Candy Corn

katii's Note:

Easily make your own Halloween treats this year! These tasty traditional sweets are surprisingly simple to construct.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 30-40

Yield: 1.5 pounds ...

• 4 cups packed miniature marshmallows
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• yellow food coloring
• red food coloring

Directions:

1. Place the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl.
2. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded.
3. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth; if some marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30-45 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is entirely smooth.
4. Add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with a spatula.
5. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.
6. Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto an icing-sugar dusted work surface (it will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet--this is normal).
7. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.
8. Continue to knead the fondant until it smoothes out and loses its stickiness; add more sugar if necessary, but stop adding sugar once it is smooth--too much sugar will make it stiff and difficult to work with.
9. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, divide it evenly into three balls; set one ball aside, this will be the white portion of your candy corn.
10. Take one of the remaining fondant balls and flatten it into a round disc.
11. Add 4-5 drops of yellow food coloring to the center of the disc, and fold the disc over on itself so that the color is enclosed in the center of the fondant ball.
12. Begin to knead the ball of fondant just like you did before.
13. Continue to knead until the streaks are gone and the fondant is a uniform yellow color.
14. Repeat the process with the third small ball, adding orange coloring (or a combination of red and yellow to produce orange) so that you end up with three smooth fondant balls, in white, yellow, and orange.
15. On your powdered sugar-coated workstation, begin to roll the yellow fondant ball into a long worm shape, using your palms to roll it into a very long, thin cylinder.
16. The exact size will depend on your preference for the size of your candy corn, but I recommend keeping it around 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch thick (try to keep it the same size along the length of the fondant strip, but some minor variation is fine).
17. Once the yellow worm is rolled out, repeat the process with the orange and the white strips, placing them next to each other when completed.
18. If your fondant is slightly sticky, you should be able to press the strips together to create one unified fondant strip with three colors (if they are well-dusted with powdered sugar, they might not stick, if this is the case, you can wet a pastry brush and lightly run it along the sides of the strips, and the water will cause them to fuse together).
19. Use a large, sharp knife to cut triangles out of the fondant strip.
20. Repeat the cutting the process until all of the rope has been turnedd into little corn kernels.
21. Enjoy!