The problem with penuche

I have a problem with penuche, aside from its fairly ridiculous pronunciation (puhn-OO-chee).

You wouldn't think I'd have a problem with the stuff. My favorite type of candies are See's Bordeaux (milk chocolate, please), with have a brown sugar buttercream filling. You'd think brown sugar fudge would be pretty much perfection for me. Jump to recipe.

I mean, it's made with ingredients that I have on hand all the time: milk (or cream), white sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla.

You get to play chef with your candy thermometer that broke in the move instant read meat thermometer. Just look at the bubbling goodness!

And then just when it gets sticky (well, to the soft ball stage, 236 - 240 F), you pull it from the heat, throw in butter and vanilla and walk away.

When you get back, you beat it within an inch of its life.

Uh . . .yeah. Once it gets to this amazing phase, side note: that's a bad time to stop stirring and pick up the camera. It's done, but it's solidifying by the second.

No matter, as long as it's warm, you can still press it into the buttered pan:

Oh, did I say there was a problem with penuche? Oh yeah.

 So my problem with penuche is that I ate the whole thing.

Recipe
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 12th Ed.
Ingredients

• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1 c packed brown sugar
• 2/3 c low fat milk (you can also use cream or half-and-half)
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla (I used um . . . 1 "spill" vanilla. Whoops! Wayward!)
• 1/2 c chopped pecans, walnuts or cashews (optional)

 1. Line a loaf pan with foil by shaping the foil on the outside of the pan first, then molding it to the interior. Butter the foil.

2. Butter the sides of a 2 quart saucepan. In the saucepan, add the sugars and milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture boils. Grab your instant read thermometer. Reduce heat, continuing to boil steadily but not hard, stirring frequently, until you reach the soft ball stage (236 - 240 F). You may have to adjust the heat to maintain the boil.

3. Remove from heat but leave the thermometer in. Add butter and vanilla. DO NOT STIR. Let sit until thermometer registers about 115. (Original recipe says 110, but this seemed to be just a little late to come back to the party, IMO.)

4. Remove thermometer. Beat mixture within an inch of its life, first to mix in the melted butter, then to incorporate air. (If using nuts, add them when the mixture begins to thicken.) When the mixture is lighter and loses its gloss, it's ready (original recipe says this takes about 10 minutes; seemed like less for me).

5. Spread penuche into prepared pan. Score. When firm and cooled, lift out of pan using the foil and cut into squares. Store tightly covered for up to 1 week . . . or, like me, eat it within a couple hours.

Makes 32 1"x1" squares.

Peanut butter Oreo truffles

I had Oreo truffles for the first time at Christmas. And where the heck have I been?! Granted, I don't particularly care for Oreos unless they're thoroughly soaked in milk, but an Oreo truffle is a totally different taste experience.

So when I was thinking about what kind of sweet treat would be good for kids to make for Mother's day, Oreo truffles popped to mind—only with a twist: peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Oreo Truffles

Full batch	Half batch (if she's on a diet ;)
1 15oz package Oreos	18 Oreos
4 oz cream or Neufchâtel cheese	2 oz cream or Neufchâtel cheese
1/2 c creamy peanut butter, plus more if needed	1/4 c creamy peanut butter, plus more if needed
12 oz chocolate (milk, semisweet, dark, chocolate chips or bars: whatever she likes)	6 oz chocolate (ditto)

Crush the Oreos to fine crumbs. The fewer chunks left, the better. Typically I like to do this by putting them in Ziploc bags and attacking them with a rolling pin, but I tried doing it in a bowl with a flat-style potato masher. (Ziploc bags work better.)

Using two knives, two forks, or a pastry cutter, cut the cream/Neufchâtel cheese and peanut butter into the Oreo crumbs until thoroughly combined. You might need more peanut butter to get to the dry cookie dough consistency. You can make them as moist or as dry as you like, as long as they stick together when pinched, like at right (though I'm going to say moist is better).

Roll the truffle centers into balls. Set on a tray and refrigerate for one hour.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Roll the truffle centers in the chocolate and allow to cool. You can garnish them with more Oreo crumbs if you'd like!

Enjoy!

What's your favorite homemade Mother's day treat?

Irish Potato Candy!

I like St. Patrick's Day for two reasons--and neither of them is my Irish heritage:

1.) When I was in college, I spent Thanksgivings with my aunt. Randomly one year when we got up silly early for Black Friday, we began speaking in an Irish accent. These things only make sense before 5 AM.

