Glenn Andrews - Making homemade candy

GLENN ANDREWS

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Andrews, Glenn

Making homemade candy / by Glenn Andrews
A Storey Publishing Bulletin, A-111
ISBN 978-0-88266-568-9

Making Homemade Candy
Glenn Andrews

Whats the very best present you can give to the traditional person who has everything? My vote goes to homemade candy. Its also the perfect present for almost any occasion that comes along, whether a birthday, Christmas, for a hostess gift or as a little something for your childs teacher.

No one ever gets over a love for candy. We can control the urge to eat it. We can pass by a shop full of beautiful candies with only a minor pang. We can tell ourselves (and anyone else who will listen) that candys not for us. We can go years without eating it and decades or a lifetime without making it. But put a plateful of our own particular weakness (whether its chocolate fudge, buttercrunch, caramel corn, or whatever) down beside us and see what happens: Strength of character disappears and so does the candy.

A long time ago, candy-making was a social occasion. Notes were sent with such messages as, Come to our house on Saturday were having a taffy pull. When was the last time you received an invitation of that sort? Never, I dare say. (Me, too.) Not many people make candy these days. One reason for this is that it has a reputation for being a hard thing to accomplish. True, this was once the case. These recipes, though, are amazingly easy and, in most cases, quick. Theyve been simplified, but with absolutely no compromise in taste or quality.

The candies you make are better than any you can buy. Forget about Fanny Farmer and Mrs. See and the fudge shops in the malls. Forget about Russell Stover and even Godiva and other designer chocolates that loiter in the better department stores, waiting to tempt the affluent. These candies are good but yours will be fresher, purer, and thus even better. The difference in cost, too, will be astonishing. Truffles, for instance, have become a very chic, popular treat, and they sell for ridiculous amounts of money but just wait till you see how easy they are, how little working time they take, and how very inexpensive they are to make.

Dress up your homemade candies with attractive packaging. Stores which sell candy-making or cake decorating supplies also sell little fluted paper cups and folding boxes that will make your candies look highly professional. Ask a local bakery if they will sell you boxes and the larger fluted cups suitable for large truffles. Try a florists or craft shop for unusual shades of tissue or wax-like paper.

If originality is what you want, you can package your candies (or at least the individually-wrapped ones such as caramels or taffies) in sand pails, balloon wine glasses, French jelly glasses, apothecary jars, coffee mugs, or anything else that strikes your fancy.

With the exception of truffles, which need special handling, all of these candies travel well and can be shipped. Just make sure they wont rattle around in their boxes and wont be crushed.

Before you start your candy-making, please read the section on ingredients which follows. Following the section on ingredients is one on the taking of your candys temperature, a procedure that is vital for the success of certain candies. Glance at this even though youre already well-versed in temperature-taking, since theres a brand new shortcut way to do it.

The only ingredient I want to implore you to use is pure, real vanilla. Not artificial vanilla or vanillin or the strange (and toxic, some say) product sold in large bottles in Mexico. The difference in taste is unbelievable.

No, on second thought, I also want to urge you to use only real chocolate. There are artificial chocolate chips and morsels out there; avoid them. Filled and molded chocolate candies require a special chocolate; its discussed in the section Designer Filled Chocolates. For other purposes, use the standard chocolate (semisweet chips or unsweetened) available in all grocery stores.

The choice between butter and margarine is up to you. My own feeling is that its fine to use margarine in such highly-flavored candies as chocolate fudge, but that butter is essential for the more delicate concoctions vanilla buttercreams, for instance. (A vanilla margarinecream would sound rather silly, and wouldnt taste the same at all.)

Avoid artificial food colors and flavorings as much as you can. There are pure extracts on the market (though sometimes only in health food stores). Buy them and use them. Some of these will also impart a faint tinge of natural color. Some health food stores also carry natural food colors.

Except in Salt Water Taffy, where it is inescapable, there is no added salt in any of these recipes. (The nut brittles, however, do taste better with salted nuts.)

You also wont find sugar substitutes here. If you want to use them, though, follow the substitution instructions on their packages, remembering that Nutrasweet cant stand up to being cooked for any length of time.

I try to avoid this whenever possible, but there are times when you simply have to take your candys temperature.

Of the three ways to do this, by far the simplest is to cook your candy in an electric fryer-cooker. Mix the ingredients before plugging it in, then set the dial for the temperature you want. When the light goes out, youre there.

A more traditional way is to use a candy thermometer. (Check its accuracy by heating it in water when the water boils, it should read 212F.)

Or you can put a little of the mixture into some very cold water, form it into a ball with your fingers and check results as below: