Twix

Having been a Pastry Chef for oh 10 years now I am sure you can guess that I love making all kids of sweet things. Today I decided to try my hand at home made candy bars. My favorite is Twix, so I made them.

I started by making a Brown Sugar Shortbread for the cookie part of the candy, then as they baked made my Caramel. Now you can go out and buy the little caramels and melt them and use that but for me homemade is always better. After the Shortbread was out and the Caramel was done I poured the Caramel on top of the cookie and put the whole tray in the refrigerator to set up. 30 minutes later they were ready to cut and dip. Dipping is easier if the bars are cold.

Shortbread:
Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed. Scrape down sides of bowl. Then add vanilla and flour, and blend thoroughly on low speed.

Spread dough out in a cookie sheet

Bake for 17-19 minutes or until the cookies spread and turn a light golden brown. Transfer to a cool, flat surface.

Caramel:
Ingredients:

1 Cup Whipping Cream
1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar ( Firmly Packed)
1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 TBS Butter ( Softened)
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

In a 2 quart heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, combine the cream, corn syrup, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter. Stir until the mixture come to a boil (5-10 minutes).

Increase the heat to medium high, place a candy thermometer in the pan an cook mixture until it registers 246 degrees F. (15-20 minutes), stirring Constantly.
Remove pan from heat and pour on to your Shortbread, refrigerate until firm.

Cut into strips then into candy bars. Then dip in Chocolate of your choice.


When I cut my bars I had 2 rows of regular sized Twix and 1 row on Mini Twix.

Thy are to die for!!!!

Pinching the Pennies

Today I was sitting at my computer looking at a site I love, as many of us do, PINTEREST!

I am sure a lot of you know what this site is. I know it so well I have to give myself a time limit as to how long I can participate. Although I have found it to be addicting, I have also discovered many great ideas and inspiring people.

As I was looking at all the wonderful things, I saw a pin for homemade laundry detergents. I have seen these before on Pinterest and not once looked at them, but for some reason today a voice in my head said just take a look.. I went to the site and as I looked over the recipe and the directions for making the detergent it hit me...Why the HECK am I spending $40 a bottle for 112 some odd loads at $2.80 a load,when I could make it for pennies a load.

I immediately went to my local Grocer and bought the supplies I would need to make my own detergent.. After doing the math I have found it costs $2.61 for 16 loads, this means it only costs $0.16 pr load. So for 112 Loads it would only cost me $17.92. That is a savings of $22.08. WOW!!!!! I will never buy detergent again! So now on to the, How To!

It is really very simple. You will need the following things before you begin.
-1 Box Borax (makes 9.5 batches)
-1 Box Washing Soda ( makes 5.5 batches) (Arm and Hammer) not baking soda
-1 Bar of Soap (of your choosing) I use Dove.
-1 Large pot (must hold more then 2 gallons of water)
-1 Grater
-1 Funnel
-1 Long spoon

I went to Goodwill and bought a pot, grater, funnel and spoon and only use them for making detergent and other soaps.

-Start by grating 1 bar of soap and placing in the pot with 1 gallon of water and melting. after soap has melted, add 1 Cup of Borax and 1 Cup of Washing Soda, stir and bring to a boil. Take off heat and add another 1 gallon of water. Using the funnel pour your detergent into Gallon water jugs or your old detergent container if you saved it. It will thicken over night. Use 1/2 Cup per load.

* All these ingredients can be found at Walmart or most Grocery Stores in the Laundry isle.

My Gifts for Christmas

OK, so I have got my gifts for Christmas all done and wanted to share how easy it was to do. I started by making homemade Hot Cocoa mix from a recipe that I have work on perfecting for a while now. So good!! You can use one you find online or you can do some experimenting and make one your self. Basic ingredients include, Unsweetened Cocoa powder, Powdered sugar and Dry milk. Then I made home made Marshmallows. I had never made them before so I thought they might be hard, but they really are not and was very pleasantly surprised to find that they were fun to do to. I placed the Coco Mix in the bottom of a mason jar then put in the marshmallows on top. I combined small mallows with some big ones that I painted on Snow men faces with food coloring. Then capped the jar and added some raffia and ribbon and to finish it off I wrote the instructions for making the coco on the back of my cute little snowmen tags I wrote about in a n earlier post.

Sorry about the poor quality of the Photos my camera died right before this and had to use my phone.