Will the Real Edible Kind Please Stand Up?

When I was child, I once ate a horse chestnut. I remember thinking that people sang about, 'chestnuts roasting over an open fire.' I figured that they should probably taste fine freshly fallen off the tree as well. Little did I know that Aesculus hippocastanum is not to be confused with Castanea, also known as The Edible Kind. The bitter, drying taste I faced left me wondering what all the Christmas carol fuss was about. It wasn't until I was about twenty years old that I finally braved up to taste the 'real' thing. But, this isn't about The Edible Kind.

A week or so ago, I replied to a tweet describing the cupcake menu for the day at Nomélie Cupcakes. I asked what the heck a 'buckeye' was. Her reply was: @nsbonnielass a choc cupcake w/pb cream cheese filling dipped in ganache topped w/swirl of pb frosting http://tinyurl.com/2g4xqom. I followed the link and realized, 'they're conkers.' But, candy conkers.

So, I read a little about it, and thought of my husband and his love of peanut butter. I thought of his even greater love for chocolate coated peanut butter. I thought of his love for conkers. Really, still, in his fifth decade, the search for the perfect conker can easily double the length of an autumn hike. And, I made some peanut butter conkers because, as patiently as I wait, the real ones still haven't started to fall off the trees here and I fancied a bowl of conkers or horse chestnuts or buckeyes, whatever you choose to call them, for the centre of our table. 

I read some of the recipes following the link above and most seemed a little bit too full of stuff I don't consider to be food like wax. And, some things that I had never heard of like honey margarine. And, things that seemed redundant like peanut butter cups. One of the recipes seemed fairly reasonable save for the fact that, made in the quantities prescribed, I would have wound up with way too many of the little tasties. 

I went out got some of the bad, but oh-so-good, sort of creamy peanut butter for these. I figured with a recipe like this, there is no point trying to be virtuous. The original recipe called for margarine and I used butter. I did keep the shortening in the chocolate coating only because we had some shortening left over from a bird seed project we have been working on and, as I said above, with a recipe like this, there is no point trying to be virtuous.

Conkers adapted from a recipe tested by Carla Hall who is possibly a member of the Mid-Ohio Boogie Club (makes 30)

400 grams confectioner's sugar

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 ounces chocolate chips

2 tablespoons shortening

Mix sugar, peanut butter, butter and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.

Form into 30 conker/horse chestnut/buckeye shaped balls and place on a tray or plate. Chill for an hour.

Melt chocolate and shortening in a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat or in a double boiler. Stir until all chocolate is melted. Cool until it is about body temperature.

Using a toothpick, dip each conker in the chocolate and place on lined tray or plate. When all are dipped smooth the toothpick holes closed with a wet fingertip. Chill until firm.

Keep in refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to eat them.

We Love You Tate & Lyle

Anyone who has spent any amount of time with my daughter, Poppy, will attest to the fact that she is obsessed with marshmallows and all things marshmallowy and anything that mildly resembles marshmallow.  She refers to the meringue of lemon meringue pie as the marshmallow bit.  She longingly gazes at the bags of those cylindrical pillows of fluffy sweetness when we have to travel down that aisle in the supermarket and thinks the tiny ‘fruity’ ones should be served at every meal.  She is amazed by the wide array of British marshmallows – pink and white hearts, little watermelon wedges, 3 foot long tri-colour twisty whips.  She rates different venues of her favourite British café chain by the number of marshmallows they give her with her ‘cappuccino without the espresso’. Her birthday cake orders usually consist of the words big, pink, icing and marshmallows.  Last year’s was an ode to those four words in a grotesque, tummy-aching, tooth paining kind of way. 

 

This passion has grown over the last two years or so, but is has been a steady growth.  It has disturbed us because if she knows or remembers they are in the house, all hell breaks loose until one is doled out.  This has come as a shock to us.  We used to be able to bribe her, yes, I am not too proud to admit it,  with promises of yoghurt and raspberries for ‘pudding’ and we still can, provided it is followed by ‘something with sugar’ – Poppy’s words, not mine.  And, because we have to choose our battles, this is one we have given up on.  But, when we can, we make our own marshmallows and that is usually greeted with an expression previously saved for Christmas morning.

Most marshmallow recipes still call for corn syrup which should not be confused with the high fructose stuff, which is corn syrup that has gone through processing to create a sweeter substance that contains more fructose.  Corn syrup is mainly glucose and is also referred to as glucose syrup sometimes.  I still try to avoid it but when your daughter’s favourite thing in the world is full of it, it is tempting to breakdown and use it.  So to keep it out of the house, we experiment. 

In England, for those things we, in Canada, would normally use maple syrup for, there is golden syrup.  I didn’t try this stuff for quite a while after I met Stephen because I just thought it was corn syrup.  Little did I know, that this toasty, slightly caramelly treat is made from sugar.  Golden syrup, also called treacle, is used to make puddings and tarts and on porridge and pancakes in England and, handily for us, can be used as a substitute for corn syrup.   You can find it in some supermarkets here in Canada, usually in a glass jar and every now and then you find it in the famous green and gold tins, the way it comes in England. This is enough to make you want to ban those plastic squeezy bottles of corn syrup from your kitchen in itself.

Now our marshmallows are made with golden syrup and, I was surprised to see, keep their white colour.  But, they have a slightly nutty caramel taste and are a little reminiscent of old fashioned barley sugar candy.  We don’t make them often, and when we do they are quite strictly rationed, usually to supplement our yoghurt and fruit bribes – I like to tell myself that is still the bribe, not the marshmallow. 

Next, we need to try them out over the bonfire and when we need to up the ante, I have decided we’ll go chocolate covered.  Stay tuned...