Peacock - How to makes sweets and treats

Diana Peacock has been making sweets and treats for her family or to give away as presents for nearly 30 years. She is also the author of Everyday Family Favourites, Good Home Baking, Traditional Country Preserving and co-author of Grandmas Ways for Modern Days.

Rebecca Peacock is a professional designer and keen cook. She is the author of Make & Mend: A Guide to Recycling Clothes and Fabrics.

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Constable & Robinson Ltd
55-56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com

Originally published in 2012 as Sweets and Treats to Give Away by Spring Hill

This edition published in Great Britain in 2014 by Robinson

Copyright Diana Peacock and Rebecca Peacock, 2012, 2014

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-71602-373-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-71602-379-1 (ebook)

Typeset in Great Britain by Ian Hughes www.mousematdesign.com

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Mackays

An Hachette UK Company

www.hachette.co.uk

A little effort and planning can ensure that the next gift you give will be not only delicious, but so impressive it will be spoken of for months. A good batch of homemade fudge will provide hours of delight as your recipient steals a cube or two to have with a cup of tea, all the while thinking how clever you are for making it, how thoughtful a gift it was and when will you make them some more. The great thing about making sweets as gifts is you can tailor the treat to the recipient, unlike buying them off the shelf, including their favourite flavours and leaving out any ingredients they might not enjoy. The magic of cooking with sugar makes the process all the more fun, and you can make the presents as expensive or economical as you wish.

This book aims to show you how a little planning and a few carefully selected but easily available ingredients can help you create a whole hamper of sweet treats that even the most difficult-to-buy-for friends and family will love.

Please be careful when cooking with sugar: the temperatures involved are not only very high, but a splash of boiling sugar can cause a serious injury as it continues to boil on the skin. Always use good quality utensils to ensure not only the best results but also to assist you in cooking as safely as possible. Always use a long-handled spoon or spatula as this keeps your hands well away from the boiling sugar.

Keep all pans and bowls of hot sugar as far away from children as possible. Although it might seem like a wonderful thing to do with the kids, cooking with sugar is extremely dangerous. There are a few projects in this book that are perfectly safe and fun to do with children, but ensure all boiled sugar projects are strictly adults only. Its much better to be safe than sorry!

A lot of these tips become obvious with experience, but they are listed here so you dont have to wait! Here are some useful hints to get the best results first time.

Baking paper or silicone-coated paper makes life a lot easier when cooling your sweet treats, as they dont stick to the paper and it means you dont have to grease any baking trays. Paper is also useful for baking. Lightly grease the tins before lining with paper as this stops it from slipping.

Have everything weighed and ready to use before starting your recipe. This is especially useful when the timings of cooking sugar are important.

If you are coating nuts in toffee, warm them in the oven gently first as the toffee will adhere to the nuts better.

After cooking sugar place the used pan and utensils in very hot soapy water. The sugar will dissolve and cleaning them becomes effortless.

When packing sweets in jars or tins, place a piece of crumpled silicone paper at the base and as a cover before replacing the lid. This will stop them breaking up or chipping.

Wrap sweets and chocolates as soon as they are cool to ensure the longest possible shelf life.

When working with chocolate keep your hands as cool as possible.

Never allow water to splash into melting chocolate as this will cause it to thicken and go grainy.

For an accurate reading on a thermometer, stand it upright in the sugar syrup and ensure the bulb is completely covered. Sugar thermometers usually have a base that raises them off the pan base, but if yours doesnt, try not to rest it on the bottom.

Be patient. Gradually cooking sugar allows you to be more accurate in reading temperatures. Depending on the atmospheric conditions, sometimes the chemical processes will take longer than you think.

Store your homemade sweets in an airtight container as soon as they are suitably cool. Individually wrapping will give you longer-lasting sweets.

You will not need a great deal of equipment for making sweets and treats. There are one or two utensils that are completely necessary though, and it is a good idea to get the best possible quality you can afford for achieving the best results as safely as possible.

The essentials

A sturdy pan not an enamel pan as they dont withstand heat. Use a stainless steel one with a copper base or double thickness steel base. This will ensure even cooking of sugar without burning.

A long-handled spatula and wooden spoon.

A sugar thermometer this is very useful and takes the guessing out of the job.

Silicone paper or baking paper so you dont need to worry about constant greasing.

Square and rectangular shallow baking tins these are useful for fudge and caramel. They dont need to be non-stick if you line them with silicone paper or foil. Greasing the tin a little first will ensure the paper doesnt move about when you are filling the tin.

Paper muffin, bun and petit four cases.

Accurate scales.

A fine sieve for dusting icing sugar.

A good pair of scissors for cutting toffee and boiled sweets.

A large knife for chopping up fudge and caramels.

Other equipment

You may also find the following equipment useful, though youll manage without it.

A piping bag with fine nozzles for icing and decorating sweets.

Cookie cutters.

The physical properties of sugar syrup change as it reaches different temperatures. To make a range of sweets, you will need to become familiar with the different stages of cooking sugar. Please be aware that the temperatures involved are high and hot sugar retains its heat for a long time. Care should always be taken to prevent accidents and injuries, so avoid contact with the skin. However delicious the bubbling mixture looks, do not be tempted to try it the injury will be severe.