MAKE YOUR OWN CANDY CORN

Junk food isn't as common here in Italy as it is in the U.S. - unless of course you're talking about breakdfast foods, which all seem to have chocolate - not that it's a bad thing, just strange.  Anyway, there are times when the lack of junk food presents a problem.  What's Easter without Peeps?  And what's Halloween without candy corn? 
 
I have seen recipes for Peeps, they look like way too much trouble, and since Peeps can now be found at Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day AND Easter, I can usually get my fix at some point when we're in the states.  Not so for candy corn!  But now, thanks to a guest posting by CakeSpy on Serious Eats, anyone can make their own candy corn using this simple candy corn recipe.
 
This recipe doesn't require a candy thermometer, but you do have to take care not to boil the sugar mixture any longer than stated in the recipe.  If you do your dough could be too dry to be workable.  I also found that I didn't need to wait for one hour for the mixture to cool  - I didn't even wait thirty minutes!  I divided up the dough into thirds while it was still warm and pliable, added the food coloring, then proceeded to roll - or rather to stretch and squeeze and manipulate the dough into long ropes. 

Unless you want your candy corn super-sized, you'll need a very long work surface - I ended up squeezing my tri-colored rope smaller and smaller as I cut off the pieces and the rope got shorter. 

This recipe doesn't make a lot of candy corn, but I'm hoping it's just enough to satisfy my craving without having to make another batch.  To help stretch the candy corn I mixed it with salted peanuts for a wonderful sweet/salty snack!