This is the year!

Every year, about this time, I get this serious yen to make Graham Cracker Candy. Well, to eat it actually, but I've been stuck on this first step for year and years now. Every year I get this craving, and I get to thinking about how all the people in my life have never experienced the joy of Graham Cracker Candy, and so I should make some to share with every person I know... Every year, something horrible happens to the recipe, and I end up with a thick syrup with soggy cracker crumbs floating in it. That is, I say that like it is bad- I usually eat this syrup with a spoon until Matt gets so overwhelmed by my bad eating habits he throws is entire gloppy mess away, even though it is stuck amorphously to wax paper. Frankly, eating poorly made graham cracker candy is the nouveau tradition at our house.

Some of you may have been on the receiving end of my tragic email last year about the gooey failure that was "fat-free evaporated milk candy." Nana gently clued me in that candy should be made with fat, and magnanimously sent me a candy thermometer, in case I was ever inclined to butcher the family recipe again.

This year, I got to thinking again about Graham Cracker Candy, and I decided this would be a great gift for a friend of mine, and then I decided I absoloutly can't get through another holiday season without some proper Graham Cracker Candy for myself. This is the trifecta of candy failure- desire for candy, desire to gift candy, and inability to make candy. True to tradition, I got all the ingredients (not all the right ones, I used pecans this year), and in the midst of a lot of other distractions, set to making it.

Picture me in my kitchen, focused on grinding nuts and measuring sugar like I am making TNT, and Matt keeps wandering through the kitchen. At first he tried to help, then he tried to help clean up, and finally he just got on to some other things- namely permethrin treating our clothes to fend off malaria in Belize on the back porch, and then trying to un-treat his hands. I've got TWO candy thermometers going in my pot of boiling sugar, and I am mentally noting every slight change in the bubbling sugar, and completely blocking him out. "Hmm...? What was that about poison control?" I was expecting this to fail, so I started to get stressed when I mixed with graham crackers in and the mixture got really stiff! Like, hard to stir! And then I mashed it all into a shallow pan and gave it a good squish to make it all stick.... and I think it worked! For the first time EVER, it came out crumbly, not gooey!

I cannot recommend a candy thermometer enough. It's the best substitute for actual confectioner skills money can buy. Either classic analog or new fancy digital- as I mentioned, I used both.

I'm including the recipe here, both for posterity and also to include my own incredibly helpful notes- in italics.

Graham Cracker Candy
I always make a 1.5X batch because I don't know what I'd do with a half can of evaporated milk. Suggestions welcome.

In a VERY large stockpot (trust me, you'll thank me later), combine:
2 c sugar
1 c evaporated milk
1/4 t salt
Turn your burner on HIGH and boil this to soft ball stage, or 235F.
As this passes ~180F, it will quadruple in size and the temp can rise quickly. You are trying to drop the liquid content of the sugar, from 220 to 235 will be much slower. The total volume will shrink to nearly half the peak.
Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Add in 1 T butter
1 t vanilla
3 c (2 packages) graham cracker crumbs
1 c chopped walnuts (apparently pecans work too)
3 c mini-marshmallows or 24 large

Stir well. Use wax paper to Pat into a a shallow pan and "store in the icebox over night" or your non-insulated pantry for 20 min. or as long as you think you can wait. Cut into indulgent little squares and share with everyone.

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As hinted at, Matt and I leave Friday for Belize. It is TWELVE stupid degrees here right now, so I am really looking forward to some Caribbean sunshine, even if it puts us at a slight risk for contracting malaria. That's why Matt was spraying insecticides on our back porch! I was just realizing that this is going to be the longest vacation we've had since we've come here (11 days!), and just in the nick of time, too. Now that the semester is over and I don't have adrenaline to keep me up all night, I can hardly stay away until 10pm. Yes, time for some time off.