The Saga of AP, Whole Foods and the Candy Thermometer - PART 2

Top reasons why I love New York:
-unexpected friendliness (the woman who, when she saw the handle had ripped off my bag, gave me an extra plastic back she had)
-short building streets lined with trees
-architecture
-the liveliness and life
-frequency of book stores
-the breeze on warm days

When I made it home from the grocery store, I got straight to work! My family has a borderline obsession with a delicious candy called "Honeycomb" which comes in all flavors of chocolate covered. My personal fave, Milk Chocolate. Matt and Dave love the Dark Chocolate, Shelby and Mom love the White Chocolate. I decided to attempt the possible when I found a recipe online for home made honeycomb!
I had purchased a brand new candy thermometer, so I unwrapped it, and propped it inside my 2 quart pan. I added the ingredients and turned on the heat. The thermometer got pretty hot pretty quickly, it being completely metal, so I used a folded paper towel to adjust it. As the bubbly boiling mixture of sugar got bubblier, and the little red dial on the candy thermometer got higher, I started to get scared! The bubbly mixture now filled half the pan at 250 degrees. Once it hit three hundred, I was supposed to add baking powder and the mixture would TRIPLE in size! That would mean it would overflow my pan! And I was barefoot! I stirred the mixture then quickly ran to my room to put on some shoes. My Uggs called to me, they being thick and covering half-way up to my knees. I returned and stirred, the red dial quickly hit 300 degrees! I shut off the heat, picked up the candy thermometer with the paper towel to toss it to the side so I could stir then dump the mixture, only the thermometer was incredibly top heavy and when I set it down it flipped completely upside down, smacking my finger along the way with its 300 degree skewer! AHHH!!! I ran to the sink, doused my finger under cold water, but 10 seconds had passed! I had to add the baking soda immediately! So I ran back to the mixture, poured in the baking soda and whisked, and the mixture exploded to literally FIVE TIMES what the recipe said would happen! It was bubbling HUGE and I whisked it into my prepared tins... the bubbly yellow goo filled the tins to the brim, almost overflowing! The pan was now empty and I threw it into the sink and cranked on the cold water. My finger was ON FIRE it hurt so bad. I stayed there for a good 8 minutes before calling Brenda, who graciously brought me a baggy filled with ice for my hurt finger. The Honeycomb looked PERFECT.

We waited and waited for it to harden enough to crack and eat. When the time came, I picked up a slab and broke it in half. The inside of the golden slab was DARK ORANGE in color, and smelled CHARRED. I'd not only managed to burn myself, but the Honeycomb too! I slumped down on the couch where I continued to ice my finger and complained to Brenda for a good thirty minutes why this disaster meant no boy would ever love me. The worst part was, after ALL MY HARD WORD, I didn't even have the satisfaction of enjoying a tasty hunk of chocolate covered Honeycomb! Brenda managed to cheer me up by suggesting we throw the honeycomb out and just eat chocolate chips instead. :) Chocolate makes an excellent band-aid for an wounded ego.

For all those fanatics out there wondering about the potential of obtaining honeycomb outside of Carpinteria, California... I found a different recipe online (that does NOT involve a candy thermometer) and will be attempting to make another batch tonight!
STAY TUNED...