A BonBonBar giveaway

I just got back from a weekend trip to Los Angeles. I've got lots of restaurant reports and food pictures to share with you, but first let's talk about candy.

I've been reading Nina's Sweet Napa blog for a couple of years. When I started reading, she was a culinary student in Napa with a love for candymaking. Now, she's in Los Angeles and the owner of the BonBonBar company, which has been mentioned in both Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. I've really enjoyed watching her develop the business from the ground up, and I was able to meet her this weekend. I sampled quite a few of her products, which were all amazing, and couldn't resist getting a whole assortment of treats. She was even nice enough to bring me one of her limited edition Valentine's Day cherry bars.
I want to share the BonBonBar love with all of you, so I'm giving away a bag of classic BonBonBar caramels. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite kind of candy bar, and a winner will be drawn at random. The deadline for comments is Wednesday, February 4th at 8:00 pm PST.

Good luck!

Sugared cranberries

I hope everyone had a happy holiday! This is another one of those recipes that's been getting rave reviews around the internet lately. I had a bag of cranberries in the freezer, which I thawed to make these sugared cranberries. This recipe is really simple - a warm sugar syrup is poured over cranberries, which then marinate in the liquid overnight. The sugar syrup should not be boiling - you don't want the cranberries to pop. The next day, the liquid is drained away and the berries are rolled in superfine sugar to coat. I didn't have any superfine sugar in the house, so I ran some regular granulated sugar through the food processor. It seemed to work just fine. The sugared cranberries need at least an hour to dry - I let mine set up for the better part of a day.

For such a simple recipe, the end result is exceptionally delicious. The soak in the sugar syrup tames the bitterness of the cranberries, and the sugar coating is a crunchy contrast. You've been warned - these are extremely addictive.

Spiced mixed nut toffee

This is a fun variation on your standard almond toffee. The recipe is unique because it uses a mixture of nuts and adds a little bit of spice and molasses. I used a combination of pecans, almonds and cashews. Pistachios also work well. As written, the recipe makes enough toffee to serve about 4-6 people (one or two pieces each). If you double it, the toffee should fill a 12 x 17 inch pan.

Spiced mixed nut toffee
Serves 4-6

1 and 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons of water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup of coarsely chopped toasted mixed nuts (I used cashews, almonds and pecans)
3 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
butter or cooking spray for pan

Line a 12 x 17 inch or half sheet pan with foil. Grease the foil with butter or cooking spray.

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add next 7 ingredients, stir until sugars dissolve. Clip a candy thermometer to the pan and increase the heat to medium; boil until thermometer registers 290 degrees F, stirring slowly but constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula. This takes about 20 minutes.

Once the mixture has reached the correct temperature, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the nuts. Immediately pour the toffee onto the greased pan. Spread the toffee to 1/4 inch thickness. Immediately sprinkle chocolate atop toffee. Let stand 1 minute.

Using the back of a spoon, spread the chocolate over the toffee. Cool completely and break toffee into pieces.

Buddha's hand revisited

I bought another buddha's hand

The first time I bought one and tried to candy it, I was unsuccessful - it was just too bitter. This time, I boiled and rinsed the peel six times instead of three. It worked, and it's delicious!

The finished products

I am done with my baking, and covered in powdered sugar.

Candied meyer lemon peel

Strawberry marshmallows

Coconut macaroons

My own variation on Martha's Rocky Ledge bars

I used milk chocolate chunks, dark chocolate chunks, butterscotch chips and toffee

Too hot to cut!

Baking Frenzy

I'm trying to cram a lot of baking into the next few days. Here are some of my works in progress:

Strawberry Marshmallows

Coconut Macaroons

More on these tomorrow!

What are you going to do with this?

That's what the cashier at Dean and Deluca asked me when I bought this.

It's a Buddha's Hand citron. I bought it with the intention of creating candied citron, but that didn't work out so well. I did freeze some of the zest to use for baking.

However, my candied orange peel came out nicely: