Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I made these over the weekend and they came out great. Everyone loved them. I did use vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla so it had a richer taste, but other than that, they were very tasty. I need to do some work on making them hold together better, but I only had about 1/4 lose their tips. I did discover if I lightly misted the rolls with cold water before pressing with the rolling pins, it helped stick together better.

Whoa, be very careful with this recipe! I was following these instructions, was boiling the corn syrup, butter and sugar. I turned off the heat and added the vanilla, and BOOM, the candy EXPLODED! I was lucky enough to be out of the way.

Follow the instructions on the Washington Post article. They tell you to put the vanilla in to boil, rather than putting it in later.

Otherwise, it's very good so far! That was just a scary moment.

I cooked mine to the temps listed in the Washington Post link, and they turned out super soft, like when I made tall narrow pumpkins out of it within 15 minutes they were short and flat. They didn't hold their shape at all. Next time I'll cook it longer.
pictures here: http://sarahjbakes.blogspot.com/2009/10/home-made-candy-corn.html

I've made two batches now One came out hard as a rock; probably boiled it too hard for those five minutes - should have simmered! I found that adding about a tablespoon of honey with the corn syrup, then adding another tablespoon of honey with the vanilla gets you closer to that Brach's taste. I also dabbed paste colors on - orange and yellow - the colors were fine.

Beckyleeprice: Generally the paste food colorings are super concentrated, so you would want to add a lot less. I don't have much experience with them but it's worth a shot. I would just add a very little bit at a time.

butterfinger- Corn syrup (like Karo) isn't high in fructose, but is mostly glucose, one half of what makes up sucrose (the other being fructose) and is usually used to reduce uncontrolled crystallization and make a creamier mouthfeel and more consistent result in home-made confections. It's used in making caramel or other sugar syrups for the same reason. It also lends an appealing shine to the product. Any other glucose syrup or invert sugar should have the same effect.

I just tried making these. I boiled it for 5 minutes which was probably about a minute too long. It far too stiff. I managed to get two colors formed into logs but not the third one. The two that I managed to snake-ify were too dry to stick to each other. We ate some bits of it though and it tasted good. I'll try again.

I was so disappointed and frankly shocked when Jeffrey Saad lost in the final round of TNFNS. I too hope that he will make his way to the Food Network with his own show. He was enjoyable to watch; charismatic and informative. Do we really need a stay home mom telling us how to make inexpensive meals? Wow exciting… not. Seriously, don’t we already do this on our own every night of the week? I’ll take a pass thanks. Please add a few new programs that have substance, featuring skilled chefs that go beyond the cookie cutter program of “today I’m going to show you how to make a pie crust and fry chicken for just $10.” I watch Food Network to be inspired... cheap cooking tips from a stay home mom with no quantifiable skills is so uninspiring.