Atlanta etc.: Marilyn Wolf's Food Blog and Restaurant Blog

Dimitrios brought me these candies from Greece. They are a little softer and less stringy than taffy, closer to a jellied candy. The liberal coating of powdered sugar helps to handle them without sticking. They are delicious and surprisingly not overbearingly sweet.

CNN reports here that the NECCO plant in Cambridge MA has closed.

Here's one I didn't expect: Bill Gates reviews a candy store in Omaha .

I decided to use the peels of my treasure trove of oranges to make candied orange peels. I first boiled the peels in water. I then drained and reboiled in sugar water. Once I strained the sugar water, I prepared the orange peels. Not only did boiling them make them easier to cut into thin strips, it also simplified stripping the inner rind. I rolled them in some sugar along with cinnamon and nutmeg. A day later, I went the extra mile and dipped them in chocolate. I used my cold plate trick to temper the chocolate, although with limited success. But no matter, the peels still taste great, particularly for a non-obvious food. For good measure, I stuffed some dates with pecans and dipped them, too. Wow, are they tasty.

Candystore.com reports here on what they refer to as "The Great Necco Wafer Panic." Necco recently announced that declining sales may force them to close but that their sales have increased as a result. For all you nerds out there, the Necco factory is located across the street from the MIT campus. On a good day, you can smell the sweet wafers as you walk down the street.

I hadn’t practiced two skills in awhile: caramels and chocolate dipping. I struck upon a way to practice both while doing something a little different. I decided to add pecans but rather than add them to the caramels, I added them to the chocolate enrobing. If I put the pecans into the hot caramel the aromatics that give them their flavor will evaporate at that high temperature. If I add them to the warmed chocolate, their taste wil be preserved. Since these are my extremely flavorful pecans from Ellis Brothers I wanted to keep as much flavor as possible. I put together a batch of caramel from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: corn syrup, brown sugar, heavy cream (my own preference), and butter. I melted some Vahrohna dark chocolate that I have been saving for such an occasion; I tempered it using my frozen plate technique. I finely chopped some of those wonderful pecans. I then mixed the pecans into some chocolate and started dipping. Here is a tray of the beaut...

A walk through Lincoln's Brickyard district brought me to Licorice International. How could I not check out a store with that name? Licorice International certainly delivers what it promises: licorice and licorice-adjacent candies from around the world. The owner was very good about giving me and everyone else samples of the various candies. I ended up with classic black licorice from Australia (who knew?) and licorice caramels from the Netherlands. Both were excellent.

I've had problems tempering chocolate over the past few years. I seem to have found a simple technique that works better than what I had been doing before and doesn't require me to buy any new equipment. My favorite type of dipped chocolate to make is caramel. Here is my latest batch. I used mostly dark brown sugar because that is what I had on hand. I really like the result, which is a richer taste that isn't in the least overpowering. They also turned out a little soft and drooped under the weight of gravity. I don't know if I missed the temperature mark by a degree or two or if the dark brown sugar affected the soft ball temperature. The good news is that the chocolate helps to contain the caramel. Here is the chocolate melting. As with the standard procedure, I heated it up and then slowly cooled it down while vigorously stirring. My new twist is to use a refrigerated plate to cool down part of the chocolate. Chocolatiers use a cooled marble slab; they...

I recently discovered Greene's on the south side of downtown Decatur. It's on Trinity Place, a street that I hadn't been on until recently. The building it's in appears to be an old bank or post office. It's quite large for a candy store and interesting to look at. I assume that they have party facilities but I didn't ask. I decided to try a peanut butter cup. It was much more delicate than a Reese's, which has oily and coarse-textured peanut butter. Greene's cup was smooth and blended the peanuts and chocolate very subtly. It does seem to me that chunky peanut butter cups would be a good idea, but I don't recall ever tasting such a thing.