With spring trying desperately to make itself known, I thought it would be nice to try another of Beth Kimmerle’s crafty candy creations (say that ten times fast!). Today I bring you gum pops, fun treats that are easy to make, fun for kids (and adults!), and great for the season.

Spring Gum Pops

Wow your friends at your next get together by using candy molds and your favorite chewing gums to make custom-themed gum lollipops. Pick up an assortment of candy mold shapes at baking or craft supply stores and grab your favorite Wrigley’s gum before letting your imagination run wild!

The finished creation can be bundled together for a beautiful and edible centerpiece or used individually as party favors!

You will need
1. Plastic candy mold
2. Several softened sticks of gum
3. Lollipop sticks
4. Vegetable oil or non-stick spray

Gum color recommendations
1. Juicy Fruit for yellow
2. 5 Elixir and Lush for pink and orange
3. Extra Fruit Sensations Berry Paradise for purple
4. Extra Spearmint for green
5. Hubba Bubba Max Island Punch for blue and green

Instructions
1. Clean and dry plastic molds. Using vegetable oil or non-stick spray, lightly grease inside mold cavities. Set molds aside.

2. Unwrap and soften stick gum by kneading in the palm of your hand. The amount of gum you will need depends on mold size but start by kneading several sticks at a time and once soft, place and press firmly into mold cavity. If more gum is needed, repeat steps until mold is completely filled. The softer the gum the better. Try a brand like Juicy Fruit for best results.

3. To transform molded shapes into lollipops, lay sticks along the back of the mold and cover with additional pieces of softened gum.

4. Once molds are filled and sticks are in place, give each a final press and place in refrigerator for about one hour or until gum is completely hardened. Once chilled, remove plastic molds, gently ease gum shape from cavity and enjoy!

• Beth Kimmerle’s Candymonium

Buy Wrigley Gum Online:

• at Amazon.com
• at Candy Crate
• at Old Time Candy

The last time I headed into Dylan’s Candy Bar it was for a fairly hideous Swedish Fish event. So, it was with some trepidation that I ventured back for a media get-together with Beth Kimmerle, author of Chocolate: The Sweet History and Candy: The Sweet History (among others). Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable the afternoon turned out.

The event basically showcased Beth’s crafty creations using candy. Some of the things were absolutely amazing (I especially liked the pretzel butterflies – see above), and all were great ways to find creative uses for candy as well as being fun to do with the kids. Beth is a big fan of Life Savers Gummies (who isn’t?) and a lot of her creations seem to utilize the tasty treats. One big thing I found out is that the packaging is changing for Life Savers Gummies – instead of that tubular thing that never seemed to hold quite enough, they’re now coming in small bags. They’ll still fit in your purse, but you get more. Woot!

When we left we got a gift bag containing the ingredients to make some of the creations. Now, let’s face it: these tasty candies are never going to make it past the “open package insert into mouth” stage of creation, but it was a nice thought. We also got some of the recipes highlighted at the event, and I thought our more ambitious readers might enjoy trying one out. So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for those gorgeous Pretzelfly Pops:

Add a little wing to your spring! Use pretzels and Life Savers to make these gorgeous butterfly lollipops that are sure to brighten your afternoon. These beautiful bugs are the perfect sweet treat for an afternoon tea party or baby shower!

To create 10 Pretzelfly Pops, you will need
1. (1) 16 oz. bag of thin pretzels
2. 80 pieces 5 Flavor Life Savers
3. 5 pieces colored licorice (for antennae)
4. 10 lollipop sticks
5. Small plastic bags
6. Parchment paper
7. Cookie sheet

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees.

2. Place Life Savers into small plastic bags, separating them according to color. Seal bags tightly and using an object with a flat surface, like a small pot, gently crush bagged Life Savers into small pieces.

3. Place thin pretzels on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, arranging together in pairs so the pretzels look like wings. Insert a lollipop stick in between each pair. For best butterfly results, arrange so that your lollipop stick and two pretzel ends are touching. Leave ample room at top for licorice antennae.

4. Take the bagged Life Saver candy bits and carefully sprinkle them into the interior part of the pretzel (open space between the rods). Use larger clear pieces to fuse wings and lollipop stick together by placing directly on stick. Use generous amount of Life Savers pieces so they will gel together when melted to achieve the desired effect.

5. Once all pretzel wings are filled with Life Savers, cut 2” pieces of colored licorice and carefully place in top area. Be sure that enough Life Savers are used for proper effect.

