Confectionery

These recipes for sweets are really easy but never fail to impress.... Honecomb (Cinder Toffee) =================== Preparation Time: 20 minutes, plus setting Cooking Time: 25 minutes Ingredients 200g caster sugar 100g golden syrup 40g butter 2 tbsp water half a tsp vinegar 1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda 1. Line a 15cm square tin with baking paper. 2. Put the syrup, sugar, butter and water into a large pan over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, before turning up the heat and bringing to the boil. 3. Cook, without stirring (very important) until ...  Read the complete review

Stuck for ideas for Christmas presents? On a tight budget? Well why not make your own chocolate truffles! A few creative ideas, a bit of experimentation, and voila! Very definitely recommended, whether you decide to give them as gifts of just eat them yourself ;) ¤ INGREDIENTS ¤ This makes about 20-25: 200g dark (70% cocoa solids) chocolate 200ml double cream 30g unsalted butter, at room temperature flavouring of choice (see below) coating of choice (see below) If you're not already familiar with it, one technique you're going to need for making truffles is using a bain marie. It basically ...  Read the complete review

Ooh. It's nearly Easter. For a heathen like me that means only one thing. With apologies to those of faith out there, it means chocolate. It means the lovely Leonidas Egg filled with truffles that my mother is just bound to buy me (I've hinted enough I'm sure), it means the Lindt Easter Bunnies Conor and Kieran will surely give me, bless them, and most of all it means an abundant supply of Cadbury's Crème Eggs. Woohoo! What a wonderful time of year this is. Oh, you know, it's not just Easter time. It's also Pesach, or Passover time, and it's also Vaisakhi time. I may not be a person of faith but I sure do like tradition and ritual and I ...  Read the complete review

When I was little, I remember going to Glasgow to visit family year after year. One thing we always had to do when we were there was to find some real scottish tablet. See, it doesn't matter where you buy it here in England, it's just not the same. It's either too soft, too chewy, not caramelised enough, or something else. But there's always something just not quite right. So what is it? Well it's a like a cross between fudge and hard toffee. It's the only way to describe it. It's kind of crunchy, but not the kind of crunchy that could break teeth (thankfully). It's sickly sweet, but incredibly moreish. And it's just, ...  Read the complete review

It's that tail-end of the Summer, start of term feeling. However long I seem to be out of the education system I still get it - slight butterflies, and a sense of purpose, of preparing for winter, I suppose. Something to do with long hot days coming to an end, and getting big woolly jumpers out of cupboards. In other words, it's nearly, very nearly, Autumn - my favourite season. Autumn makes me really excited, you see. If I was Mog the Forgetful Cat, then I'd run around in the garden with a 'big fluffed up tail, smelling the smells', but I'm not a cat, and haven't a tail, but if I did have a tail, then it would be fluffed up. One of ...  Read the complete review