100 CHOCOLATE PUDDLE RECIPES
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In my youth, mom made fudge for me to give as gifts, and those gifts always elicited praise that uplifted me. I loved fudge and couldn't wait to grow up so I could make my own. I use to "help" mom make her fudge, but I was just a young girl with little kitchen talent. Mom finally granted me kitchen privileges at about age 13, but I often caught her spying on me after that. Eventually she gained trust in my kitchen skills and quit peeking. Before long, the fact I was making goodies that received praise fueled a fire in me, and my life became almost entirely focused on “goodie making.” By age 20 my main interests were cake decorating and candy making, and I opened my first cake decorating and candy making supply store at age 23, 60 years ago. I also started teaching those arts then.
Early on, I learned that recipes are just guidelines, and began "tweaking" them when I thought I could improve things. Some of my early experiments were done on turtles. Initially I added some flavors like liqueures, liquors, vanilla, coffee/espresso etc., and then I began changing out hard ingredients. It wasn't long before my candies no longer resembled turtles, and I named my new candy "Puddles." Puddles were born in the 1960’s, and morphed into more than 100 varieties by the year 2000. I shared Puddles with family and friends throughout that period, and they were always a “homerun.” Many times I was asked why I never commercially produced Puddles. My answer was simple - I never considered it; I think I was "max'd-out" with my retail dealings and teaching.
Now you know the origin of Puddles, so let's discuss what they are physically. Puddles have three layers, with the center layer containing diverse ingredients and comprising the bulk of the candy. The top and base layers are coatings like melted chocolate which encapsulate the center. Puddle centers are the focus of this book which contains 100 recipes. Puddles don’t have a particular shape. Recipes in this book produce Puddle centers which are 1 inch balls. You then form these balls into whatever shape(s) you desire your candies to have. Nowadays I generally just flatten Puddle center balls between my palms, but you can use silicone molds, cookie-cutters etc. to form complex shapes. Now that you know a little bit about Puddles, I invite you to view some sample recipe pages, below, and the table of contents. If you're a chocolateer, you'll be happy you stumbled onto this resource, and probably add it to your goodie-making arsenal.
Early on, I learned that recipes are just guidelines, and began "tweaking" them when I thought I could improve things. Some of my early experiments were done on turtles. Initially I added some flavors like liqueures, liquors, vanilla, coffee/espresso etc., and then I began changing out hard ingredients. It wasn't long before my candies no longer resembled turtles, and I named my new candy "Puddles." Puddles were born in the 1960’s, and morphed into more than 100 varieties by the year 2000. I shared Puddles with family and friends throughout that period, and they were always a “homerun.” Many times I was asked why I never commercially produced Puddles. My answer was simple - I never considered it; I think I was "max'd-out" with my retail dealings and teaching.
Now you know the origin of Puddles, so let's discuss what they are physically. Puddles have three layers, with the center layer containing diverse ingredients and comprising the bulk of the candy. The top and base layers are coatings like melted chocolate which encapsulate the center. Puddle centers are the focus of this book which contains 100 recipes. Puddles don’t have a particular shape. Recipes in this book produce Puddle centers which are 1 inch balls. You then form these balls into whatever shape(s) you desire your candies to have. Nowadays I generally just flatten Puddle center balls between my palms, but you can use silicone molds, cookie-cutters etc. to form complex shapes. Now that you know a little bit about Puddles, I invite you to view some sample recipe pages, below, and the table of contents. If you're a chocolateer, you'll be happy you stumbled onto this resource, and probably add it to your goodie-making arsenal.
View Some Sample Recipes
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