Candy Dish Blog

Here we go, completing the trifecta of Derby Day desserts with one named after the official drink of my Derby festivities. The mint julep is a delightful, refreshing drink that is a tradition for the Kentucky Derby and this dessert, provided to us by 3 Musketeers, is sure to be a hit.

My own suggestion for this recipe is that you not go buy the $50 bottle of Bourbon for this. In cooking with wines, I have noticed that the subtleties of nice wines are lost in the cooking process, so a less expensive bottle is often just as good, still offering the the same richness. Leave the Maker’s Mark on the shelf for when you make the juleps. For cooking, go with a $15 bottle of Bourbon.

What you need:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup long-grain white rice
• 3 1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 fun size Three Musketeers Mint Dark Chocolate Bars, chopped
• 3 tablespoons Kentucky Bourbon
• Fresh mint sprigs, optional

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Evenly coat a 3 quart baking dish with the softened butter and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the rice, milk, cream, sugar, and salt. Spoon the rice mixture into the prepared dish. Cover tightly with a well-fitting lid or aluminum foil.
4. Bake at 325°F for 2 hours or until mixture begins to thicken, stirring every 30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and remove cover. Add eggs, chopped chocolate bars, and bourbon; stir gently until incorporated. Return dish to oven and bake an additional 15 minutes or until thickened to desired consistency.
6. Cool 5 minutes or colder depending on desired temperature and serve. Garnish with fresh mint sprigs if desired.

For a more subtle bourbon flavor, use 2 tablespoons instead of 3. Whole milk is a good substitute for 2% milk in this recipe.

Mint Juleps by rcrowley.

Regular readers of the blog will note that I jumped the gun on this post last week by announcing the contest too soon.  This time, I mean it.  You can really win a prize now!

********************************

As Carl mentioned last week, NCA moved to new office space in Washington, DC a few weeks ago.  To celebrate our arrival, we’re hosting an Open House for some industry contacts this afternoon.  We may be celebrating as you read this post in fact.

We’re very excited about the fun, new decor we have in place.  Take a look:

This is the sign hanging in our lobby. Welcome to the new office!

This is the candy dish art that hangs in the hall of the offices of the Candy Dish Blog.

This is the Candy Store, otherwise known as the room where we store all the goodies!

Anytime you visit the NCA office, you leave with candy.  It’s a rule. Tonight’s party is no exception.  Everyone is getting this fabulous take away gift that Kristin, our intern extraordinaire, assembled.

Kristin did a beautiful job with the gift bags!

And Kristin is sharing the love (she’s so considerate like that).  She made three extra bags for readers of the Candy Dish blog. Gosh, you all are one lucky bunch!  She even picked a pretty simple contest to help us choose the winner.

This is the desk where Kristin sits:

Don’t you love those cylinders full of candy?  Take a close look at this one:

To win the prize, guess how many chocolates are in the cylinder.  That’s it.  Guess a number, without going over - the three closest guesses will win.   The cylinder is 18 inches high with a diameter of 6 inches (looks a lot smaller in the picture, doesn’t it?).

Enter your guess in the comments section by Monday, May 3.  Good luck!

Another recipe to help you prepare for your Derby Day festivities. Many thanks to 3 Musketeers for putting recipes on their site.

What you need:

• 8 fun size Three Musketeers Mint Dark Chocolate Bars
• 1 tablespoon whipping cream
• 1 (9-inch) pie shell frozen sheets or pre-baked frozen (needs to be thawed)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons Kentucky Bourbon
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
• 2/3 cup chopped Dove Rich Dark Chocolate

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine chocolate bars and cream in the top of a double boiler over low heat. Cook until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth, stirring frequently. Spoon the chocolate mixture into the pie shell and spread to cover the bottom. Chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or until set.
3. Place the butter, bourbon, and eggs in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until well combined. Combine the sugar and flour in a separate bowl; with the mixer running, gradually add sugar mixture to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in pecans and chopped chocolate. Spoon filling over chilled chocolate layer in prepared pie shell.
4. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until set. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Cool to desired temperature (Some people like it warm, some at room temperature)

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

The good folks over at 3 Musketeers provide us with some great recipes to help us get ready for the Kentucky Derby. Put on your big hat if you are a lady and your seersucker suit if you are a gent and forget that notion that it’s just about mint juleps. Here is a nice trifle to enjoy as the fillies and geldings round the track.

