homemade tootsie rolls

Danny's favorite candy is Tootsie Rolls. I found this recipe for homemade tootsie rolls many months ago and had big plans to make some for his birthday but never got around to it. Somehow something else is always more important. People seem to think they need food in their mouths and clean clothes and all my undivided attention all the time so you know, fun stuff like homemade tootsie rolls have to wait. 

Until now.

I knew Danny would love helping me because he loves to help in the kitchen and Tootsie Rolls are his favorite. I was right. He loved it.

I let him cut the tootsie rolls with my bench scraper gadget since there's no way I'm letting him use a knife. It worked great.

He'd cut a piece off and then be so excited about how cute it was. Cute! Look how cute they are, Mommy! Cute! Cute! Cute! Who knew tootsie rolls could be so cute?

You be the judge. Aren't they cute?

We wrapped a few in parchment paper. Not quite as cute if you ask me. I stuck the rest in a Tupperware container and put them in the fridge. No use spending all that time wrapping them all cute if my kids are the ones eating them.

I think our batch made about 4 dozen. I didn't count when we put them in the fridge to harden a bit. I noticed Cate opening and closing the fridge quite a few times as we were cleaning up though. Good to know she approved.

The recipe calls for this dry milk powder. I'd never heard of such a thing. I found it at the Good Earth store. You only use 1/4 cup for each batch of tootsie rolls so looks like we've got lots of tootsie rolls in our future. Or if I ever run out of milk I've got us covered.

And here's my secret to those cute little tootsie rolls.

Dark chocolate. Yum.

I think our tootsie rolls tasted even better than the real deal.