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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Daring Bakers' Candylicious



Thanks to Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!, this month is passing by with lots of fun, call it candy fun!

I am sure many Daring Bakers have developed great chocolate and candy creations, and that is why I have been so excited about this challenge, and make sure that I will not skip it, no excuses whatsoever. This is a great challenge I have been looking forward to...



Personally I felt great that finally got to make a chocolate version of Ispahan, which is a blend of white chocolate, rose water, and lychees. It is in fact a compatible match with almonds, so I just can't wait to eat all these once the photo shoot is over. And they are in pink, who could resist?

At the same time, I also made Lychee Delight (a lychee version of Turkish Delight)and Coconut Lime Chocolate Truffles. So all in all, I have made two chocolate candies and one non chocolate candy. It has been a great time and I am on my way to fulfill my craving for chocolate right after this. I am sure you are too, aren't you?



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!

CANDYLICIOUS



1. Ispahan
Makes 10 balls

Ingredients:
- White chocolate > 125g
- Whipping cream > 40ml
- Rose water > 2 tsp
- Pink coloring > a few drops
- Lychee flesh – dice > 50g
- Almond sticks > 100g
- Grounded almond > 20 g
- Golden pearls > 10 pcs

Method:
- Finely chop white chocolate and place in a bowl.
- Place whipping cream in a saucepan and heat until it is just about to boil.
- Pour into chocolate and leave for 5 minutes for chocolate to melt. Stir until smooth stir and fold in rose essence and coloring. Stir well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until it is firm.
- Roll ganache with hands to form balls and fill with a lychee dice. If the balls are too soft due to heat generated from palms, refrigerate again for a short while. Remove from fridge and leave for a short moment before sticking almond around chocolate balls. Sprinkle top with grounded almond and garnish with golden pearl.



2. Lychee Delight
Adapted from “Turkish Delight” in Petits Fours: A Fine Selection of Sweet Treats (Murdoch Books)
Makes 32 pieces
Prepare: baking tin of size 10cm x 20cm

Ingredients:
- Lychee juice > 280ml
- Gelatine powder > 30g
- Granulated sugar > 340g
- Lime juice > ½ tsp
- Cream of tartar > ½ tsp
- Lychee flesh – cut into chunks > 50g
- Lychee essence > 2 tsp
- Pink coloring > a few drops
- Icing sugar > 100g
- Corn flour > 60g

Method:
- Brush baking tin with water and set aside.
- Place lychee juice in a saucepan and sprinkle with gelatine. Heat over low heat and stir until gelatine dissolves. Add sugar and lime juice and continue stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil and continue to boil for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Fold in cream of tartar and lychee essence into the mixture. Add a few drops of coloring until the desired pink color is achieved. Finally fold in lychee chunks.
- Pour mixture into tin and leave overnight in room temperature to set.
- Sift icing sugar and corn flour into a shallow bowl. Set aside.
- Dust table top with adequate icing sugar. Ease Lychee Delight away from the sides of tin with a knife, and holding the tin upside down push it out of the tin onto the work surface.
- Oil knife and cut Lychee Delight into a 2.5cm squares. Toss these squares into the bowl of icing sugar. Store them in air tight container, with baking paper between each layer.



3. Coconut Lime Chocolate Truffles
Makes 16 balls

Ingredients:
- Dark chocolate > 350g
- Coconut milk > 100ml
- Almond > 200g
- Grated lime zest > 1 tsp
- Coconut rum liqueur > 2tbsp

Method:
- Combine chocolate and coconut milk in saucepan and cook over low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Pour into a plate and set aside to cool.
- Chop almonds into small chunks and place into a shallow bowl. Set aside.
- When chocolate mixture is cool, fold in lime zest and liqueur. Stir well and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
- Roll firm mixture with hands into balls and toss into almond chunks to coat.
- Refrigerate overnight until totally firm.


36 comments:

  1. So pretty and very unique too. They look good enough to eat lol

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  2. Oh, your candies all look absolutely stunning and so pretty! Delightful, refined and tempting.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  3. Soooo pretty!!! They are just beautiful!!!!

