Making My Own Crunchies

[Jeanied]

Absolutely bloomin' brilliant Ollie!

[zazen999]

So, who is going to be eating all these goodies?

Are they Christmas pressies for family and friends?

[Bren In Pots]

Ollie I'm more impressed with every post, so I've rated my first thread with 5 stars.

[OllieMartin]

So, who is going to be eating all these goodies?

Are they Christmas pressies for family and friends?

Sadly the mould makes 9 bars and I have 9 family members who I'm making up selection boxes for (including various homemade jams, pickles, relishes etc).
Although I may make some more of the most succcessful ones for various people.

Ollie I'm more impressed with every post, so I've rated my first thread with 5 stars.

Yay! A MOM and creator of a 5-star thread; both in the same month!

[zazen999]

I am giving family members jams and chutneys for Christmas; and am supplying the veg for boxing day roastie dinner; so I might invest in another mould or two and expand that to choccies for the family.

[Pumpkin Becki]

Dude!! You are a culinary whizz!! They look absolutely fantastic - am I jealous of your family members who'll be receiving these on Christmas Day? Yes I jolly well am!!!!

[OllieMartin]

Dude!! You are a culinary whizz!! They look absolutely fantastic - am I jealous of your family members who'll be receiving these on Christmas Day? Yes I jolly well am!!!!

Where have you been Numbers? Not seen you on the Vine in a few days.

Missed ya!

[Pumpkin Becki]

Where have you been Numbers? Not seen you on the Vine in a few days.

Missed ya!

Aww, bless, it's nice to be missed! Friday went a bit mental at work (what with the job announcement and everything) and I don't often get weekend 'Vinetime', but I'm back now.

[zazen999]

Aww, bless, it's nice to be missed! Friday went a bit mental at work (what with the job announcement and everything) and I don't often get weekend 'Vinetime', but I'm back now.

Thank heavens - order now returns to the Vine

[Pumpkin Becki]

Thank heavens - order now returns to the Vine

Ooh, I feel ever so important now

[Hilary B]

Got a recipe you might like to adapt to 'bars'.
Banoffee bites. Made 15 the way I did them.
half a tin of Condensed Milk, Caramel
10 digestive biscuits, crushed
about 100gms dried bananas (the ones I used come in pieces about 4cm long, and I cut them into 3 pieces each I ended up needing 30 pieces after cutting)
Chocolate for covering (sorry, didn't measure it)

Warm the condensed milk in a bowl over hot water
Stir in the biscuits and the pieces of banana, allow to cool until manageable.
IT WILL BE STICKY, handle with wet hands!
Divide into fairly even sized pieces, each with 2 pieces of banana, and make into balls (about golfball size worked).
Place on baking parchment, NOT TOUCHING EACH OTHER.
Put in freezer for a couple of hours.
Melt chocolate, take freezing cold 'bites' and dip in chocolate. The cold should set the chocolate quickly.
That's it!
Voted 'delicious' by the people who tried them at the fund-raising sale.
I made some without chocolate, those were coated in more crushed biscuits instead, and just chilled in the fridge. Nearly as popular.

[Scottishnewbie]

Ollie (or anyone that knows!); I've made the crunchie bars for the secnd time using your original recipe and it doenst seem to come out quite right...close, but not close enough.

does anyone know, once you add the bicarbonate of soda, how long you stir for before adding to the moulds?

mine all frothed up but then once it was cool it all shrank back and ended up only half the size. i'm wondering if i need to stir the bicarb for longer (i only stirred it long enough to combine everything and then added it to the moulds)

thanks folks

[OllieMartin]

Ollie (or anyone that knows!); I've made the crunchie bars for the secnd time using your original recipe and it doenst seem to come out quite right...close, but not close enough.

does anyone know, once you add the bicarbonate of soda, how long you stir for before adding to the moulds?

mine all frothed up but then once it was cool it all shrank back and ended up only half the size. i'm wondering if i need to stir the bicarb for longer (i only stirred it long enough to combine everything and then added it to the moulds)

thanks folks

After advice from zazI cooked the syrup/sugar mixture for longer.
It does froth up like crazy and then go back down, but making it in the mould not in a pan resolved my issues with that.
It took 3 different versions and I slightly reduced the amount of syrup as the Mk II versions were more sticky than crunchy.

It's a tad hit and miss until you nail it in your own environment. But that's half the fun!

How many attempts have you had so far?

[Scottishnewbie]

After advice from zazI cooked the syrup/sugar mixture for longer.
It does froth up like crazy and then go back down, but making it in the mould not in a pan resolved my issues with that.
It took 3 different versions and I slightly reduced the amount of syrup as the Mk II versions were more sticky than crunchy.

It's a tad hit and miss until you nail it in your own environment. But that's half the fun!

How many attempts have you had so far?

just the two so far, but of course desperate to try it again tomorrow! Will make it with less syrup and cook for another minute i think. i think its the bit AFTER i add the bicarb that i'm getting wrong.

[OllieMartin]

just the two so far, but of course desperate to try it again tomorrow! Will make it with less syrup and cook for another minute i think. i think its the bit AFTER i add the bicarb that i'm getting wrong.

We want pictures too!