Trailer Wife

DAY SIXTEEN: Candy Canes

Christmas at my Grandma Schwartz's house always took place on the 24th. The kids would gather around the tree where my Grandpa, a stoic, no-necked military man would don a Santa's hat and industriously pass out the gifts as if they were war-time rations. Once the packages were dolled out, chaos would ensue, with everyone tearing through the wrapping paper pell mell. One of the things I remember most is the enormous jumbo candy cane stick Grandma would always include in our stockings. We would suck on that bad boy for weeks, leaving pink stains everywhere and chipping our teeth.

In tribute to those massive canes, here is a home made candy cane recipe that I'm going to try and incorporate into our (getting longer every day) list of VanLan holiday traditions.

Things You'll Need:
Candy thermometer
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
1/2 cup of water
1/4 tsp. of cream of tartar
3/4 tsp. of peppermint extract
1 tsp. of red food coloring

Step 1: Take a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan out of your cupboards and add the sugar, corn syrup, water and the cream of tartar and mix them very well. Be sure to completely stir the mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Step 2: Using a candy thermometer inserted into the mixture, cook the mixture without stirring until the candy thermometer reaches 265 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 3: Take the mixture away from the heat and drop in the peppermint extract. Get out another pan and take half of the mixture and place it into the second pan. Mix in the red food coloring to one of the mixtures.

Step 4: Allow the candy to cool. While you are waiting grease 3 cookie sheets.

Step 5: Put some butter on your hands and a spatula. Use the spatula that you have buttered to cut off a portion of one of the clear taffy. Enlist a friend or family to help you and have that person do the same thing with the red taffy after they have greased their own hands.

Step 6: Pull and fold the pieces repeatedly on your cookie sheet until they appear glossy, then roll them into an 18 inch long coil.

Step 7: Twist the head of the cane before setting it aside to cool on the third greased cookie sheet.

**From www.ehow.com
***co-writing credit to Heidi