Candied Buddha's Hand

[ysabetwordsmith]

I have chopped up the Buddha's hand to candy it, less the two fingers from the previous cookie batch and two reserved for another later.  I don't have enough butter left to make more shortbread today, drat it.  The ones I froze to test thawed out with no discernible change in taste or texture, so that's a win.  Anyhow, I wound up with about 2 2/3 cups of chunks, which are now simmering.  They need to blanch until tender.  Then I'll drain that water and mix up roughly equal portions of water, sugar, and Buddha's hand, which will need to cook for a while.

So much oil poured off this thing that my fingers stuck together and the whole dining room reeks of it.  :D  The stuff smells like heaven, I keep looking around to see if there's a crack in reality.  Handling it just makes me happy.  The scent is so uplifting.

EDIT 1/10/17: After simmering for 20-30 minutes, the chunks are now tender.  Some recipes say to use the same water, some say to throw it out and add fresh.  I tasted it, and there's a bitter note in the water that wasn't so noticeable in the fruit itself.  So I poured out that water, put in 2 2/3 cup fresh, and 2 2/3 cup sugar.  Back on the heat to simmer a while.

EDIT: The sugar syrup hasn't cooked down much, even after I added another 2/3 cups sugar.  But the chunks are completely soft and translucent, starting to stick together.  I've moved the pot off the heat and will later bail out the candy to dry.

EDIT: I have successfully bailed out the chunks from the syrup.  They are supposed to dry for 24 hours, before rolling in sugar.  If there are any left  by then.  Right now, I have a tray full of delicious, sunshine-flavored gummies, and I love gummy candy.  O.O  I also have a tub full of approximately 2 cups of Buddha's hand syrup.  The first taste is pure sugar, but then the bittertart notes hit.  :D 3q3q3q!!!  What can you do with simple syrup?  Make soda.  Make sorbet.  Pour it over fruit salad.  Possibly there is some way to mix in gelatin to make jello. There's a kind of very thin crispy miniature waffle that this would probably be good poured over too.  Since Trevor is coming down this weekend and he makes handcrafted sodas, I plan to share this and see what he can do with it.

That was $9.99 very well spent.

Comments

[sperrywink]

Wow, you are getting a lot out of that buddha's hand! Gummy candy is good.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

So far I have kept myself to one piece when I check on it.

[gingicat]

When you say a large hand, how large are you talking about? I can find out how much She Who Cooks usually pays for them.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It was about the size of my two hands cupped together. Apparently they can get rather larger, which I have not seen, but there were much smaller ones barely the size of my closed fist.

Re: Well ...

[gingicat]

Somewhere I have a photo of Lego minifigs in a forest of yellow tentacles.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

LOL that sounds awesome.

[redsixwing]

Yummmm.

That sounds delicious, both in candied-fruit and syrup forms.

You probably could use it to flavor gelatin. Might be good to use an unsweetened gelatin mix for that. I like fruit syrups in sweet oatmeal or rice porridge, too.

[caera_ash]

You can put the syrup on layer cakes before frosting for moisture. Oooh, that would probably taste really good actually. Simple yellow cake, really basic whipped cream frosting, garnish with the candies...I need to figure out where I can buy Buddha's hand now.

Hmm ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Now I am thinking of all the Indian syrup-soaked desserts such as gulab jamun on several varieties of cookies. *drool* *slobber*

[erulisse]

.....tea. Simple syrup is often used to sweeten iced tea. It's also used in some mixed drinks

Eta: green tea would probably be really good that way

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I hit on putting it in chamomile last night. Soooooo good. :D

Re: Yes ...

[erulisse]

That sounds amazeballs - chamomile takes citrus really well

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yep. :D I tried it in green tea this morning, also excellent. Even though it's sweet, it acts a lot like bittersharp apples in cider.

...

I am now imagining throwing a Buddha's hand into a cider press. *drool* *slobber*