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  4. Wow - such interesting flavors - wish I could try them all.

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  5. What a lovely candy!!!!! Great!!!!

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  6. Love the colour;))

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  7. OMG..Kris they are so beautiful and delightful. I was looking for turkish recipe for so long, thought that is hard to make, but read your recipe seem everything looks so easy. cant wait to make my own. :)

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  8. wow, first time on your blog..your candies are picture perfect! I thought of making turkish delight but settled for Persian Nougat, but I must give your recipe a try next, thanx for sharing:-)

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  9. Oh Kris, your candies look so pretty!! The flavors are so intriguing...I would love to have some of the lychee delight! Excellent job on this challenge!

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  10. Kris, As usual you did an amazing job with the variety of flavors! I'd love to try each one of them. Your gorgeous photography highlights them beautifully.

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  11. I couldn't wait to see your beautiful candies, and I almost squealed when I did! Since I'm not huge on rose water, I'll just stare at those Ispahan chocolate beauties, but I must try your coonut lime truffles and the lychee 'turkish' delight! Thank you so much for candy making with us this month, Kris!!

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  12. I'm so glad you took part in the challenge and that you enjoyed it so much!
    I love the colours, and as always, stunning photos :D I'm in love with all the pink.
    I wish I could find lychees here, used to eat them all the time in South Africa, but they're quite rare here in Ireland. I'd love to try the lychee delight, I can imagine how delicious they would be.
    Beautiful work as always, Kris! Thanks for taking part in the challenge :)

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  13. What a fun challenge. I love your creations and want to try each one.

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  14. Oh Kris, you never cease to amaze me with your beautiful creations. I could spend hours looking at your photos. The flavor combinations sound just irresistible!

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  15. So gorgeous! I would love try the isaphan you made :) I'm drooling!

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  16. I love the idea of lychee delight and chocolate ispahan! All your candies look stunning!

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  17. I don't know wich one i'd take... i'm a chocolate lover but the other looks really pretty and i looove lytchee!!

    Nice job, as always!

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  18. What a great idea to make the Ispahan into a chocolate confection. Love the color of your Lychee Delight!

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  19. What a delight for the eyes which I sure are also a delight for the tastebuds! Unusual and tempting array of candies! Lychee essence is an ingredient I don't see here in Australia. Lychee delight really appeals to me!

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  20. Passare di qua è sempre un sogno per gli occhi e per il palato!

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  21. Oh my... can I get one of each? Or two of each? These would look great all together on a table filled with sweet treats!!

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  22. You manage to make them so incredibly picture perfect again Kris! Love them!

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  23. absolutely incredible! i would kill to try your lychee delight. KILL.

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  24. Great choise of flavors and SO elegant, colourful presentation!Everything looks delycious but the pink one is especially tempting...

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  25. This is AMAZING! I love the flavours you've come up for your candies, especially the lychee turkish delight, it sounds devine.

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  26. How adorable are those Lychee Delights? I can't wait to make them. So pretty and I bet they taste divine. I don't make a lot of candy, but I'm going to try these, Kris!

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  27. nice post .. beautiful and looks so delicious ..

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  28. OMG! As usual - marvelous! And I missed all that... but with Baby J and another on the way I just couldn't do it this time... Mind you - i won't skip next one as it's one of my favourite treats in the world!
    Hope you're well! Pozdrawiam!
    Anula.

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  29. Hi there my friend! I absolutely adore the candy photos, but you know what really grabbed my eye? It was that damask cloth underneath the petite cake stand!!

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  30. You always create the most beautiful things. Seriously, HOW DO YOU DO IT? The coconut lime truffles sound delicious and look absolutely amazing (as do your other candies). Amazing job, Kris!

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  31. Nice selection of candies and what a "sweet" challenge for this month.

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  32. Just lovely photographs, and your candies looks amazing. That would only last 5 minutes around me!

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  33. oh, MY, thank you for this post! can't wait to see more of this blog!

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  34. Kris - are you ok? Haven't seen you for 2 months now! Hope all is well with you and yours! Worried!

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  35. Kris, Just thought I'd check in and say HI! Hope all is well, my friend:) ~Sue

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