Uh, yeah. That just about sums it up.
The white chocolate experience (and the rest of the candy-making extravaganza) did not exactly end in a complete success. I wouldn't call it a complete FAIL, per se, but I would say that next time, I will NOT try to make white chocolate from scratch, and I WILL buy some already-made from Back to Eden or Food Fight! or another vegan supplier in town, just to save myself the heartburn.
Making the white chocolate itself was a bit challenging. I honestly had no idea there were multiple steps to the process. I thought I would be popping out white chocolate candy in no time. I used Hannah Kaminsky's recipe here (she makes it look so pretty - how did she do that??).
Okay, so that wasn't a problem. The white chocolate was done, and then I wanted to add things to it because it was soooo rich.
I decided to make caramel from this recipe, chopped up some peanuts, dried figs and then dried some strawberries that I had in the freezer.
this is the caramel being prepared |
chopped peanuts |
chopped figs |
my homemade dried strawberries |
That looks more positive, doesn't it? When I write it in all-caps and add an exclamation point? Here's what went wrong...
-the caramel turned out to be a SAUCE, so it did not firm up and make nice with the white chocolate
-the white chocolate turned into something that cannot be described as white chocolate when I added other things to it; it was sweet, sure, and it was sort-of white, but no one would describe it as white chocolate, least of all me
I put the caramel in ice cube trays and although it looks pretty, it didn't firm up because it's s'posed to be a SAUCE! |
this is the fudge-turned-mousse |
HOWEVER - there is actually a plus-side to all of this (I actually love making mistakes in the kitchen, especially if I'm allowed enough time to do it all over to make it right): I have learned that candy making is effing hard and I really do need to pay more attention to ingredients lists and temperatures and all that jazz, and in the end, I discovered this amazingly easy and delicious recipe for one-ingredient ice cream.
Because I just can't seem to stop experimenting when I'm in the kitchen, I added about 2/3 c. light coconut milk, 1 heaping spoon of homemade peanut butter and about 1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries to the banana. Finally, good news: it was DELICIOUS! I now store frozen chunks of banana in my freezer for anytime the mood hits.
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