Monday, December 20, 2004

Here's the thing about divinity. It is a candy. And as such, it should possibly be left to the folks who know something about candy-making, and not attempted by you, Little-Miss-I-Own-A-Candy-Thermometer-And-Can-Follow-A-Recipe-So-What-Could-Possibly-Go-Wrong. Because many, many things can possibly go wrong.

It started out fine- you boil some sugar and corn syrup and water until it reaches 260 degrees. That, I handled. Then you beat some egg whites. Again, no problem. Then you beat the sugar/corn syrup/water mixture into the egg whites. Here, I think, I made a mistake in attempting this by hand. The candy stayed too soft. No worries, though. The recipe had directions for what to do in that instance- just put the bowl over a pot of boiling water until you can write your name in the spoon drippings. Uh, okay. So I quickly sort of half-assedly rinsed out the sugar/corn syrup pan and filled it with water. (Anyone who is reading along and knows that this is where I went so glaringly wrong- I hate you. You and your knowledge of candy.) So it took a REALLY long time for the candy to harden. Finally it did. While it was hardening, there was a burning smell, which I assumed was some of the sugar I'd spilt on the burner.

I removed the stainless steel mixer bowl from the boiling water and.. the bottom of the mixer bowl was all brown and burnt. And the boiling water? Not so much water as a pot full of black char. Black crustiness all over my Calphalon. Black crustiness that would not be removed from the bottom and sides of that pan even after repeated soaking and scrubbing and soaking and scrubbing. RUINED, my Calphalon Pot. And the divinity? Well, they came out more like pralines in texture. Like white sugar pralines.

After that, though, the rest of the cookies were a snap.

0 comments: