Kate sent this to us and I have to admit I got a good giggle out of it, check it out!
The Original
These cute treats look fairly easy/self explanatory and a lot of people will already have everything needed for these on hand! Kate found these not quite as easy to recreate, let's see what she had to say...
The Pinstrosity
"I did let them dry on wax paper, as shown in the photograph. The caramel never really set up and was a bit stringy, which I expected because it's caramel. But when I tried to dip it into the chocolate, it seemed to re-melt on contact and the chocolate slid right off. I resorted to pouring chocolate over the tops, just to try to combine the flavors a little. You can see how well that went. When I finally tried to take the marshmallows off the waxed paper, the paper stuck and I had to stuff to the whole thing in my mouth and loosen the paper with my tongue. The worst part is that they didn't taste like much. All those flavors seemed to cancel each other out and all I tasted was sweet. Totally Lame."
What do I think happened here?? The caramel and chocolate never set-up, just like she said, and I think that what she was missing here is cold. After she dipped them in the caramel I think I probably would have stuck them in the fridge (or freezer) to help the caramel set up and then when I was ready to dip them in the chocolate they wouldn't turn to mush. Then I would stick them back in the fridge or freezer let them set-up again and enjoy them after an hour or so. With all of that being said, I have never refrigerated marshmallows (I am not much of a marshmallow person...gasp!) so I am not sure if that would mess with their taste/texture, but as far as this pin goes I really think the cold would react well with helping set-up the ingredients. Perhaps Kate's house was hot, or she left them next to a stove or oven that was on, I can't be sure.
Another thought I had was that the caramel was the apple dip kind of caramel, the kind that never does actually set up, this kind of caramel is proverbially viscous. In this case, cold will not in fact cause the caramel to set up. The same goes with chocolate if it is like a chocolate fudge sauce that goes on ice cream, this too will not harden when encountering cold. Just a few thoughts.
Anyone have any other tips or tricks for Kate's treat?? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Halloween all!
Stay tuned for a post this weekend for Pumkintober!!!
Oh goodness, this made me laugh!!!
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For me, anything that needs to be dipped in chocolate ends up being a disaster. chocolate dipping is hard.
ReplyDeleteIf she would have used home made caramels, and cooked it to the soft crack stage, it would have set up. Also, the fridge idea would have helped as well. As for marshmellos, they will get a bit hard in the fridge, but return to normal @ room temp.
ReplyDeleteI make my own marshmallows regularly and I can tell you that refrigerating them won't mess them up at all. I would certainly dip them in the caramel while they are cold and then put them back in the refrigerator, but, for the chocolate layer you don't want them super cold. You'll start getting condensation and it'll mess with how the chocolate sticks to your caramel. Lastly, as much of a pain as it is, you HAVE to temper your chocolate. If you aren't willing to go through with that I recommend using candy melts. My last tip is to make sure that your bowl is deep enough that you can almost completely immerse whatever it is you are dipping. You do not want to spend a ton of time fiddling and swirling and scooping because you will risk melting the carmel again, even if it is still cool.
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