Sausage Recipes of the Month
Underdog Loire Valley Wines
How to Make a Healthy Snack
Mark McClusky's DIY Cheese
The Perfect Party Cocktail
Foodies Fetishize Their Own
Make Your Own Candy Bars
Corner-store sweets go high-end
Here’s the thing with nostalgia: Memories betray you. Those candy bars that you remember loving are stuffed full of waxy chocolate, weird fillers, and preservatives. Try our souped-up take on four beloved candy bars. Give the store-bought stuff to the kids, and save these for yourself. And, for crafty extra credit, download the wrappers for each candy.
ROLL OVER FOR COMPARISON
Our take on the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup™, this is the easiest and most universally loved of the bunch.
The CHOW version of an Almond Joy™ requires a bit more concentration than the Peanut Butta Cups but is still simple enough for first-time candy makers.
For our adaptation of a Twix™, you’ll make the shortbread cookie and caramel filling and dip it all in chocolate.
Our version of a Snickers™ is the most challenging of our candy bars, but the peanut nougat is so chewy and fluffy it’s worth the extra effort.
To delve further into the art and science of candy and chocolate making, turn to these books.
Chocolate Obsession: Confections and Treats to Create and Savor
By Michael Recchiuti and Fran Gage
(Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2005)
San Francisco chocolatier Michael Recchiuti is as thoughtful as he is creative in this cookbook-meets-encyclopedia. There are plenty of resources and tips to get you going.
CookWise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed
By Shirley O. Corriher
(William Morrow Cookbooks, 1997)
This book discusses the whys and hows of everything from eggs to chocolate, with recipes that illustrate Corriher’s points.
The Great Book of Chocolate
By David Lebovitz
(Ten Speed Press, 2004)
Though it’s tall, skinny, and seems like a light read, this book is a great resource. Lebovitz takes you on a tour of the chocolate world while conveying the wisdom of his experience as a pastry chef.
Here are the most common terms you’ll come across as your candy-making odyssey begins. You’ll also want to take a look at our behind-the-scenes video.
Bloom: The gray mottling that sometimes appears on the surface of chocolate is a result of extremes in heat or humidity. Chocolate stored in a fridge is subject to too much humidity, which causes the sugars to crystallize. If your chocolate is too warm, it will melt slightly and the fats will separate out. While not aesthetically pleasing, the chocolate is still usable and edible. The only risk is that chocolate with sugar bloom may seize since it has been exposed to moisture.
Couverture: Chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa butter (at least 32 percent). It is used to enrobe candy because it forms a very thin coating when properly tempered.
Enrobe: Dipping or coating candies in chocolate.
Seed: One of the most common methods of tempering chocolate is the seed method. Because it requires the fewest tools and is the easiest to master, it is the method we recommend for the home cook. To do so, melt two-thirds to three-quarters of the total weight of chocolate you’re working with, and once it has reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit (for milk chocolate), add in the remaining chocolate (also referred to as the seed).
Seize: When melted chocolate comes in contact with even a small amount of liquid or steam, it hardens and becomes lumpy, a condition known as seizing. When working with chocolate, be diligent about keeping everything dry to avoid this. If seizing occurs, whisk 1 tablespoon of a neutral oil (such as canola, corn, or vegetable), clarified butter, or cocoa butter into every 6 ounces of chocolate. The repaired chocolate is still usable in most recipes unless you’re planning on tempering.
Temper: The method of melting and cooling chocolate in order to stabilize its crystal structure. Tempering makes chocolate shiny, with a good snap when you break it. Most baking recipes do not require tempering, but it is essential when enrobing chocolate confections.
With that much time and love put into making your own candy... I would save it for friends and family too. -Not to mention I wouldnt let my little one eat anything homemade unless I knew the person
I'm surprised that in this sad world, no one has made a comment that any parent would just throw away any home made item on Halloween. Perhaps these are just meant for personal consumption and friends, not trick or treaters ringing your doorbell.
@pmigrn--Commodity chocolate is cheap chocolate so it needs cheap labor, look at the small artisan chocolate makers who pay top dollar for the beans they use. If we pay the real cost for the food (chocolate) we eat we are paying living wages to the farmers.
There's a quota on how much chocolate to eat in a month??!? Who knew...
Check this out http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/ She just posted Homemade Almond Joys today. They look really easy and really good.
Chocolate is an amazing food and I really love it. It is just such a big shame that there is a bitter truth about most chocolate.
In fact the truth is so bitter, I stopped eating chocolate that does not explicitely states that it is produced without child labor and slavery : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcMn6mEwU_8
Those look great! The lables are cool too. I think that I have already had my quota for chocolate this month. I would have rather had some of this though.
Professor, could you share your recipe/directions for Chunkies? I've only ever had the current version (just once or twice) and remember thinking it could be so much better - your version sounds like the answer!
This seems like a good idea, but speaking from experience in caramel making... all of the caramel in these pictures is waaay underdone. I learned the hard way that if you get scared and pull your sugar off the stove too soon you are left with a bland, pale caramel.
I'll have to try these!
I have been making my own home-made version of the classic CHUNKY bar for years.
Many years ago, the CHUNKY was made with a good dose of cashews and raisins. Probably around the time Nestle acquired the brand they changed it considerably...the chocolate itself seemed marginally improved, but gone were the cashews, substituted by a stingy hint of crushed peanuts... and...+READ
I'll have to try these!
I have been making my own home-made version of the classic CHUNKY bar for years.
Many years ago, the CHUNKY was made with a good dose of cashews and raisins. Probably around the time Nestle acquired the brand they changed it considerably...the chocolate itself seemed marginally improved, but gone were the cashews, substituted by a stingy hint of crushed peanuts... and even the raisins were cut back considerably. With the CHUNKY being a shadow of its former self, the only solution was to make them the way I remembered loving them. They are always a big hit.-COLLAPSE
I THINK THAT THIS I A COOL AND I THINK THAT IF I HAD THE CHOICE I WOULD DO ALL OF THEM.
In the Halloween candy department, I just wrote 'Giant Sewer Rats, Severed Chocolate Fingers: Halloween Candy Collection at Hope and Greenwood, London' on 'Serge the Concierge'
Here's the link
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2008/10/giant-sewer-rat.html
Serge
'The French Guy from New Jersey'
is it just me, or is this article emitting the scent of déjà vu?
NOM!
my kids just seen these(all teenagers) and say we gotta make them .Like it will be them doing any of it except the eating of course
I have a feeling I am in a whole world of trouble!
These look truly delicious. I've never thought about making candy bars myself, but I will now. I love the rollover cross-section comparisons between the factory made candy and the hand-made one.
sounds awesome as hell i love it now your talking something good and sweet