This is the sort of direction that frightens me away from recipes with sugar. How in the world does one quantify soft, firm, semi-firm, hard. Or cold, for that matter. Probably I’d overcook the junk and end up with strawberry jam you break with a hammer. Oh wait, Mother’s already done that.
Not a good precedent.
In my mind, candymaking is only directions like these, with some “a dark caramel color” qualifications thrown in for “clarity.” Hope you have good lighting in your kitchen to discern between dark caramel and golden.
So when the parental units suggested candymaking as a New Year’s activity, I thought, “Well, I won’t be the only one there to screw it up. Or clean it up either. We can have a hammer party and take pictures and remember it forevermore as the most hilarious and doomed recipe endeavor we ever undertook.”
Instead, we ended up with a new New Year’s Day tradition. Thank heavens for recipes that involve candy thermometers. Science to the rescue! And furthermore, scrumptious success!!
What to do if your pot is too deep for your candy thermometer.
Almond bark setting, before adding the chocolate layer on top.
Our kisses aren’t as picture-perfect as the ones by
Mr. Hershey, but they were sure tasty.
What we ended up with at the end of the day:
Rum caramels, Pistachio pralines, Almond bark, Chocolate kisses
And we were afraid that this might be close to true, once you count up all
the tins of leftover candy that wouldn’t fit on the plate.
Magrilless 
We did not know that you were going to make lots of candy, might have been a shove to get to Il. (not really) I know that it is cold up there. love, M&B
I return to posting!I totally agree! Hard/soft… what the hell is that? FOR EXAMPLE – a HARD acid?? Something about a smooshy electron cloud? Gimme a break!But the candy looks AMAZING – so bummed I was 1000 miles away and asleep at 9:30 (with a cold).
By post, I think I mean comment.
Bill, again I say you married the most talented, wonderful women !!!!!! What a joy to see the food/candy/talent/ and fun of candy day. luv, you two