I almost forgot to post about the July Daring Bakers challenge.
Candy!
We had to make 2 different kinds of candy and one of them had to be a tempered chocolate. I knew right off the bat I wanted to try out one of my many chocolate molds, at some point I think I went on a shopping spree and now have about 15-20 molds of varying shapes and sizes. For this challenge I went pretty simple.
I brushed the mold with a little Aztec Gold luster dust (leftover from my wedding cake making days) and tempered some 72% bittersweet chocolate for the shells.
I made the Salted Caramel Ganache filling by caramelizing some sugar, then added enough cream and a hefty pinch of sea salt to pour over the chopped chocolate. I admit I didn’t really measure this part out and mostly eyeballed the proportions. I must have done something right because when I took the truffles into work they got compared to crack. I’m assuming that is good 
For my second candy I decided to go with something simple since Seattle was finally experiencing a bit of summer.
Ginger Marshmallows.
I grated up some fresh ginger and steeped it in hot water till room temp before finally straining it and using the liquid to soften the gelatin. I wanted the fresh ginger flavor rather than a cooked one so I didn’t use any ginger to flavor the sugar syrup. While the flavor was subtle (I was afraid of going overboard with ginger so I was conservative in the amount I used) it was definitely a nice undertone. I can see making ginger marshmallows again and can imagine that small intense pieces dipped in dark chocolate might be amazing.
So…. what are you bringing when you visit?? *grin*