maanantai 15. lokakuuta 2012

Sly as a fox



Candy time! I had never thought that candy making would be such a easy task. This all began when my mom heard this conversation on the radio about rowan berries.  Since it's fall, those trees are FULL of the berries and all I had to do was to get our ladders and pick the prettiest berries from our trees in the backyard! This Finnish candy company Fazer has produced these "fox candies" for centuries and those are one of my favorite ones since when I was a kid. I've read that they used to have actual rowan berries in them in the beginning but nowadays I think they've replaced them with a some kind of aroma. 
I started by cleaning the berries up from leaves and other stuff and stored them in the freezer for the next day. We haven't got any night frost yet so the freezer does the job too. By freezing them, they get a little less sour. The next day I scooped 3dl (1,25 cups) of those frozen buddies and boiled them for 30mins. During this time, berries lose their amygdala which causes stomach problems when eaten in large amounts. My berries lost a lot of their color while boiling them so that's why the candies turned out to be more orange than red. (The real candies are red so that's why they failed my expectations.) After being boiled, the berries should be a little bit softer than before so it easier to strain through a strainer. From this amount of those berries, there should become about 1dl (o,4 cup) of puree .

So on top of that puree you need:
5dl (2 cups) Water
5dl (2 cups) Sugar
15g (0,5 oz) Agar Agar -powder or flakes
1,5dl (2/3 cup) Apple sauce
1 Tsp Tartaric acid powder

+2dl (0,85 cup) Very fine sugar to roll those cubes in (I didn't really measure the sugar for this. Just added more on the plate when needed) :)
So after you're all done with the puree, boil up the water and add the Agar Agar. Remember not to have the stove on too hot! When the liquid get clearer you can go ahead and add the sugar. Boil it up again but be careful, it burns quickly if you're not paying attention! Then lower the heat again.

When the sugar has dissolved, add the apple sauce, rowan berry puree and tartaric acid powder. Mix them carefully and let the mixture cool down. While waiting, you can go ahead and cover a pan or some kind of mold with greaseproof paper. Pour the marmelade mixture in it and let it solidify for a couple of hours. After that you're free to cut it in the pieces of your choice. Put the pieces on a greaseproof paper to a dry place to dry for about 48h. Remember to turn them around at times so they dry evenly. Drying prevents the sugar melting on top of them later. ;) When the marmelades are dry but still a bit sticky, roll them on a plate where's sugar. Keep the marmelades in a airtight box for the future.


Oh and one more thing. I've been always struggling with finding some ingredients. People don't usually tell where to find those in their recipes so let me change that here! If you're wondering where to find tartaric acid powder, the easiest place is to go to the pharmacy and ask for it fromt them. I also happened to see some at our biggest supermarket but the pharmacy is the safest place to find some. Unfortunately it's a bit more expensive there so be prepared for that.

I'll meet you next time with some cake pops so have a chictastic time till then! :)

Ei kommentteja:

Lähetä kommentti