6. Steadily place cookie sheet in the oven, making sure all pieces remain in place. Cook your creation for five to eight minutes (at 175 degrees), checking progress regularly to see that Life Savers are melting evenly. Once Life Savers are melted, take the cookie sheet out of oven and allow to cool completely. Once cool, gently take butterfly pops off of parchment paper.

If you make some, let us know how it goes! And keep your eyes peeled for more fun recipes coming soon!

UPDATE: A reader tried the recipe but had some trouble with the temperature. If you plan on making these, you may want to give yourself some extra time and experiment with the temperature if you have a problem. I’ll let you know if the recipe authors have an update on the temperature.

• Beth Kimmerle’s Candymonium

Buy Life Savers Online:

• at Old Time Candy
• at Amazon.com

Valentine’s Day is inching closer and closer. And people always say the best gifts are ones given from the heart, but nothing says “I love you” better than something from the heart for the stomach.

So in honor of all those lovey-dovey cherubs hovering by, here is my February candy recipe of the month. I call it my Lots-a-Luv Cookies. These babies are sure to wow anyone you present them to because they aren’t the sort of things you would just hand over to anybody.

What You’ll Need

• 1 Cup of Pastry Flour
• 1 Cup of Graham Flour
• 1 Cup of Oats
• 1 Cup of All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup of Butter
• ¾ Cup Brown Sugar (light or dark)
• ¼ Cup of Honey
• 1 Cup of Granulated Sugar
• 6 oz of Dried Apricots, Chopped
• 4 oz White Chocolate, Chopped (I used blocks, but chips will work too)
• 6 oz Macadamia Nuts, Chopped
• 4 oz Crystallized Ginger, Chopped
• 2 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp Vanilla
• ¼ Tsp Kosher Salt
• 3 Jumbo-Sized Eggs
• 2 Tsp Baking Powder
• Heart-Shaped Candy of Your Choosing
• Spatula/Large Spoon
• 2 Large Bowls
• Baking Sheet
• Parchment Paper/Wax Paper
• Cooking Spray

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the baking tray with parchment paper.

Step 2. Set your dry bowl by combining the flours, oats, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder into one of the bowls. Stir until all ingredients are evenly dispersed

Step 3. Begin your wet bowl by creaming the butter, both sugars, and honey in the other bowl. Make sure the butter has softened. You can do this step with an electric mixer, but the butter should be soft enough that a spoon will work well too.

Step 4. Add the vanilla and eggs to the butter mixture, beating until completely mixed.

Step 5. Pour in a quarter of the wet bowl into the dry bowl and mix, making sure you are getting at the flour from the edges. Add the next quarter and mix again. Repeat until all the wet mixture has been completely added to the dry. Do not over-stir the batter!

Step 6. Fold in the ginger, apricots, macadamia nuts, and white chocolate, keeping in mind that the batter is plenty stirred at this point, and all you are doing is dispersing these ingredients.

Step 7. Roll dough balls with your hands that are approximately 2 Tablespoons. An ice cream scoop works well for this step too.

Step 8a. Spray the parchment paper with cooking spray and place six cookie dough balls onto the tray, leaving several inches between each one. Bake in the oven for 12-20 minutes, depending on your oven’s strength. You’ll know they’re done when the tops firm and brown slightly.

or

Step 8b. For an extra soft cookie, my favorite, chill the batter for at least an hour in the freezer. Then set six pieces on the sprayed baking sheet and place in the oven. Depending on your oven and how long you set these in the freezer, cookies need to bake between 12-25 minutes (I know 25 seems like a long time in cookie world, but trust me). Remove when tops firm and brown.

Step 9. Gently insert your candy hearts on top of the cookie. I had leftover Jube Jels so I used those, but conversation hearts or another non-chocolate candy should work too (chocolate ones would melt from the heat of the cookie).

Step 10. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack. Eat immediately or store in an air-tight container.

These cookies encompass many of the things I love about candy and food. I only make them for people I care about and want to spend the time, effort, and money on (yes, money – Macadamia nuts are not the cheapest thing in the supermarket!). Hopefully there’s a special someone in your life you can share these cookies with. But if not, nothing wrong with telling yourself how much you think you rock with a batch of cookies all for you. Happy cookie Valentine’s Day!

