"14 Days of Angels Baking Valentine Memories!"
This is my Valentine’s Tips and Tricks offering to all my readers.
Don’t toss those leftover colored candy melts. Did you know you can easily save and use them? You can save money, time and space by doing so.
Over the years I’ve worked to gauge just how many candy melts I will need to coat fresh strawberries or frosted sugar cookies so I’m not wasting any. I’ve resorted to saving the leftover candy melts in a small plastic covered bowl until the next time I might use them. Sometimes it’s been months, and then I’m not sure they are still good, so I’ve tossed the old. It’s been somewhat inconvenient to save the little bowls of the leftovers, especially if I have 3 or 4 different colors. Sometimes I forget I still have them and buy new when I didn’t need to. Sometimes I have used so few candy melts in a little bowl that it’s been difficult to get the biggest strawberries coated. I’m just trying not to melt too many and then waste money by tossing the leftovers out.
Well, the other day when I was making chocolate covered strawberries (laid out on parchment paper to dry) for my Valentine’s blog pages, it dawned on me as I was lifting the covered strawberries cleanly off the parchment paper…why not use the parchment paper on which to dry the leftover candy melts because they will also lift cleanly off the parchment paper? And, since I have not added anything like nuts or sprinkles to the candy melts, the melts are still clean and fine to cool and save to use again for my own household.
I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this wonderful idea and why I didn’t think of it before. So, why not share the idea with others.
So, this time I melted as many candy melts as I needed to fill the bowl to the top and to easily coat the big strawberries. What a luxury because I know I used more than I normally would. Then when I was done with all the strawberries, I poured all the different colors of the warm candy melt out in separate piles on a clean piece of parchment. I had already placed the parchment paper on a metal baking sheet and let them cool at room temperature. Since it is winter, it didn’t take long for them to harden completely. In the summer I plan to set them in the fridge for just a few minutes.
Next, I separated each solid piece of candy melts and placed them in their original plastic zipper bags. Some candy melts and melting bark have different melting instructions, so it’s good to have the leftovers in their original bags for future use. I can pack them back in the tin where I keep all my bags of candy melts, so there are no little errant bowls of old candy melts floating around in the cupboard, not to be found when I need them.
Of course, if I reuse the candy melts, I use them only for my own household, not for others. For gifts or sales, I ALWAYS use brand new candy melts. That’s what quality control is all about.
Quality control and tips and tricks are all part of baking…so share your baking tips and “Bake your own Memories!”
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