Wow. What an experience. From Saturday-Monday I baked my little heart out. For the holidays, I received my first real order: 25 boxes of goodies, packed with 4 items each.
Business cards!!! Didi Oi rocks, indeed.
They included…
– Homemade thin mints (250 total)
All tied up in a nice, neat little bow.
- Lots and lots of neat little bows.
– Mixed nut toffee coated with dark chocolate and fleur de sel (12.5 pounds total)
Fun to make. Better to eat.
– Gingerbread caramels (375 total)
Must not touch...must not touch...
– Chewy molasses and pecan cookies (125 total)
Just after a roll in the pecans
I’m so happy with how everything turned out. I learned a ton (see end of post), but flavor-wise, my testers agreed all the creations were spot on. In fact, one friend asked if I had put crack in the molasses cookies. Nope, just secret marmalade 😉 And bourbon.
Enter witty statement here.
Personally, I think I liked making (and eating, er, testing) the toffee best. Toffee is a simple combination of sugar and butter with flavorings added. Nuts, optional. It’s the process that makes it so cool. When you first start to cook sugar and butter it bubbles uncontrollably and threatens to overflow the pot – I was just gifted a very nice, much larger pot to prevent this from actually happening next time – until it reaches a certain temperature. Once it does, the bubbles expand and it stops trying to get away from itself. Instead, it seems to have a change of heart entirely and stick to itself like twitterpated lovebirds. (This is also the point you really do not want to get it on you.) It’s really kind of cute, because it goes from “oh my god, get away from me you nasty thing!” to “ooh, hello. You’re cute. Snuggle snuggle.
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After the toffee has reached approx 300 degrees, I poured the mixed nuts in, stirred them thoroughly and poured them into a jelly roll pan. Then, I sprinkled chopped dark Callebaut chocolate (60-40) over the top, let it sit for 5 minutes and then spread the now melted chocolate across the toffee to ensure evenness. I waited a few more minutes and then topped it with sea salt.Then, I stuck in in the freezer for at least a half hour and had a ball breaking it into little pieces that I then stored in the fridge until I packed them up. The recipe I used for as my foundation is here.
What is so cool is that in every step there’s a whole new process going on. The melting of the chocolate, the freezing of the whole block, the stickiness of the toffee…each is totally different and at each step I can find fun ways to add variation…
These are the smaller versions.
In addition to making the confections, I also put together some tins for each person. I had originally intended to use boxes, but found that they were much much too small. So – after a little brainstorming with my roommate – I fixed the mistake with my own money and sprung for reusable tins with little handles. Turns out they were much cuter, and more eco-friendly. I separated each layer of cookies with cardstock or parchment paper and topped the tins with two small bags of thin mints tied with baker’s twine and 15 parchment or waxed paper-wrapped caramels. Since only so many tins were available, I used 7 of the original boxes and paired the with the tins you see just above.
And, before I shut the lid, I enclosed one of my new, awesome business cards. Unfortunately, in my rush, I left my cards at home, so I can’t show you just how gorgeous they are yet, but my logo (coming soon) and the cards were designed by Didi Oi and they look positively fantastic.
In closing, I loved taking on this challenge. I also learned a lot. Mostly that I need to:
1. Get a stool for the kitchen or hire a personal foot masseuse.
2. Find a tidier way to deal with chocolate so it doesn’t look like a caramel and chocolate bomb went off in the kitchen and so my roommates can actually keep using the kitchen mid-project! (The caramel problem has been resolved).
3. Do more prep work ahead of time.
4. I want a food processor. Chopping everything by hand is for the birds.
Ok, now who wants cookies?