• More Recipes on Candy Addict

I am a sucker for sales. Candy, clothes, puppies (well, I’ve never really seen a puppy sale, but you can bet if there were such a thing, I would be driving home with a car full of them) – you name it, I’ll buy it.

On a recent grocery trip to my local H.E.B., I stumbled across one of their super saver sales where you buy one product and get a whole bunch of others for free. In this case, if you bought a chocolate or vanilla white chocolate coating, you would also receive a bag of pretzels, pecans, and marshmallows on the house.

I didn’t really need any of those things, but I figured I am always in need of chocolate for my recipes, so stocking up seemed like a good idea. Undecided about whether I wanted to purchase the milk chocolate or white chocolate variety, I bought both and thus had two of all the freebies.

Once I got home and the sale-high wore off, I realized I was stuck with a lot of food I don’t usually eat. If only there were some way to combine them all…. Could it be possible? I mean, pretzels, marshmallow, pecans, and chocolate don’t seem like they all gel together, but who has tried them all at once? Putting my culinary wits to the test, I was determined to come up with a confectionery treat that utilized them all. The result? My January candy recipe of the month I call the Kitchen Sink Bar.

Essentially, my vision for this candy is a nouveau version of the classic Rice Krispies Treat. I know a lot of my recipes seem overly complicated, but this one is ridiculously simple. If you can make a Rice Krispies Treat, this will give you no problem at all.

What You Will Need

• 15oz Bag of Pretzels (preferably salted and the stick variety)
• 10oz Bag of Marshmallows (I used a strawberry and classic mix bag because that’s what I got in the combo, but regular ones should work well too)
• ½ Cup of Pecans (chopped, unsalted)
• 8oz of Milk or White Chocolate (though I photographed the white package, I ended up using the milk)
• 2 Tbsp of Butter
• Parchment/Wax Paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Spatula
• Double Boiler
• Plastic Bag
• Rolling Pin
• Large Saucepan

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. As it warms, line the cookie sheet with wax paper and set place pecans on the sheet. Let the pecans toast for about 5-7 minutes.

Step 2. Place the pretzels into a large Ziploc bag, and then seal the bag. Go over the bag with the rolling pin to crunch up the pretzels into small pieces.

Step 3. Melt the butter in the saucepan over a low flame.

Step 4. When the butter is melted, add the bag of marshmallows and continuously stir until the marshmallows all melt into a gooey liquid.

Step 5. Add the pecans and pretzels to the mix and stir until evenly distributed.

Step 6. Remove the saucepan from the flame and scoop the mixture onto the lined cookie tray with the spatula. Let it cool for 15-30 minutes.

Step 7. Set up the double boiler and temper the chocolate.

Step 8. Pour the melted chocolate over the cooled confection. Let it cool for an additional 5 minutes.

Step 9. Slice and enjoy!

I was skeptical about how these would taste, but I was honestly blown away by them. The combination of crunchy, salty, sweet, and chocolate is soooooooooooo good. Even the fact that those pink strawberry marshmallows were in the mix added a funky, but enjoyable flavor twist. I didn’t think I would like them, but these babies are going down in my recipe book.

Making candy at home is a wonderful holiday activity that can become a tradition for any person, family, or group of friends. While we’ve discovered many CandyAddict.com Awesomely Addictive candies, candy you make yourself can often be tastier and more satisfying than anything you can buy in the store.

You probably can’t remember the first time you bought a lollipop or a piece of fudge, but making your own candy at home is something you (and your children, if you have them) will never forget. If you’d like to make some special holiday memories by making candy this New Year’s Day, we at Candy Addict would like to share our 2008 candy recipes with you.

Some of the recipes are holiday-themed, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying them. Either change them around to fit your New Year celebration or celebrate all the year’s holidays at once! Yum!

From the familiar flavors of peanut butter, powdered sugar, and coconut to unusual combinations involving alcohol to the truly weird, Candy Addict has you covered.

Chocolate Covered… WHAT?!

• Chocolate Covered Carmelized Matza Crunch
• Chocolate Covered Honeycomb
• Chocolate Covered Pretzels (Crispies and Peanuts)

The Great Chocolate Experiment – for the truly brave!

• Part 1 – Maybe you’d like to try chocolate covered gummy bears, Skittles, Cheetos Puffs or broccoli?
• Part 2 – Or perhaps you’ll enjoy chocolate covered Raisin Bran, sun-dried tomatoes, bubble gum or garlic?
• Part 3 – Fritos corn chips, ham, pickles, or rice cakes might be good smothered in chocolate…or not…
• Part 4 – How about sweet potato, dried mango, cheddar cheese, or gummy cola bottles dipped in chocolate?

