Can anyone else not believe that July is already over?? I’m sad that the summer is going by so quickly, but I’m really excited for August. I have a whole month of great end-of-summer recipes to share!
Of all the cookbooks I’ve featured with my Cookbook of the Month series, this one has probably been the most fun. When I think of making candy at home, I usually think of chocolates, or even suckers or marshmallows. And while this cookbook has all of these, it also has so much more!! I really want to try making the gummy bears and the mint meltaways, and so much more!!
Prep Times and Total Recipe Times Listed: no
Number of Photos: lots
There is a photo of every recipe in the book. There is a middle insert that has all of the color photos. The photos aren’t big – there are 4 to each page – but it is definitely a helpful reference. Especially for the candies that I had never heard of before!
Difficulty Level of Recipes: easy to hard
I think that there is something in here for every level of candy-maker. I’m not an advanced candy maker by any means, but I have made a few different candies in the past. I think that if you are looking for an entry level book, this wouldn’t be the one for you, but if you have a little bit of experience, you could probably make pretty much anything in this book.
Availability of Ingredients: easy
The hardest ingredient to find that I noticed was the golden syrup that was in the sponge toffee. There are a few tools that might be a little harder to find, though, like molds. But as far as ingredients go, there is a lot of sugar, butter, chocolate – and surprisingly, eggs!
Here’s what I made:
Homemade Candy Corn – 8.5 out of 10
Jordan Almonds – 8 out of 10
Sponge Toffee – 7 out of 10
Potato Pinwheels – 7.5 out of 10
Lemon Drops – 9 out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10
I loved how fun these recipes all were. Some of these were things that I never imagined that I could make at home!! I don’t see myself cooking out of this cookbook every day, but it’s definitely one that I’m glad that I have on hand when I feel like making something fun or something special. And like I said – there are so many other candies in the book that I am dying to try!!
And for August… I know that a lot of people associate their slow cookers with the colder months. Well, I love using mine in the summer!! I would much rather have the slow cooker cooking away all day than to turn on the stove or the oven. And since I’ve told of my love/hate relationship with the slow cooker in the past, I’m really looking forward to August’s book – More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow by Stephanie O’Dea, author of the blog – A Year of Slow Cooking. This is Stephanie’s second cookbook, and is full of a wide variety of inexpensive slow cooker recipes. Besides the fact that I find slow cooker food incredibly hard to photograph, this should be a really great month!
I gained a pound just reading this post!
Thanks for the review! I’m certainly interested in this!
I love each recipes, particularly that lemon drops!
I have to admit, this has been the most fun book to read about because I never would have guessed that any of these could be made at home!
I loved reading all the candy you made! I am going to have to seek out this book! Looking forward to crock pot recipes – I am always looking for good ones!
[...] is the author of 2 cookbooks, Field Guide to Cookies and Field Guide to Candy- last month’s Cookbook of the Month here on Taste and Tell. She is a master of all things sugar!! In 2005, Anita graduated from a [...]