Hot Cinnamon Jelly Beans Dex+

Halloween is almost here, and my son really wants Hot Tamales. I've been thinking about that, and they are basically a hot cinnamon jelly bean, so I picked up some of this Cinnamon Oil at a local cake supply shop. After making caramel, cookies, and syrups, how hard could a jelly bean be?

Declared "As good as Hot Tamales" by an expert taster.

It only took an entire day, complete with one wholesale change of recipes and five failed attempts, resulting in three very strange bowls of gloppy gluey but fun-to-play-with "stuff", one batch of super-hard candy, and one just a little too hard. I achieved a candy that was declared "Pretty much the same as Hot Tamales, I love you Mom." :) :)

To compensate for the softness of candy made with most of the sugar replaced with dextrose, I had an ace up my sleeve.

Sugar and Cinnamon Sugar Dex+

This sugar blend is a good replacement for white sugar on your morning bowl of cereal, or on a tart pink grapefruit. You won't notice the fiber, and the sweetness is very similar.

You may also like a jar of cinnamon sugar. It's great for making cinnamon toast, and we like it on the Frozen Yogurt Dex+ too.

I have tried a variety of cinnamons, from Penzeys Spices: Korintje, China Cassia, Vietnamese, and Ceylon. Whichever kind you get, fresher cinnamon has a stronger, better flavor. Korintje is the "grocery" variety. Vietnamese has the same taste but is much stronger and better. Ceylon is the only "true" cinnamon, and reminds me of red-hots candy; not that it is hot, it's just a different note. I actually like a blend of Vietnamese and Ceylon.

Cinnamon Pretzels

We made pretzels for the game. Some had traditional salt, and then we tried butter, cinnamon, and sugar. They were really good that way. We're still working on the shape, but they taste great anyway.



Make the pretzel recipe, boil and bake as usual, but do not put on the salt. After they come out of the oven, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with a blend of cinnamon and sugar. It's best with cinnamon from a store like Fresh Market, or an online spice store like Penzey's.



Here's the finished dough in my machine, a Zojirushi. It's a larger than typical machine, and it barely handles this recipe. Any bread machine can be used to make a larger batch of dough than it can handle making into a finished loaf.