Sunflower Seed Butter Fudge

If you can eat peanuts, this also works with peanuts - use one that is peanut only, with no added oils or sugars.

Sunflower Seed Butter Fudge
2 cups organic sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 T coconut oil + additional for greasing pan
3 T inverted sugar syrup*
1 cup sunflower seed butter (I use SunButter Organic - it has no added ingredients)

Grease a pie plate with coconut oil.  Add everything to a heavy saucepan and cook on medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it boils.  Lower heat to medium and continue cooking, still stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add in sunflower seed butter, mixing thoroughly.  Pour into the greased pie plate and let cool for about 20 minutes.  Cut into pieces and put into the refrigerator (still in the pie plate) to cool completely and firm up.

*If corn is not a problem for you, corn syrup can be substituted.  Otherwise use inverted sugar syrup.  I use the recipe found here, with regular organic sugar in place of the extra fine.

Candied Ginger

Wouldn't you know it!  I was all geared up for corn syrup free candy making this Christmas .... and after no rain since September, it's been raining.  And the humidity is up too high - I proved it to myself with a disastrous batch of Seafoam.  However, these candied gingers turned out great!  And you end up with quite a bit of ginger syrup that makes a great ginger ale (mixed with seltzer water).  It's also yummy over ice cream and I'm thinking it'd work really well in some baked goods recipes I have in mind.

There are several things that will make this turn out really good - find the freshest ginger you can (Asian markets are often a good place to start), cut the ginger as thin as you can and in very small pieces (much smaller than the ones in the photo), and look at the grain in your ginger.  Yes, ginger has a grain that can be tough to cut across.  I cut my larger pieces against the grain and then made my small slices with the grain - much easier.  This is very hot at first, but it mellows after a few days in an airtight container.

Candied Ginger
1 cup peeled fresh ginger cut into very thin, small pieces
3 cups organic sugar
3 cups water
about 1/2 cup organic sugar

In a non-reactive pan, combine the water and raw sugar and heat over medium heat until dissolved.  Add ginger.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 - 50 minutes - until the ginger is tender.  Spread the white sugar over the bottom of a cake pan or pie plate.  Strain out the ginger and add to the additional sugar, stirring to coat and separate the pieces.  Leave out on the counter until dry and hard.  Separate the pieces and store in an airtight container.

Manglets

Oh my goodness, these are good!  I probably did not need to figure out how to make these!  I'll have to limit myself to only making them at Christmas.  These are a fruit jelly candy that is very much like the Applets and Cotlets I used to love eating - these are made of mangoes, so I'm calling them "Manglets."  They could be made with any type of fruit sauce.

Manglets - makes about 72 squares
1 1/4 cup mango sauce (I boil Trader Joe's frozen mango cubes with a little water for about 20 minutes then run it through the blender)
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 cups organic sugar
2 tsp. homemade vanilla
*optional 1 cup chopped nuts
Corn free powdered sugar

1.  Put 1/2 cup of the mango sauce in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it.  Mix thoroughly and let sit for about 10 minutes.
2.  Add the rest of the mango sauce and the sugar to a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add the mango/gelatin mixture and boil for 15 minutes - keep stirring it.  Take off the burner and add the vanilla and optional nuts.
3.  Grease an oblong glass baking dish (about 11 x 7) and pour in the mixture.
4.  Cover.  Let it sit for a day.  Cut into squares, cover with powdered sugar, and store in a covered container with waxed paper in between the layers.