Crites Family Stuff

Description

Mattson made these cookies for the 2013 Farmer Cookie Exchange.

Ingredients for 24 servings

• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• .5 cup water
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tsp vanilla
• .125 tsp salt
• 1 pkg or sleeve of graham crackers, crushed
• 1.5 cups dark chocolate chips

Steps

1. Line a baking dish with parchment paper, extending over edges of pan. Set pan aside.
2. In a heavy 2-quart saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch. Add the corn syrup and water, mix well. Cook over medium-high, heat to boiling, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to dissolve sugar. This should take 5-7 minutes. Avoid splashing mixture on sides of pan. Carefully clip candy thermometer to side of pan.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thermometer registers 286 degrees F, soft-crack stage. Mixture should boil at a moderate, steady rate over entire surface. Reaching soft-crack stage should take about 20-25 minutes.
4. Remove saucepan from heat. Remove candy thermometer. In a large mixing bowl, immediately beat egg whites with a sturdy freestanding electric mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).
5. Gradually pour hot mixture in a thin stream (slightly less than 1/8-inch diameter) over egg whites, beating with the electric mixer on high speed and scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. This should take about 3 minutes. (Add mixture slowly to ensure proper blending.)
6. Add vanilla and salt. Continue beating with the electric mixer on high speed, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally, until candy becomes very thick and less glossy. When beaters are lifted, mixture should fall in a ribbon, but mound on itself, then slowly disappear into the remaining mixture. Final beating should take about 5-6 minutes.
7. Immediately stir in chocolate and graham crackers. Stir enough to slightly marble chocolate. Quickly turn nougat mixture into the prepared pan. Top with more parchment paper and use it to flatten out the nougat in the pan. When candy is firm, use the paper to lift it our of pan. Cut candy into pieces. Wrap each piece in clear plastic wrap. Store tightly covered.
8. This is a lot like divinity with the sugar cooked harder. Also good with nuts, toffee, freeze dried fruit, etc. instead of the chocolate and cookies. I also use different liqueurs sometimes instead of the vanilla.

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