and hard if the kitchen is hot. I think it counts!
Are brownies candy? I baked brownies once. (… can’t really see the point of candy that isn’t chewy.)
@InnocuousFarmer
Brownies aren’t candy. They get their final form and consistency from the flour, eggs, and other traditional baking ingredients.
Candi involves heating a solution that is mostly sugar to a certain temp in order to get a certain hardness and consistency in the result once it cools. It’s all about sugar chemistry.
But they are as good as candy. : )
@f00l Of course.
… we all know that brownies are not candy. They are highly addictive drugs. Also known (on the street) as “Oven Lovin”, “Bes’ Squares”, and “Brown Cocaine” (“brownies” being a derivative form of the latter).
@f00l Candy dots are no heat- are they not candy? We make them once in a while.
Making caramel without a candy thermometer:
Heat butter, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, on a medium flame, stirring constantly. When the boiling mixture begins to thicken and the bursting bubbles start making a “cheeping” sound like a nest of baby chicks, spoon out a bit of the mixture and allow it to drop into a glass of water, one drop at a time. When the caramel mixture forms a soft ball when it hits the water, this indicates the caramel is ready to stop cooking, for soft creamy caramel icing. If making caramel candy chews keep cooking and testing drops in water until the caramel forms a hard ball when it hits the water. When the caramel gets to your desired consistency, take the pan off heat and immediately place it in a sink full of ice and a little water. Vigorously stir the caramel as it cools in the icy water. When cool and before it gets super hard, in the case of caramel candy “hard ball” stage, pour or spoon it on to a chilled, buttered cookie sheet and allow it to completely solidify. Cut in to squares and wrap or serve. In the case of “soft ball” caramel icing, immediately spread on the cake or cookies and allow the mixture to finish solidifying.
Banana cake is my favorite to add caramel icing to but a chocolate turtle cake is awesome too.
@accelerator mmm banana cake. i go through phases where i don’t want anything to do with bananas. this is not one of those times. been eating them all week, saved a few to make a bread this weekend, bookmarked a couple banana desserts, and our local soft serve ice cream shop is now open for the summer and has banana soft serve on deck. i like it with strawberries or chocolate dip or chocolate ice cream, but i don’t know why i never thought to get it with caramel. duh!
Fudge. I refuse any to get involved with any commentary on packing it though.
@cranky1950 My inner immature adult snickered at that.
@LaVikinga
@cranky1950’s just cranky about the packing.
@LaVikinga If it weren’t for you inner immature adult, you wouldn’t be here.
@cranky1950
Why do I have the feeling that your personal “immature adult” might be an “outer”?
/giphy outer
@cranky1950 You know me so well.
@f00l
@cranky1950
my mom for ages (and still occasionally) would make butter crunch candy every year for friends at christmas. the candy is sandwiched between two layers of semisweet chocolate.
i have no interest in that sort of thing but a couple times as a kid i landed myself in a ‘wrong place wrong time’ situation and found myself getting stuck* with stirring the candy as it cooked. you were certain it would go on forever or at least until your arm fell off.
*pun not intended but i’m not mad about it either.
@jerk_nugget That’s horrible using one of the great joys in life as negative biofeedback
I microwaved a bunch of gummie bears once
I once tried to make a breakaway bottle. Wound up with a gooey mess of sugar and plaster.
@walarney Story, please? I’m looking at my ceiling wondering how in the hell…
@LaVikinga Silicone for molding wasn’t always so available. I made a 3-piece plaster mold of the bottle. I didn’t have a recipe, I just tried to wing it, and the results were not successful. No ceilings were harmed.
I’ve made candies before. A pecan toffee brittle with chocolate was the most favorite thing. Marshmallows are interesting, but a little messy if you’re trying to color it a bunch of different colors. White mountain frosting which is basically marshmallow minus the gelatin is yum. A quick pan caramel of butter and brown sugar cooked over bananas make a great topping for Dutch baby oven pancakes.
I think that’s the extent of the candy stuff I’ve made by myself. I used to help my mom as a kid, but can’t remember it much.
I’d make more candy if it helped you to lose weight, lol.
oh, and in addition to the items listed earlier in the topic, i also made this candy for a new year’s eve party once…all you need is a microwave and a freezer to make it.
dark chocolate, orange scented marshmallow, whisky caramel, more chocolate, and crumbled bacon. (i also did half with flake salt instead of bacon.)
that year i also made anise biscuits…i should really make those again. i think i’m the only one i know that likes them, but that’s okay in this case
oh. now i also know meh is instagram friendly. neat.
@jerk_nugget I was really interested until I saw anise.
I’ll skip those.
@RiotDemon Anise & licorice are non-starters for me. Not fond of the flavors. Don’t know why, but licorice gives me a nasty headache.
@LaVikinga my dad and bro love(d) licorice. Mom and me couldn’t stand it.
@jerk_nugget Anise biscuits sound delightful.
We made Peeps.
When we were kids we would routinely make taffy, caramels, and a few kinds of hard candy (peanut brittle, some clear stuff whose name escapes me, etc) with our mom. I don’t really count fudge or divinity (and doesn’t meet the thermometer test that you included), but we made that kind of stuff too.
One of my fondest memories is of all of us kids buttering up our hands so we could pull taffy. I remember the first time seeing one of those machines that does it and thinking, “What the heck do they need that for?”
Sigh. I don’t think I’ve made anything other than the fudge and peanut brittle as an adult. I sometimes baked cookies with my kid, but now I’m feeling guilty for depriving her of the experience. On the other hand, she’s a damn fine baker now–and I’ll take a little credit for that (it’s partly the maths and understanding science, so I give me a little credit for that too, if mostly just in the DNA
).
(And motherfuck it all that I feel self-conscious about saying “pulling taffy” and “making fudge.” Shame on you if your mind is as polluted as mine.)
@joelmw
Go make some candy, you perv.
Sea salt caramel every fall. Hard candy occasionally, lavender lemon lollipops once every year or two. Humm I should make some
We did an experiment where we made peanut brittle in my high school chemistry class. So, yes I’ve made candy using a thermometer; we even used Bunsen burners. As I recall it was on the last day before Christmas break.
(We also made ice cream as another experiment, but no thermometers or Bunsen burners were used for that one.)
Whatcha going to do meh? Sell a candy making kit sometime in our not so distant future?