Candy & Confectionery Recipes > Peppermint Humbugs

How to make peppermint humbugs:
An old fashioned English sweet. These are not the stripy black and white humbugs but are a simpler boiled peppermint candy.
See Cooking with Sugar for information on the tricky process of boiling sugar.



Ingredients

5 cups Demerara sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 pint water
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
few drops oil of peppermint
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method

- Put all the ingredients except the peppermint oil into a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to the boil.
- Do not stir.
- Boil rapidly for a few minutes with the lid on.
- Using a sugar thermometer, check when 290 degrees F (see temperature conversions) is reached.
- Remove carefully from the heat and pour onto a well oiled marble slab.
- Allow to cool for a few minutes and pour half a teaspoon of oil of peppermint onto the toffee.
- With oiled hands fold the toffee, when it is cool enough to handle, pulling the sides into the centre.
- Pull the toffee with hands for a few minutes and then shape into a long roll and cut off sweet sized pieces with a pair of scissors.
- When cold, wrap individual toffees in grease-proof paper.


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Land For Food Production

Sat May 15, 2010 9:18 pm // 8 comments // granny_nuts


I wonder just how much land it would take to feed a family of, say, 4? I know that if my family didn't buy fruit and veg we wouldn't have enough to eat but is self sufficiency down to amount of land or method of growing? Last year I overcrowded my small veg plot with counter-productive results like mildew and snail infestation that went unnoticed until we came to pick the tomatoes (all holes!). I wonder if anyone has ever been totally self providing or whether the local market and barter played...