Chewy Candy

                                                                                                             

"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth"-Psam 119:103

I had a request from my daughter to make homemade licorice.  This is something I had never done before, but the challenge was out there and I was determined to do it.  Since then I am convinced that you need a factory to make the kind you buy at the store.  However, my failed attempts tasted pretty good, hence, a new post!

What you need:
1/4 cup flour
pinch of salt (1/8 teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon corn starch
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 cup light corn syrup
1 6 oz. package of gelatin (your choice of flavor)
a candy thermometer (helpful but not necessary)

In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup flour, pinch of salt, 1/4 teaspoon corn starch, 1/8 cup vegetable oil.  Mix until smooth.

In a small sauce pan heat 1 cup corn syrup until it is at the soft ball stage on a candy thermometer, stirring constantly.

Now, if you are like me, and do not own a candy thermometer you can still do this.  I remembered from my Home Economics class back in high school (thank you Mrs. Schley) that to test to make sure you are at the soft ball temperature you spoon a small amount of the hot liquid into very cold water.  When it is at the right temperature the liquid will be able to be formed into a soft ball that can be squished down  (I'm guessing that's where the name came from!)  As I mentioned earlier, I had a few trials of this and it seems to work best if the ball is slightly firm.  It changes very quickly so play close attention. If you wait to long it goes into the hard ball phase and then it will be too hard to work with.

Remove pan from heat and stir in 1 6 oz. box of flavored gelatin.

Stir in the flour/oil mixture.

Pour the hot liquid onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

It cools very quickly.  1-2 minutes is all you need to be able to start forming it.

This is how much the dough made.  You need to work quickly before the dough gets too hard.  It remains "chewy", but gets harder to work with the cooler it gets. For some of the dough we used mini cookie cutters to make some mittens and snow flakes.  My kids also made their initials.

The first batch I had little hands helping me.  The second batch I only had myself so I shaped them mostly into balls. This, by the way, seems to be the best shape for them to not stick together.  Toward the end the dough was getting harder to work with so I rolled it out and made a spiral shape out of it. The benefit of letting it get slightly firmer in the soft ball state is that when the candy is completely cooled they do not stick so much together, or at least you can separate them if they do.  I think I am going to make more colors and package them up for some gifts.
*An important side note I just discovered today (two days after I originally posted this) is that coating the candy in powdered sugar so that it doesn't stick together is a very good idea.  I had mine in a jar and they all stuck together.  It was a hassle getting it all out of the jar but after I got them out and coated them in the powdered sugar, it was fine.