Muffins, Cakes and… Puppy Chow?

• Easter Bunny Cake and Candy Creation – Let Victoria’s post inspire you. Try making a bell for ringing in the new year or a clock. Be creative and have fun. You get to eat whatever you make, no matter what it looks like!
• Mini Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins – You can’t get Cadbury Creme Eggs this time of year, but maybe you can tweak the recipe to make a special breakfast muffin with a mini Reese’s Cup or a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle
• Puppy Chow – also called Reindeer Food, Kibble, or Muddy Buddies

Robby’s Confectionery Creations

• Grand Apple – a baked apple stuffed with nuts, dried fruit, and spices, then covered by a layer of toffee and topped with white chocolate, chopped nuts, and coconut
• Harmony Bar – a blueberry pumpkin cheesecake fudge
• Lost in the Woods Bar – graham crackers layered with a cherry marshmallow filling and coated with dark chocolate with cherry pieces, a unique inverted s’mores created by our own Robby
• Spumoni Mastiff Bark – a dark chocolate cherry almond layer coupled with a white chocolate cranberry pistachio layer
• Vacation Bar – a white fudge bar topped with toasted coconut and filled with pieces of banana, papaya, mango, pineapple, coconut, and macadamia nuts

Candy Classics From Your Kitchen

• Easy Peasy Fudge – both chocolate and peanut butter varieties
• Homemade Lollipops
• Peanut Butter Hard Candy
• Rolo Turtles
• Vanilla Bean Marshmallows for Dummies – You really can make your own marshmallows!

Extra Fun

• Vodka Skittles – Depending on your style, this might be just the recipe for your New Year’s party
• Candy Theory of Relativity – If you’re not up to making homemade candy, experiment with your store-bought candy instead. Cold or warm or in between, you’re in control!

So I haven’t been an official Candy Addict for long, but you may have noticed that I like to make candy as well as eat it. And if you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ve undoubtedly read about my grand affinity for peanut butter candies.

I am delighted to be able to introduce each and every one of you to my absolute favorite candy ever. This candy cannot be bought in a store, at a mall, or from a circus vendor. To my knowledge, this candy can only be obtained from your own kitchen. (Unless someone gives it to you as a gift, but I promise you that I never give this stuff away.)

This candy makes my mouth water just thinking about it. I could eat an entire 1.5 quart plastic container of it in one day. I hide it from my children. To me, the four words that make up this candy’s name are just an alternate way to spell “holiday” or “delicious” or “love.” This candy is peanut butter hard candy.

Before I provide the recipe, let me give you fair warning: this is real candy making. This isn’t like the Easy Peasy Fudge recipe I shared a few days ago. This one requires a candy thermometer or a candy-making expert with a glass of ice water and intimate knowledge of “hard crack.” It takes time and patience and a strong arm to stir. It can be very helpful, maybe even necessary, to have two people for spreading it onto the pan after cooking.

I promise it’s well worth the effort, though. I started making peanut butter hard candy when I was about 13. If I could do it then, you can do it now. So without further ado….

Peanut Butter Hard Candy

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups peanut butter

Stir together sugar, corn syrup, and water in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Place your candy thermometer into the mixture and continue boiling until it reaches the “hard crack” stage (295 to 310 degrees F).

While mixture boils (and well before it reaches the hard crack stage), measure peanut butter into a large bowl. Pour boiled syrup mixture over peanut butter and stir very well. Work fast. (This is where it helps to have two people for stirring.) Turn onto a baking sheet or platter. Cut while still hot.

That’s it! Not too complicated, right? Don’t be afraid to give it a try, especially if you love peanut butter as much as I do. Making peanut butter hard candy is definitely easier than making caramels (which I tried and scorched three times in two weeks).

As you’re spreading the candy onto your platter, most of it hardens into thick pieces which are deliciously rich with a unique texture all their own – very slightly chewy while slightly flaky at the same time. Some of it dries thin and “stretched” as you’re drawing the spoon away from the bowl and platter. These pieces are crunchy and light and almost melt in your mouth. The combination of thin, melty/crunchy pieces and thick, chewy/flaky pieces is one of the things I love about this candy. The peanut butter flavor it the main thing, though, of course. (I know, I’m quite predictable.)