2.) I've written some novels, featuring a character from Ireland. I'm currently in the process of editing the sequel, which features even more characters from Ireland, so I'm up to my neck in Irish accents and slang and culture. I've spent approximately 1,000,000 hours on it ;) .

That being said, until Ireland began capitalizing on the tourism aspect of St. Patrick's Day in the last decade or two, it was mainly a religious holiday in the "Old Country." St. Patrick's Day is way more about celebrating Irish heritage outside of Ireland.

But since I'm outside Ireland, I'm down with that.

It's okay if they crack

First up, I went for an authentic Irish treat: Irish Potato Candy. Yes, apparently they really do make this in Ireland.

The recipe is relatively simple: boil ONE potato (I did two; bad idea) within an inch of its life. Peel and mash it until very smooth (um, wayward? Yeeeeah... I just mashed it.). Mix in powdered sugar until a dough forms.

Now, right here, this sounds pretty improbable. I mean, we've all squished up boiled potatoes and they seem pretty dry, right? But this amazing thing happens as you add sugar. It's hygroscopic, meaning it draws water to it, so it draws all the water trapped in the potatoes--and you're stirring a sweet potato soup for quite a while.

You can add food coloring now if you feel so inclined. Green's my favorite, so I did :) .

It took about four pounds (yes, pounds) of powdered sugar to get to the dough stage. I kneaded the last bits in by hand.

Divide the dough and cover the dough you've set aside. (It may still dry out; I patted a little water on the surface and that seemed to fix it.) Then roll it out quite thin and spread peanut butter on it. If you missed it before, I'm wayward, so I rolled it out until I got tired of rolling. Spreading the peanut butter was the easy part :) .

Then you roll the candy up. I had a handy kitchen blade that I used to encourage any stubborn bits up. To slice the candy into spirals, I used a serrated blade and a gentle sawing motion. The bottom part of the roll always forms corners as you press down, but you can reshape those with your fingers.

Unfortunately, that first batch of spirals only took about a third of my potato dough, so from there, I went for a faster method: the peanut butter potato sandwich. Spread peanut butter over the whole thing, cut down the middle and flip over. Then cut into squares or rectangles (a kitchen blade or a pizza cutter work well for this!). I like to call these "Potato pillows."

Next time, I'd want to try dividing my sugar potato soup into two batches, one white and one green, and either roll them together, alternating with peanut butter, or layer them several times for the pillows (Oh, and roll them a lot thinner). The peanut butter looks like the orange from the Irish flag, and then you've got a great tricolor theme!

Either way, they were surprisingly tasty! (But a little grainy because I didn't mash them as much as I should've. Live and learn!)

How do you like to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Holiday Hokey Pokey

Holiday Hokey Pokey isn't a dance—it's a great, quick gift. My in-laws were serving as missionaries in New Zealand when my husband and I met, and years before my husband had served a mission in Scotland. Both of these countries have a lot of the same foods, food customs, and candy.

If you've ever had a Crunchie bar or a Violet Crumble, the middle is what Kiwis call "hokey pokey." There, they even mix it into ice cream. (Other places call it "honeycomb," which is a pretty good description.) It's a little like toffee--caramelized sugar--with tons of tiny bubbles throughout for a fun, light texture.

My original plan was to make my grandma-in-law's famous toffee—but my thermometer display steamed up and I was afraid I'd ruined my first batch, so I decided everyone would get some hokey pokey. (It actually tastes pretty good, though.)

I used a recipe from Candy Addict and seriously thought about Sunday Hotpants's experiments. To make hokey pokey, you mix 1/4 c corn syrup with 1 cup sugar. Make sure the sugar dissolves completely, then boil for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Then sprinkle 2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp water over the sugar mixture. It bubbles up:



Note that it does get darker when you add the water & baking soda, so you might want to add it a little sooner than I did. Stir it in quickly and pour into a pan lined with freezer paper.

Let it cool, then break in pieces. You can put it in ice cream, dip it in chocolate or just enjoy! If you keep it, be sure to store it in an airtight container at room temperature.

I used this as holiday gifts for my mother- and sisters-in-law this year. I got some cute holiday tins at Wal-Mart and lined them with oiled waxed paper (yes, both—it stuck to the waxed paper). Since I had to prepare it a few days in advance, once the hokey pokey was cooled, I put the lid on each tin and wrapped the tin in several layers of plastic wrap. (Here's hoping it keeps!)

This idea came from Martha Stewart via Pinterest:

Source: marthastewart.com via Jordan on Pinterest

But the closest hammer we found on short notice was this:

We decided to skip that part ;) .

What do you like to give family and neighbors?