What you need:

• 1 1.8 lb. package Fudge brownies
• 2 3.8 oz. packages instant chocolate pudding or chocolate mousse
• 8 fun size Three Musketeers Mint Dark Chocolate Bars
• 1 tablespoon whipping cream
• 8 ounces Lady Finger cookies (about 10 cookies), chopped, divided
• 16 ounces thawed frozen whipped topping such as Cool Whip, divided

What to do:

1. Prepare brownies according to package directions and cool completely. Cut into 1-inch squares and set aside.
2. Prepare chocolate pudding or mousse according to package directions and set aside in refrigerator.
3. Combine chocolate bars and cream in a double boiler over low heat. Cook until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
4. Place half of the brownie pieces in the bottom of a deep glass bowl or trifle bowl. Spoon half of the chilled pudding over brownies and spread to coat completely. Sprinkle 1/3 of the chopped ladyfingers over pudding. Drizzle half of the warm chocolate-cream mixture over the ladyfingers. Dollop with 1/2 of whipped topping (about 3 cups). Repeat layers 1 time, ending with whipped topping. Sprinkle final layer of topping with the remaining chopped ladyfingers.
5. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Race Horses by banamine.

One thing that I’ve noticed during the ridiculous amount of time I’ve spent reading wedding blogs during the past year is how much brides LOVE candy.  There are countless ways to introduce candy into your wedding it seems – favors, out of town bags, candy buffets, centerpieces, cake decor and the list goes on.

I happen to love all the personalized stuff.  It’s hard to think of a sweeter and more appropriate candy to use at wedding than the classic Hershey Kiss.  You can special order the Kisses through the Hershey Gift Web site with custom flags.  They can either say “Just Married” OR you can have your name and wedding date (or whatever) printed on them.

Hershey Kiss images from www.HersheyGifts.com

There are also wedding favor sites where you can order Hershey Kiss favors that have little stickers on the bottom with your name and wedding date (I’ve even seen blank stickers that you can print yourself at Michael’s).  Also, since there are so many varieties of Kisses these days, it’s easy to get them in different color foils to match your wedding.  I love the dark purple foil used to wrap the dark chocolate Kisses.

As for me, I’m a traditionalist.  We’re going the candy buffet route (big surprise, huh?) which will feature, among about a dozen different types of candy, a jar of classic, silver Hershey Kisses.  It’s hard to mess with perfection.

But not until next week.  Sorry folks. 

If you subscribe to our e-mails, you got an alert about this contest today (April 24).  That’s because I am an idiot and hit publish when I had no intention of actually publishing the post.  I hadn’t even spelled checked it or put the images in for goodness sake!  As luck would have it, our daily e-mail went out in the EXACT moment I mistakenly published the darn thing.  What are the odds? 

Anyway, check back next week when we ACTUALLY will have a contest for you.

And in the meantime, I’m hoping Carl won’t take away my access to the publish button.

When we moved offices recently, we rediscovered some things we had forgotten about. One of these was this painting of rabbits eating, which was modified about seven years ago by Linda, our Goddess of Finance. Okay, so maybe she isn’t a goddess, but she is in charge of the payroll, so I have to stay on her good side. She is about as nice a person as you could hope to meet, though, and that’s not just sucking up.

Linda hot-glued candy to the leaves of cabbage the rabbits were eating. She did such a good job that you can actually see, if you look closely, where she took a bite from a Necco Wafer and put it next to one of the rabbits’ mouths.

What’s funny to me is that the Goetze’s Caramel Cream on the painting appears to have lost about one third of its original size. I am sure it would be just as tasty as new if I pried it off, but likely petrified, having been air-dried for quite some time. All the same, it’s probably good that my friend Paul is in Alaska, or that thing might be in mortal danger!

The painting is now in our kitchen, which is an appropriate place for it, and I get to dine every day not only with my wonderful coworkers, but also with the rabbits, who don’t chew nearly as loudly as you might guess.