I am a believer in “third time’s a charm,” which is why I am not calling it quits on homemade candy corn. Yet.

Last Friday I took a second pass at challah (braided egg bread). It looked better than the first attempt, which I burned, but was painfully dry> Hhow could I manage to make bread that tasted stale the very same day I baked it? I must have a special gift.

Then came the candy corn.

Since first deciding to attempt it (How cute! I can give it to all the teachers and therapists for Halloween! And just think of the possibilities for Christmas/Chanukah!) I actually discovered a book called “The Field Guide to Candy” – which includes the history of just about every kind of candy you can think of, along with recipes to make it.

I don’t have permission to give you the candy corn recipe, but I found it on the site of the sadly soon-to-be defunct magazine Cookie, so here you go.

But be warned. The first time was a disaster.

I didn’t think that using salted butter instead of unsalted would be such a big deal. (I simply omitted the quarter teaspoon of salt called for in the recipe.) But I do suspect that stirring continually for five minutes when I was supposed to stir occasionally might have the problem.

In any case, Annabelle came into the kitchen as I was trying to make the orange dough and remarked (not unkindly), “Hey, that looks like Flamin’ Hot Cheetoh dough, Mommy!”

I cracked up. She was right, of course; that observation made the whole endeavor worthwhile. The stuff didn’t taste bad, it just looked awful. And when you see recipe, which includes the photo of what it’s supposed to look like, then you’ll really crack up.

I’ll keep you posted on the second (and, I’m guessing, third) attempt. For now, here’s the bowl containing the first (which I threw in the garbage this morning):