My Latest Hobby

[Brewtrog]

Sweet making. I'd messed about with making some sweets a few years back when I was at Uni, but nothing more than really simple hard crack sugar. My mum came home last week with a confectionery book that cost her £1, since then I've made butterscotch, fondant, some crazy poppyseed thing (polish poppyseed stuff), failed at making sugared almonds (actually the recipes fault), bought dipping forks and am now on the hunt for a marble slab. Why do I always end up with hobbies that need things other than myself? Generally fairly expensive and not very common items at that.

[ina]

And not exactly very healthy, either!

Mmmh, I love poppyseeds, though...

[Green Aura]

I used to use an old wash stand top. There's a good reclamation yard in Lymm that might have something like that. You're right about not being cheap though.

Making sweets doesn't have to be expensive though. When we were at uni we made sweets for christmas presents - turkish delight, truffles, caramels etc. They were quite well received too.

[Brewtrog]

Sadly not at all healthy ina.
Cheers for the idea GA, I didn't know there was a reclamation yard in Lymm, not the sort of place I've ever really had to look out for in the past.
I know that the actual sweet making itself isn't expensive, same as making country wines isn't. It's the kit that puts the pounds on (well and the calories ). So saying I did manage to get a set of 10 dipping forks for under £4 off ebay, now just the waiting game till they turn up.

[ojay54]

Re the lump of marble,.have a look at the pizza slab you sling in a standard oven.Mine was a present,so I don't know how much or where from,but knowing whom it came from,probably not much! Suspect Lakeland,or similar.

[MKG]

... or find some kitchen fitters. They sometimes use marble/granite/whatever work surfaces. There are bound to be offcuts.

I've just discovered that "fit*ed k*tchens" is a pornographic phrase according to our autospam remover.

[Green Aura]

... or find some kitchen fitters. They sometimes use marble/granite/whatever work surfaces. There are bound to be offcuts.

I've just discovered that "fit*ed k*tchens" is a pornographic phrase according to our autospam remover.

That's from the days when we were spammed constantly by kitchen fitters, many of whom were in China!

[diggernotdreamer]

As a complete Ebay whore, I had a quick look, there are quite a few bits of marble offcuts for sale

[ina]

Just remembered - I recently made some not-so sweets which I loved so much that I decided not to make them for some time... Just in case you are looking for something for somebody who's diabetic, or doesn't want to become so! I love the combination of coconut and chocolate, but the stuff you can buy is always mostly sugar. So I mixed dark chocolate and creamed coconut and added desiccated coconut for good measure. I have to fiddle with the amounts a bit, but it tasted fantastic... (First try was 100g each of creamed coconut and 80% chocolate plus 50g desiccated coconut, melted together. It was a bit hard; might add some rum next time to soften it and add flavour, or replace some of the creamed coconut with butter to make it creamier.)