Today is National Hard Candy Day!

Today is National Hard Candy Day, and I am currently celebrating with a yummy, sticky candy cane! I love hard candy, and there are so many great varieties in the stores at this time of the year...I really love the "old school" kinds of hard candy.

(image from www.www.springhillapts.com)

I would love to make hard candy myself, and found this great video on how hard candy is made:



I guess will let the experts create hard candy so I can make these lovely, peppermint-y sweet and icy creations! This recipe was found on www.Epicurious.com.

(image from www.Epicurious.com, photo by: Romulo Yanes)

Chocolate and Peppermint Candy Ice Cream Sandwiches
Gourmet December 2006

Ingredients:

1 pint superpremium vanilla ice cream, softened slightly
1/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
1 cup finely crushed peppermint hard candies (1/4 lb)
16 chocolate wafers such as Nabisco Famous

Special equipment: a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop

Preparation:

Stir together ice cream (reserve pint container), extract, and 1/2 cup crushed candy in a bowl until combined.

Transfer mixture to pint container and freeze until just firm enough to scoop, about 1 hour.

Working very quickly, scoop ice cream onto flat sides of 8 wafers (1 scoop per wafer), then top with remaining 8 wafers, flat sides down. Wrap each sandwich individually with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, about 1 hour. Unwrap sandwiches and roll edges in remaining 1/2 cup crushed candy. Rewrap and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

Cooks' note:
Ice cream sandwiches keep 3 days.



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