Living in Montreal...I must have been about 3 or 4 years of age...We had a babysitter who didn't adhere to the laws of kashrut (adherence to the kosher dietary laws) and she brought over some marshmallow broom-shaped lollipops coated in dark chocolate.
My mother made it very clear that we were forbidden to touch them, but I so desperately wanted to try it...to bite into that delightful hardened chocolate shell and sink my teeth into the sweet, gelatinous goo that hid beneath. I knew, in my mind, even at that tender age, exactly how it would feel and taste.
I remember it to this day...roughly 40 years later.
Oddly enough, while I remember how my mother caught me, red-handed, as I tried to get away with marshmallow broom murder, I don't quite recall the details except that I was punished somehow.
As these 40 years have passed, like an everlasting jawbreaker of Wonka proportion, I've had my share of candy experiences, now but bittersweet chocolate memories of the 85% cacao kind.
Let me give it to you straight. Kosher candy, when I was growing up, bore but a bare and insipid resemblance to the "treyf" (non-kosher) goodies on the market. The taboo stuff always looked so pretty and exciting and enticing and came in every imaginable flavor, color, texture, shape, size!
I have grown a lot since then. I now realize that if you use the finest and freshest ingredients you can find, even kosher candy can be delicious.
Yes, there are restrictions. There are rules and regulations of what can and can't be mixed together. You have to check your eggs for bloodspots and make sure not to use dairy ingredients if you intend to serve our sweets at a meal where meat is served. But it can be done. Good candy can be made...and it can be made kosher.
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