Tootsie Roll Midgees*

By Todd Wilbur

How would you react if your dentist suddenly whipped out a giant Tootsie Roll for you to bite down on so that he could make a mold of your teeth? Ask patients of a dentist in Philadelphia who does just that. This is just one of the many facts that you learn researching the history of the Tootsie Roll, Which, by the way, was named after the inventors five-year-old daughter. Leo Herschfield created the chewy chocolate candy in his small store in New York in 1896. In those days, the candy was hand rolled and delivered to customers by hore-drawn carriage. Over one hundred years later, more than forty-nine million Tootsie Rolls in a variety of sizes are produced each day from operations all over the world. Even though this clone recipe duplicates the tiny bite-size versions of the candy, you're free to make yours any size you like. The technique here is a tweaking of the previous secret formula that was featured in Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes, and it includes several upgrades. I found that more cocoa, plus the addition of salt and butter to the mix improve the flavor quite a bit. I also found that brining your sweet bubbling mixture to the firm ball stage 250 degrees F - yes, you're going to need a candy thermometer for this, and then stretching and pulling the candy like taffy fun! As it cools, will give you a finished product more like the real deal.