Candy! Candy!

For this months Daring Bakers’ challenge we were charged with making candy, more specifically tempering chocolate.  We had to make two types of candy, one from a specific list (truffle, cut dipped chocolate, or filled bonbon) and a second of our choice.

I chose to make Sponge Candy (a.k.a. Honey Comb candy) and Almond Cake Truffles with Chocolate Truffle centers.

Required language to get credit: The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

The sponge candy reminded me of the technique I have used in the past to make peanut brittle.  I love adding baking soda to candy because of the bubbly reaction.  The sponge candy looked airy and light; it looked like it would be good, but it was not.  Flavor wise it was good, but it was super sticky.  After tasting a piece of the light and fluffy candy, I had to pry the sticky mass off of my teeth.  My peanut brittle has always turns out well, so I am a tad bit baffled why it did not work.  None the less here it is.

The Almond Cake Truffles with Chocolate Truffle center was divine.  Not a chocolate fan, but this was good and a good balance of flavor.  I could taste the semi-sweet truffle center, the almond cake, and the dark chocolate covering.

For the almond cake, I used left over cake crumbs from an almond cake I made early this month and froze the crumbs.  I stirred in vanilla icing to form the cake truffles.

I did (attempt to) temper the outer coating chocolate by the seeding method.  I realized after I chose this method, that the chocolate I choose to seed with was probably not tempered itself.  None the less, it came out well.  I dusted it with Aztec gold luster dust to give it a little extra sparkle.

If you would like the challenge recipes or to see the other Daring Bakers’ creations, check-out http://www.thedaringkitchen.com/.