Cinnamon Candy

My big sister, over at Burnt Toast likes to give me challenges for Simple Cooking. The other day she challenged me to make a Cinnamon Candy recipe she found. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I love candy, particularly cinnamon candy. This was a really great and fun recipe. And like the goal of the blog says, simple! You can find the original recipe here.

So lets get started!

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of light corn syrup

1/2 a tsp cinnamon extract

1/2 a tsp red food coloring

You will also need a candy thermometor. You can get one at Walmart for just under four dollars. :)

Alright! So lets get started. In a pot start cooking the water, sugar, and corn syrup on a medium heat.

Let it cook to a boil on the medium heat, we wanna heat this up slowly. As it rises to boiling be sure to stir it occasionally. Once boiling, place a lid over it and let it cook for three minuets. Go a head and take the lip off then and turn the heat to a medium/high heat. From here on out let it boil, and do not stir. The mixture will thicken severely as it boils. Use your candy thermometer to check the temperature. You want it to be at 310 Fahrenheit, also known as the Hard Crack Point. It will take about 15-20 minuets for it to reach that point, just keep an eye on the thermometer.

Once it's reached the hard crack point, remove the pot from heat and add in your cinnamon extract and red food coloring. Mix well and fast, and be sure it's all well away from your face as the fumes will be strong.

Quickly pour onto a greased baking sheet and using a spatula spread it out so it cover the whole surface.

Using a sharp knife, or a pizza cutter, start to score the sheet of liquid candy into roughly one inch squares. You can cut them as big or as small as you like, however. The gel will trying to form back together, you just have to keep repeating the scoring lines until it's cooled enough for the lines to stay in place. I had some issues with it pushing around on the sheet so mine are all deformed, but the over all shape really doesn't matter.

Let it sit at room temperature till it's completely cooled and hardened. This only takes about ten minuets or so, not too long at all. The pieces break apart easily into their squares, like sugar glass, and that is all there is to it!

The texture is the same you would get in say, jolly ranchers, and things, so just by changing the flavore of the extract this recipe opens up a lot of candies to you, if you want to make others.

Note about the cinnamon, I felt the flavor wasn't enough for me, next time I'll probably add a full teaspoon instead of just half, but it's still very good.

LEFTOVERS! This makes a lot candy.

Who will like this: Children will love this! It's homemade candy, I don't think any kid wouldn't like it! Also, anyone who enjoys cinnamon flavored candy!

That's all there is to it my loves! Go out and enjoy the cinnamon goodness that is this candy!

Alyce Sheahen's Banana Bread

An Introduction to This Recipe:

This recipe started belongs to Cassie's great Grandmother. She never wrote down her recipes. So if a family member wanted it, they had to follow along with her and write it down as she went. Cassie shared this with us on the Simple Cooking Group .

This is actually my third attempt at this recipe, which is why it's taken so long to post a new blog. I have been hell bent on this recipe being the next entry. The first time I attempted it, I cooked it exactly as instructed. The very middle didn't cook at all and the top caved in because of it. The second time I cooked it for longer and on a higher temperature, and it turned into a Banana Brick.

I knew it wasn't my oven, because it cooks everything else just fine. And I was following the recipe exactly. It had to be the pan. Well a few days ago I bought some 9" round pans, and decided to use those instead of the traditional loaf pan. Today I gave it my third try and SUCCESS! I now have banana bread in the shape of round cakes! Enjoy!!!

First, oreheat oven to 350 degrees. Next....

Cream Together:

1/2 cup shortening (See note at bottom of entry on Shortening)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 bananas

Sift Together:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Little by little add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, mix well, and repeat till all is mixed together well. Don't worry if it is a bit chunky, it doesn't have to be smooth.

Now add in a tsp of vanilla. This is also where you add in nuts if you choose to do so.

Pure dough into pan. If you use a bread loaf pan, as tradition dictates, I suggest splitting it into two pans or cooking half now and half after the first, as the center tends to not cook for me if I place it all in a bread pan at once. Alternately you can use round pans or small casserole/cake pans, they work just as well, and in my experience, the 9" rounds take about half the time to cook.

Whatever your choice in baking dish is, place the dough into it after spraying it with non stick cooking spray.

Place in the hot oven and cook for 40 minuets. If using a more sallow pan like a round pan, keep a close eye on it, it should be ready after about 20 minuets.

When is is all done it make appear slightly under-cooked. This is alright as long as it's ONLY slightly and not drastically under-cooked. You can keep it in the oven for longer, but be careful, because if it gets over cooked it will be dry and not as good. Let it cool for a few minuets then go a head and cut right into it! It's delicious! Especially when its still warm and has butter on it. Hope you enjoy it!

Note on shortening: Shortening and butter were used to replace the use of lard in recipes. The shortening and butter, when melt in the oven, create the little air like pockets we see in cakes, breads, and other baked goods. The most common shortening is Crisco, but you can replace shortening with butter if you like. The ratio for that is..

1 cup shortening + 2 tbs water = 1 cup butter

Roughly a cup for a cup then. It is recommended, however, that if you choose to replace shortening with butter, you chill the batter before cooking it. Butter melts at a lower temperature than shortening does, and in baking, timing is everything. If the butter melts too soon, it can create a problem with the turnout, but chilling the dough and subsequently the butter will help it last a little longer, to melt at a more opportune time.

Who will enjoy this: EVERYBODY! I honestly don't know a single person who doesn't like banana bread unless they have an allergy, in which case, shame on you for eating noms in front of somebody who can't have it!

April's Oreo Balls

Alright this is a wonderful recipe directly from one of our Simple Cooking group members, and one of my best friend's April. They are Oreo Balls. I don't know where she came across this recipe, but Jay and I took one look at it and decided it was a must try. I took pics in hopes it would be yummie enough to be blog worthy and dear lord it really is! So without further ado, the Oreo Balls!

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package of Oreo Cookies, crushed.

1 (8ounce) package of Cream Cheese, softened.

1 (24 ounce) package of Almond Bark (This can be subsituted for White Chocolate Bark too).

1 (24 ounce) package of Chocolate Bark.

Alright, step one is going to be the hardest thing of the whole process. I'm sorry to be the barer of bad news but you need to crush up the entire package of Oreos into a bowl. It's hard I know but I promise it IS worth it!

Next, make sure your cream cheese is nice and soft, I had to soften mine in the microwave for about 40seconds. Then with a blender or hand mixer, mix the Oreos and cream cheese together well..

Roll the mix into balls, April suggest about the size of a walnut. An ice cream scoop can work wonders for this part, otherwise your hands end up really covered in the stuff. Not that that's a bad thing. You want place the Oreo balls on a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge or freezer for about an hour.

As the hour draws to a close, pull out your double broiler, or whatever you use to melt chocolate, and heat it up. Toss in your almond bark. You want to use at least 3/4 of the package, though I used the entire thing in the end. Melt the bark down and then either with toothpicks in the Oreo balls, or with a tongs, dip the balls into the melted bark and place back on the cookie sheet.

Back into the fridge or freezer for about 20 min. Wash out your pan during this time and rinse well, then go a head and get started on melting your chocolate. When the almond bark is hardened pull the cookie sheet out and drizzle over the Oreo balls with the melted chocolate. Use as much or as little as you like. Chill for another 10 min, and you're ready to eat!!!

These are SO good, delicious, and simple!

Kids will LOVE to make this happy treat. Like the peanut-butter balls, this is a fun messy thing to make, and an easy hand help treat they can march off with the nom on while playing.

ENJOY!!!!