Be brave! – go try to make some peanut butter hard candy and let me know how it turns out.

Certainly there is nothing more fattening satisfying that a piece of rich, smooth, melt-in-your-mouth fudge. Our family has vacationed in the Great Smoky Mountains area several times, and one thing we never fail to do while there is purchase some of the gourmet handmade fudge from one (or more) of the candy shops. I associate other areas with delicious fudge as well, areas such as Amish Country in Pennsylvania and Ohio and the boardwalk of basically any beach. Where there are tourists, there will be fudge.

I was thrilled to discover that the local Sugar Shak sells handmade fudge just as temptingly mouthwatering as any I’ve gotten while on vacation. But at $3.50 a pound, one can’t help but wonder – can’t I make this stuff at home?

Of course you can, but then you’ll have to use a candy thermometer or a cup of ice water to determine when the mixture reaches the soft ball stage. You’ll have to water down the sides of the pot early on to wash away all the sugar grains so that your fudge won’t be crunchy instead of smooth. Right? Right? Wrong!

I have for your confectionery enjoyment a super easy and fast recipe for peanut butter fudge that produces a fudge equal to any gourmet brand you’ve ever tried. I promise.

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar and water in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Beat until thick. (It can help to have two people so you can take turns.) Pour into 8″x8″ pan and allow to cool.

For all the chocolate lovers out there, I’ll share a slightly different recipe for chocolate fudge. Now, this one doesn’t produce the gourmet texture that the peanut butter recipe produces. I’m sorry about that, but we all know you’ll eat it anyway.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces milk chocolate chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Line an 8″x8″ square dish with aluminum foil. (Unlike the peanut butter fudge recipe, this chocolate fudge will stick to the pan – don’t skip the aluminum foil! I speak from experience… I skipped it.)

Place chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk into a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Stir. Microwave for 1 more minute; stir until completely smooth. Stir in vanilla and pour into prepared dish. Refrigerate until firm – about two hours.

This morning, I was unloading the dishwasher (I try to do my part, you know…) when I found the container that we’d been keeping the fudge in. What? The fudge is gone? Noooooooooooo!! That can only mean one thing. It’s time to make more.

This time of year, when I think of candy recipes, there is really only one that’s worthy of contemplation: bark. Though I adore a good piece of bark, I rarely find myself consuming it before November and after January.

But how many times can you eat the same old peppermint bark? Well, if you’re like me, you can eat it a lot – but that doesn’t mean I don’t want something new! So in honor of this festive candy, here is a bark recipe steeped in Italian culinary tastes for those of you who desire a hiatus from the classic.

I call this recipe Spumoni Mastiff Bark. Get it? Neapolitan Mastiffs are a type of Italian dog that are known for their daunting size, Neapolitan and Spumoni are both ice cream flavors, and plus, dogs bark…. Well, maybe the name isn’t that funny/clever, but that doesn’t mean this recipe isn’t tasty!

This recipe consists of a dark chocolate cherry almond layer coupled with a white chocolate cranberry pistachio layer. Though it may seem complex, don’t let this discourage you! Bark is one of the easiest candies to make.

What you will need:

• 12 Ounces of Semisweet, Bittersweet, or Dark Chocolate
• ¾ Cup of Unblanched, Whole Almonds
• ¾ Cup of Dried Cherries
• 1 Tsp of Amaretto Liqueur or Syrup (optional)
• 12 Ounces of White Chocolate
• ¾ Cup of Shelled, Unsalted Pistachio Nuts
• ¾ Dried Cranberries
• 1 Tsp of Vanilla (optional)
• 2 Cookie Sheets
• Wax Paper
• Water
• Double Boiler (or Microwave-Safe Bowl)
• Spatula

How to make it:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit and line both of the cookie sheets with the wax paper. Take one of the cookie sheets and set the almonds on top. When the temperature is reached, toast the almonds, typically for 7-10 minutes. You’ll know they’re done by the smell.

2. While the almonds toast, set up your double boiler (a pot of hot, but not boiling water with a heat-resistant mixing bowl set on top of the pot, which does not actually touch the water, just receives the heat). You can always just melt your chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals.

3. Remove the almonds from the oven. I like to do this before tempering the chocolate because you need to constantly stir the chocolate as it melts; if you are busy fetching almonds from the oven, then your chocolate isn’t being stirred and is thus burning.

