St Paddy's Day Pistachio Candy

Ingredients:               

• 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 3.5oz pkg pistachio pudding mix                            
• 6 oz bag flaked coconut                                                         
• 2T butter or margarine, melted (1 ounce)
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened  
• 2 cups finely chopped pistachios
• 5 ½ -6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 drop leaf green coloring gel (opt)                                                   
• Semisweet and/or White Chocolate chips, melted
• Paramount Crystals
• 1/2 cup Dark Green Confectioners Melts

Preparation:

Pour sweetened condensed milk into a bowl. Heat milk in microwave for 1 minute until warm. Pour pudding mix into milk and stir well.  Return to microwave and heat for 60- 90 seconds, checking after 60 seconds so as not to overcook. Stir again for 2 minutes until the pudding mix is well dissolved. Set aside.

Place coconut in blender and pulse a bit until the coconut is finely chopped. Mix with finely chopped pistachios.

Stir butter and cream cheese into pudding mixture, incorporating well. Add nuts and coconut and mix well.

I added a drop or two of leaf green coloring gel just because it's St Paddy's Day candy, but it's not necessary.

Add confectioners’ sugar, 1 cup at a time until too difficult to stir.  Sprinkle a board generously with confectioners’ sugar and turn the mix onto the board. 

Knead in sugar

until the dough is soft and not sticky.

Using a melon baller, scoop out a heaping teaspoon of dough. Shape into 1 inch balls, then chill in refrigerator until very firm.

When ready to dip in chocolate, melt dark and/or white chocolate .

I used Ghiradelli brand chocolate chips.  I also added some paramount crystals to
thin the chocolate.

 Too thick a layer of dark chocolate will overwhelm the flavor.

When melting white chocolate, melt carefully over hot water in a double boiler.

Do not allow the water the boil as the white chocolate burns easily.

Because this was for St Patrick's Day, I added 5-6 dark green Confectioner's melts at the last
making a pretty soft green.

 Dip chilled balls into melted dark or white chocolate using a fork.

Then carefully slide off the fork onto wax paper or a silicone mat using a small spatula, as shown.
Set aside to cool completely.
To decorate, melt about a 1/3 cup of green confectioner's melts.
Pour into a piping bag and clip just the tip off the bag.
Have fun decorating your candy.
I used stripes on the dark chocolate and swirls on the white chocolate.

Mmmmmmm -Chocolate on the outside,
gentle flavors of pistachio and coconut on the inside!

With this candy, there's plenty of Green on hand for St Paddy's Day!

 

May you have:
A world of wishes at your command.
God and his angels close to hand.
Friends and family their love impart,
and Irish blessings in your heart!

************************************

Recipe, Tutorial and Photography by Jacque Benson 2011
All Rights Reserved.
Please note
This material may not be reproduced without permission from the author.

Black Cherry Fudge

This recipe begin as an experiment. 

Having found fresh black cherry juice at the market, I began to search for

recipes including it as an ingredient. I found very few.  

But the taste of the juice was so good, I just had to try to use it in a recipe,

 especially with Valentine's Day on the calendar! 

 I started by working with my old tried and true "Never Fail" fudge recipe and adjusted the ingredients.  While mixing the cherry and evaporated milk, the color turned a disappointing light brown, so I added red powdered food color. You can also use red liquid color until you reach a pink color.  The color, while cooking,  turned a very deep red; but by the time the other ingredients were added, it became a pleasant shade of pink. 

The end result was a creamy, sweet fudge with a nice blend of tartness from the dried cherries. After tasting the mixture while cooking, I opted for the almond extract. I highly recommend using it to flavor the fudge. It really compliments the cherries.

 Try it and let me know what you think!

Black Cherry Fudge

Ingredients

1/4 cup Black Cherry Juice 

Evaporated Canned Milk

1-1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

2 Tablespoons Butter 

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Red powdered Food Coloring

1/2 tsp Vanilla or Almond Extract

1-1/2 cups (9 oz) White Chocolate chips

2 cups (4 oz) Mini-Marshmallows

3/4 cup Dried Cherries

1/2 cup Slivered Blanched Almonds

Instructions:

Begin by preparing an 8x8" pan by generously rubbing the bottom and sides with butter.

Chop cherries into fine pieces. 

Mix together with slivered almonds in a small bowl; Set aside.

In a measuring cup, pour cherry juice to measure 1/4 cup. 

Add evaporated canned milk to the cherry juice to measure 2/3 cup. 

Stir in food color.

Pour into a 2 quart saucepan. 

Add butter,sugar and salt; stirring continuously

 over medium heat until mixture starts to boil.

When the mixture begins to boil, stir constantly for 6-8 minutes.

Remove from heat and quickly stir in vanilla or almond extract, mini-marshmallows,

 and white chocolate chips until completely melted. Stir in cherries and almonds.

Pour into  prepared pan, and allow to cool completely.

Cut into squares and enjoy!

Recipe and Photos by Jacque Benson

2012 all rights reserved