ORANGE BUTTERCREAM CANDY by Myself

I couldn't for the life of me find a recipe for plain old buttercream candy that suited me, all contained an alarming amount of butter, so I made my own. Buttercream candy is nothing more than cake frosting, frosting that uses less liquid. My own recipe is below. Please note that I weighed the powdered sugar with a digital scale. If you don't weigh it, you will not get the same results as me and will likely need to add more water. I use water in this type of candy because if you use milk, the milk could spoil before your candy is eaten.

ORANGE BUTTERCREAM CANDY

403 g powdered sugar (about 3.5 cups)

3.5 tablespoons melted salted butter, margarine, or baking spread (I used Blue Bonnet)

1 t. pure vanilla extract

1/4 t. pure orange extract

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon cool water

3 drops of yellow liquid food coloring and one drop of red liquid food coloring

1 c. milk chocolate chips*

Line an 8" square baking pan with a double layer of plastic cling wrap, letting it overlap two sides by several inches. Set aside.

Add powdered sugar to large mixing bowl. 

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the four drops of food coloring to it and mix well. Pour mixture into the powdered sugar. Pour the water into the bowl. With hand mixer, begin mixing until it's as blended as you can get it. At this point it will form a firm ball. There shouldn't be any loose powdered sugar in the bowl, the dough should be smooth and firm and not sticky at all.

Press the mixture evenly into prepared pan.

In small microwave-safe bowl, add chocolate chips. Heat for 30 seconds on high. Remove bowl, stir chips, then microwave another 30 seconds on high. Remove from microwave and stir again. They should be almost melted at this point. Heat an additional 10 seconds at a time until completely melted. Pour melted chocolate on top of candy and spread around evenly with back of spoon. Refrigerate at least thirty minutes before cutting. Store cut candy in an air-tight container and store in refrigerator. If you store at room temperature it will soften a lot. Your cut pieces will be 1/2" thick. 

*You can use as much chocolate here as you want and any type you'd like. You could also melt together in a double boiler an 11.5 oz. bag of chips of your choice with 2 oz. of paraffin wax. First roll the candy into small balls, using about 2 teaspoons of mixture, and refrigerate on a cookie sheet with shallow sides an hour. Put a toothpick in each ball and dip in melted chocolate, letting the excess run off for a few seconds. Place balls back on cookie sheet and refrigerate at least 30 minutes so the chocolate can harden.