4. Pour the dark/semisweet/bitter chocolate into the mixing bowl of the double boiler and stir constantly until the chocolate completely melts.

5. Remove the mixing bowl from the double boiler and add the almonds, cherries, and amaretto. Stir generously until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

6. Spread the mixture onto the second cookie sheet with a spatula. It does not need to cover the whole sheet. Just make sure it’s evenly spread.

7. Set the cookie sheet in the fridge for 15 minutes.

8. Repeat steps one through five and substitute the white chocolate, cranberries, and pistachios for their counter ingredients in the already cooling bark. Note: the pistachios will need probably only 5-7 minutes to toast.

9. Remove the cookie sheet from the fridge and spread the white chocolate cranberry pistachio mixture over the set dark chocolate one.

10. Place cookie sheet back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or until sufficiently cooled.

11. Remove the cookie sheet, and using your hands, break off chunks. If you don’t like touching your food, set a paper towel over the bark, and using a rubber mallet, crack the bark into pieces.

So is my bark top dog or does it just have no bite? You won’t know until you make it and try it for yourself! And as always, customize to your liking. Maybe you want the whole thing in dark chocolate. Maybe apricots sound amazing with the pistachios. Or you could completely come up with your own recipe completely unrelated to mine. Just like there are many types of dogs in this world, so too are there many types of bark, but I assure you there is a specific one to please each person.

More Recipes on Candy Addict

To me, there’s no better holiday tradition than overeating without guilt. Stuff your face with extra stuffing? No problem, it’s Thanksgiving. If you can’t fill your gut on Thanksgiving when can you? Devoured that box of chocolate-covered popcorn in one afternoon? Hey, blame the Boy Scouts for delivering it during the middle of the holiday season.

So, continuing with my December sweets blitz, I decided to try another candy recipe to warm my belly on a cold, winter Midwest day. This time, I’ve discovered what may be the easiest ever candy to make from “scratch”: Rolo turtles.

The sharp-eyed reader may have noticed that I put the word “scratch” in quotes. Unlike grocery store sign writers who put the word “chicken” in quotes in their store windows – Fresh “Chicken” only $3 a pound! – I actually know how to use quotes correctly. Now this “from scratch” recipe requires no flour, measuring or mixing. Perfect for the man who hates baking but loves eating.

Anyway, despite the lack of work, Rolo turtles are actually amazingly delicious. Of course, so is eating a Rolo straight from the package. But that wouldn’t count as “baking from scratch” now, would it?

Here, without any more delay, is the “recipe” for Rolo turtles:

Ingredients:

• 1 1-pound bag of small square pretzels (pretzel minis will do)
• 3 rolls of Rolo candies
• 24 pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a cookie sheet, place 24 pretzels about 1 inch apart. Set one Rolo on top of each pretzel. Put cookie sheet in oven until Rolos are soft (about 1 or 2 minutes). Remove sheet from oven. While still warm, press pecan-half into top of Rolo. Let candy cool for 30 minutes before eating (ha!). Finally, take a well-deserved break. This recipe makes two dozen turtles.

Ok, so you will need to double the recipe because you will stand there and eat all of the candies before you serve them, but what can you do?

Wow your friends at the next Christmas party by serving these on anything but a paper plate, or set some out for Santa. I’m sure he’s tired of sugar cookies and milk by now.

• Rolo Website

Buy Rolos Online:

• at Old Time Candy
• at Candy Direct
• at Candy Crate
• at Amazon.com

The following ingredients will be tested in today’s experiment:

Sweet potato: The Great Chocolate Experiment researchers have been put off of eating their greens by The Great Chocolate Experiment Part 1’s chocolate-covered broccoli experiment. Will nutritious and delicious sweet potatoes, often served with brown sugar and marshmallows, restore our faith in a veggie-chocolate pairing?

Dried mango: These sugared strips of dried mango are so sweet and delicious that they may as well be candy. And as everyone knows, many candies benefit greatly from a good coating of chocolate.

Cheddar cheese: Cheddar is definitely not this researcher’s favorite cheese. But because you asked for it, we will be dunking chunks of Hickory Farms into chocolate and tasting them. Will we live to tell the tale?

Gummy cola bottles: A while ago, I reviewed Nativa Organic Gummy Soda Bottles. And they were pretty good. But one burning question remained in this researcher’s mind: How would gummy cola bottles taste dipped in chocolate?

