Delicious Recipes To Help You Cut Back On Dairy #Tasty Food

I don't think of myself as a woman

making confectionery I just like to

think of myself as making the best Solar

toffee in the country it's kind of like

in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

you know when she first bites into the

truffle you know each flavor is very

layered and really delivers a pretty

complex experience and that really is a

lot of fun for me in Chinese culture if

you ever go to a funeral they always

have some sort of candy usually like a

hard candy and the idea is that it takes

away some of the bitterness of life I

like that idea of let yourself indulge

and in these little relief of reality if

you're gonna indulge in something

indulge in the best thing that you could

possibly get when I was little I was

obsessed with candy all the time like I

used to go to the craft store and right

next to the cake decorating aisle

there's the candy making aisle and when

I found out that like humans actually

made candy I like freaked out and I

started making stuff as soon as I could

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whenever I thought of solar Kathy I

always remembered it being like

artificially flavored and just way too

sweet no one was doing a higher-end

version of the candy I started playing

around with it I just added really good

ingredients to flavor the candy and it

tasted really different than the

saltwater taffy that I had remembered

making solar taffies super tactile

especially because the way that we make

it each recipe is unique to be able to

get the whole product cooled we cooled

it on top of each other so that it will

be the same temperature throughout its

super Goldilocks style like you just

have to be familiar with each recipe and

you know what it should be like and then

we wait until it reads about like 98

degrees and then we're able to pull the

taffy on the taffy puller

it can be very meditative

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so the whole idea of what the taffy

puller is doing is it Airy it's pushing

air into the product you know I used to

pull the taffy by hands back in the day

I had seven pound batches which doesn't

really sound like a lot but after about

15 minutes of pulling by hand it was

exhausting

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that's when I bought Rosie from a carnie

somewhere I can't remember where I heard

he was but he was funny we do our best

and because we do something that is so

small-batch there are little sort of

variances all in all I think it's sort

of worth it just because it's such a

special product most saltwater taffy

places they'll make one white batch or a

plain batch and then they'll flavor it

with artificial colors and flavors

what makes salty roads so different is

that we use real ingredients to flavor

the candy so real vanilla bean is real

fruit purees ground spices and we use

large green sea salt so it's sort of a

signature crunch it also brings out the

natural flavorings that we use and it

balances the sweetness when I'm coming

up with ideas I want to try to figure

something out that's accessible but also

offbeat and super tasty so for some

mores the baked flavor is really

difficult unless you're going to use

artificial flavors cookie butter and was

sort of this like workaround that we

were able to have that flavor came

through with taffy it's a weird medium

because we have to cook it to such a

high temperature as we cook it to 250 82

degrees

the cooling table has cold water running

through the bottom of it and the topics

with a stainless steel and so you have

to know how it's supposed to feel

throughout the entire process

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you're taking all these raw ingredients

just like any kind of cooking or any any

when you make anything you can call them

artists you can call them makers you can

call them whatever but I think there's

something really amazing and special and

sort of magical about taking these raw

ingredients and then creating something

else and through that process you get to

see things change and smell them change

and feel them change and it makes the

world make sense a little bit for me I

have survived for seven years having a

manufacturing business in New York City

and making solar taffy so I feel like

I'm pretty scrappy and I just want to

make sure honestly that I can take care

of the people that work for me and still

make a really good solid product some

saltwater taffy makers look at our

product and they think that because we

don't use artificial flavors and colors

it's not actually saltwater taffy which

is not true but you know keeps looking

whatever they want now haha as long as

it tastes good I don't really care what

they call it the batch roller just

simply turns it into a cylinder and then

we'll take the cylinder and hand pull it

into Harriett the are cutting and

wrapping machine confectionary is kind

of a trip because if you go like old

school it's mostly older white men for a

little bit I was working with a

confectionery scientist who's a who's a

woman and she brought me to some of

these like corporate events and they

just had no interest in me like at all

we have for the last three years I think

only have had women it's not philosophy

it's just like we hire the most badass

people that we can hire and it just so

happens that the last three years it's

only been women I don't think of myself

as a woman and like

making confectionery I just like to

think of myself as making the best solar

cafe in the country

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my name is Marissa and I make solar

tapping there's a certain face that

everyone makes you know when they taste

it they pop it in their mouth and then

all of a sudden their eyes kind of widen

and they put their hand to their mouth

you have a keep themselves from drooling

but does actually physically lock into

your pleasure receptors just like drugs

more better mo better toffee is pretty

simple to make it's hard to make right

even though there's not many ingredients

it's really three things it's really

good quality butter I use an 83 or 84

percent butterfat butter sugar and sea

salt that's all that goes in it butter

crunch toffee is again deceptively

simple you know you just put the butter

in there and the sugar and the salt and

start stirring it but really goes

through several transformations along

the way and you have to put it over a

really high heat and it has to be

stirred pretty much continuously for 40

minutes or so that it takes to cook it

after I'm in business for a few years I

realized turns out I'm a control freak

how could it be that if I didn't touch

it myself you know if I wasn't the one

who started from starting to finish

could it really be mine

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one of the things that really sets me

apart I think from mass-produced

chocolates or confections you know even

from other confectioner's you know who

make things by hand I want it to be very

clear what you're tasting and I wanted

to be a full experience I grew up in a

really small town in southern New Jersey

and right near the school was a candy

store

those guys had like a license to print

money when I was a kid my mom really

encouraged me to try enjoying myself in

the kitchen and she encouraged me to

bake things so when I was a kid

Halloween was you know the big thing but

we used to just range around the

neighborhood as much as we wanted the

giant you know grocery sacks and give

some of it up to the parents but I would

always you know stash a little bit under

the bed first for myself all my

favorites somebody gave you an apple

I've actually been making chocolate for

30 years having taken a after-school

program course at the local high school

it wasn't until I has gone back to

school as a returning learner at NYU I

suddenly took a look around and I said

hey you know I've been thinking I would

do this one day and so if not now than

when I had a little bit of trepidation

about kind of breaking into the food

industry I have to say that whenever I'm

at an event or

industry gathering of any sort

hands-down I'm always being oldest

person in the room because you know I

can't cook pretty late as an

entrepreneur you really need to do all

the things you really have to do

everything from the ground up that was

both challenging and lightning and

ultimately fun I've had many jobs in my

life and before opening Ronnie Sue's I

worked for ten years for the Coalition

Against Domestic Violence at on Long

Island one of my Jobs was to go to the

shelter once or twice a week and they

would always bring a nice spread of

truffles of butter crunch toffee and

that sort of thing to the shelter and

just you know really cheered everyone up

I also brought it into the office

whenever I made it and it's a good way

to win friends and influence people

there's almost no one that doesn't like

chocolate and candy

especially butter crunch toffee is

something that folks really have a deep

taste memory of especially here in the

US a lot of people really have a thing

for it so that was always a good way to

break the ice

opening Ronnie Sue's I felt like I

wanted to have some kind of little

tagline that encapsulated what my

philosophy was for my product I came up

with simple on the outside special on

the inside put my money where your mouth

is that's another the ingredients

the treatment of those ingredients is

really where the special part comes in

it may look deceptively simple on the

outside you know just a smooth little

bonbon but when you bite into it it's

very special at any time I think there's

something really sort of magical about

taking these raw ingredients and then

creating something else candy making and

confectionary work is a creative outlet

when you make anything you get to see

things change and smell them change and

feel them change really at this point I

think this is probably my last four

years it makes the world make sense a

little bit for me for me