Day 11: Cirque de Soleil, Meteorologist, and Wine - It Must be Divinity

Clear blue sky this morning and low humidity - it must be THE day to make divinity. Horror stories abound about Divinity and I hope that most of them are exaggerated folklore. My Grandma Duncan said, "Never make Divinity on a cloudy day." My mom told me, "Good luck, I have never been able to make it." Yikes.......I may be in trouble because my mom is a great cook and makes great pastries and candies. I loved Christmas growing up since we had all kinds of neat to eat treats at our house. But just to be sure I ran to the window one more time - yup - still no clouds.....must be good to go.

The deal with this recipe is that there are not many ingredients; however, it requires the same amount of precision timing as the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. Ooorah!!! Sugar, corn syrup, water in a pan on the stove. Stir once to dissolve the sugar and DON'T stir again until the temperature reaches 250 degrees. The recipe was very specific...don't stir - I didn't. While the sugar concoctions were turning into molten lava. I need to beat 3 egg white to stiff peaks. Egg whites beating on the counter.....lava boiling on the stove. I move between the two like a frantic animal trying to gnaw through a trap. 220, 225, 230, 240.....244....holding.........246.....eggs white stiff and I am trying not to breathe on them lest they fall. Finally 250.......pull off the heat and pour slowly into the egg whites while whipping them on high. Does this make sense to anyone - take a chance to fling hot syrup on yourself with a mixer on high?!?!?! It is a point to ponder.

So with the grace of a cirque de soleil performer....I pure a slow steady stream of the syrup into the egg white and this is when panic set in......the recipe clearly did not say that the volume of the egg whites would increase ten fold. The stuff just kept growing and I thought for sure that it was going to overflow, but it stopped short of the tip top. Suppose to whip until the "shine" is gone. Hhhmmmm.....what the hell does that mean......I guess it was shiny, but it wasn't shiny like blinding shiny - I would saw that it was more glistening. The recipe said about 5 minutes. I was not convinced that the shine was gone so I went for 2 more minutes. Add in pecans and the fun begins.

Two spoons are required and I think I should have used teaspoons, but I used tablespoons. Use one spoon to scoop up the mixture and use the other spoon to push the mixture on to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. They are suppose to look like a soft swirl of ice cream. At this point I do begin to laugh and as you can tell by the photo that I posted mine look more like either white octopus or white Rorschach blobs. I am convenience the "soft swirl ice cream" look must come from years of practice and should not be tried by a novice like me. I was a sticky, gunky mess when I was done with trays on every flat surface of my kitchen. Hhhmmm - not sure that this will work, but the recipe reads - let them cool completely. After 2 hours, the blobs were only a little less sticky so I decided to put the trays into the fridge. They are on every level of the fridge in the kitchen and in the fridge in the garage. After 2 more hours, I could finally peel one off.

I think it tastes right, but I made the mistake of laying it down on the counter for minute and the dang thing stuck right to the counter.....I mean immediately stuck to the counter. Blob peeled off and in the words of my daughter Gray, "It's like eating really sweet laffy taffy." Mason tried to eat one, but in his words, "I could only get a small piece to lift off the paper." Not really good reviews from the major food consumers at my house. To eat my finished product will probably require spoons which is clearly not listed in the recipe.

When a recipe requires you to know be a meteorologist - it should be a huge red flag. There is an old wives tale for sailors: "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning; Red sky at night, sailors delight."

Here is mine for Divinity; "Clear sky in the morning; divinity makers should be pouring......a red glass of wine while ordering (it online); Red sky at night, still drinking-now that's a delight!!!"