Procedure:

Step 1: Peel a chunk of sweet potato (the orange kind, not the yellow) and cut into bite-sized pieces. Put the pieces into a microwave-safe bowl with a little water. Microwave on High for about two and a half minutes or until the sweet potato pieces are softened. Drain the water and dry the potato pieces gently with a paper towel.

Step 2: Cut a few pieces of dried mango and some Cheddar cheese into bite-sized pieces

Step 3: Melt some Callebaut dark chocolate in the microwave, following the directions in The Great Chocolate Experiment Part 1). (For easier dipping, use a narrow vessel like a mug.)

Step 4: Use chopsticks or a fork to coat the sweet potato, cheese, mango and a handful of gummy cola bottles in the chocolate. (The chocolate won’t stick to the cheese and wet sweet potato very well, so you may have to spoon some more on afterward.) Arrange on a plastic-wrap- or parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and freeze for one to two hours until chocolate is firm to the touch.

Step 5: Taste all items, preferably with the aid of a Research Assistant and/or Tasting Panel.

Observations:

Sweet potato: Despite receiving a thorough drying after the microwave steaming process, the potato pieces were rather wet – getting the chocolate to stick was a bit difficult, resulting in incomplete coverage of the potato pieces. When pulled out of the freezer, the pieces had a great deal of condensation, which you can see in the photo due to my unfortunate decision to use the camera’s flash to take the shot. (Sorry for the bad photos– I really need to invest in a more consistent light source than the sun.)

Overall, the taste of the pieces was mushy (if a little frozen) and bland. No sweet potato flavor was evident – it could almost have been a regular potato. However, sweet potatoes have been proven to go with sweet things, so another experiment may be in order – perhaps by whipping the potatoes with brown sugar and cinnamon and making a truffle. Milk chocolate might also be a better match for the potato’s relatively mild flavor.

Experiment status: Retest Recommended

Dried mango: Perhaps because we used a fresh cup of chocolate for the mangoes, the chocolate layer turned out rather heavy. The chocolate flavor covered up the subtleties of the mango flavor and most of the sweetness as well. The distinctive piney notes of the mango were completely lost, leaving only a sort of generic, rather sour fruit flavor.

It actually made an interesting contrast to The Great Chocolate Experiment Part 2’s sun-dried tomatoes, which benefited from the more salty/savory aspects of the tomato flavor being masked by the chocolate, leaving something sweeter and fruitier. Here, though, it just turned delicious mangoes into generic blah. A thinner layer of chocolate would definitely be recommended for future tests.

Experiment status: Failure

Cheddar cheese: As you can probably tell from reading the Chocolate Experiments, I’m pretty fearless when it comes to odd food combinations. But I hesitated before biting into the chocolate-coated Cheddar chunk. Perhaps it was a premonition, or maybe just the sheer number of disgusting things I had to put into my mouth today (doing two installments’ worth of tastings in one shot was a bad idea), but I elected to take only a small bite rather than popping the whole thing in my mouth.

The cheese and chocolate almost immediately turned into a creamy, homogeneous mass in my mouth, coating every inch of the inside of my mouth in a thick, greasy layer. The flavor clung to the taste buds and refused to be gotten rid of. And that flavor was vile. Utterly, indescribably vile. There was, in fact, something almost Lovecraftian about the combination of cheese and chocolate sliding down one’s throat in a hideous mockery of fudge, like some kind of eldritch candy horror, utterly alien to and unknowable by human beings. This, my friends, is what candy tastes like in Hell.

Experiment status: Epic Failure

Gummy cola bottles: I thought that the tart flavor and firm texture of the gummy was a decent match for the dark bitterness and crisp texture of the dark chocolate shell. However, my Research Assistant disagreed, declaring the gummies “too sour” to go with the chocolate. “I’d rate them two out of five stars,” she said.

So is there a Choco-Cola in our future? If our mixed results were anything to go by, the answer is a definite “maybe.”

Experiment status: Moderate success

Conclusion:
Unfortunately, today’s experiment failed to produce any standout successes. Though only so-so, the best item we tasted was the gummy cola bottles, and the horrific Cheddar-chocolate combo was definitely the worst. But we were undaunted. Our quest to discover the perfect partner for chocolate will continue. In the interests of Science, we will continue to forge ahead into the unknown!

(You may have noticed that in the last few posts, I’ve been recommending certain items for retest. As to the implications of this… well, stay tuned. And, as always, your ingredient suggestions are greatly appreciated.)

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