Liz Gutman - The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook: How to Make Truly Scrumptious Candy in Your Own Kitchen!

LIZ GUTMAN & JEN KING

Photographs by Rachel Been

Workman Publishing New York

This book is dedicated completely, utterly, and without reserve to our patient and supportive families. We love you. That is all.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks are in order. Seriously, tons of them. Like, metric tons. So get comfy.

Once again, to our families for love, support, recipe testing, and quality assurance. (Liz: Mom, Dad, and Dan; Jen: Dad, Moe, Kay, Jackson, Bernadette, Will, and Mom.) We have no words to thank you fully, so we wont. (Just kidding. Thanks.)

Our ever-patient and ass-kicking agent, Joy Tutela, has put up with a lot from us; mostly bumbling and neglect. You deserve better, but you got us. Sorry, and thanks.

Its been scientifically proven that the best editor ever created in the whole universe is Kylie Foxx McDonald. Thank you for shaping this manuscript into the gorgeous sexy Ferrari of a book that its become.

Rachel Been, the Wonder Photographer: Were so lucky to have been able to trick you into working with us; this book wouldnt have been half as beautiful without you. Margarita, were looking at you, too.

Becky Terhune designed this book and made it sing. And to the creative and editorial teams at WorkmanAnne Kerman, Raquel Jaramillo, Liz Davis (aka Workman Liz), Carol Whitewe really cant believe our luck with all you guys.

Our testers simply made the recipes work. In no particular order: Megan Wheeler, Wendy Laurie, Jen Ollila, Eddie Chang, Wendy Fisher, Harry Flager, Natalie Costa, Alex Haider-Winnett, Joanna Flamm, Elizabeth Staudt, Lisa Marsocci, Ian Whitmore, Kate Brown, Julia Rehberg, Donny Tsang, Naidre Miller, Kate Brown, Emily Hanhan, Yossy Arefi-Afshar, Krystal Hernandez, Amanda the Empirical Baker, Laura Dust, Allyson Mabry, Melissa Marks-Shih, Cathy Arevian, and Meg Bennett. Youve all earned a triumphant slow clap. If weve forgotten anyone, humblest apologies and thanks!

Extra-special gold-plated thanks to the lovely Dorie Greenspan, who supported Liddabit from the get-go and was instrumental in making this book a reality.

Joan Baker, our right-hand woman, what can we say. Youre a marvelous human being, and we love you.

To the Liddabit team, past and present: Molly Gilbert, Jessie Euell, Brendan Yi-Fu Tay, Amy Lui, Joanna Cantor, Alice Hansmann, Marisa Wu, Hana Saber-Tehrani, Jacquie Chamberlain, Minhee Han, Michelle Miller, Victor Schramm, Michael Brady, Mary Cavettwell, you know. You ARE Liddabit.

A Top Gunstyle high-five to Rhonda Kave of Roni-Sues Chocolates; you win the ultimate MacGyvey. Thanks to Terri and Jeff and their fantastic kids, Al and Izzy, for helping lay the foundation of Liddabit Sweets. Jonathan and Kerry, you know what youve done. Special personal thanks and bear hugs to Minns, Wendys Burton and Laurie, Beth/Legs/Mac/Michelle, Linds, Vanessa, the Cartel, Will Goldfarb and Kevin Pomplun, Lauri Ditunno, Celia, Cathy and Peter, Sheila, Martin Howard, Kelly Geary, and the Michigan House Dems.

To everybody else weve ever met, heard of, or has ever been alive: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Contents

Hello, and Welcome!

Hi there! Were Liz and Jen, and we co-own a candy company in Brooklyn, New York, called Liddabit Sweets.

It wasnt so long ago that we were home cooks with aspirations of working in food. After completing the Pastry Arts program at the French Culinary Institute (where we became friends), and after a couple of jobs in kitchens and candy stores, we struck out on our own.

Candy attracted us for different reasons. Liz loves the science behind the magic, the how-and-why of the transformation from raw ingredients to finished product. Jen loves to follow her well-honed instincts, putting the 2,000-plus cookbooks in her mental (and actual) library to good use while coming up with a brand-new recipe or improving on an existing one. What we both love about candy is the element of fun and nostalgia. We like to say that we take our ingredients and technique very seriously; ourselves, not so much.

Its this sense of wonder and playfulness that we want to share with you, dear reader! In this book youll find comprehensive, down-to-earth explanations behind the theories and techniques particular to each subset of candyfor example, elegant chocolate candies, ooey-gooey caramel candies, and fluffy aerated candiesand to accompany them, a whole slew of clearly written, tried-and-tested recipes. Well also be right there with you the whole time. No, were not creepily stalking you; we mean in the form of Liz Says and Jen Says boxes, which will give you extra hints and tricks throughout. Instead of just telling you to brush down the side of the pan while cooking sugar syrup, we tell you why you need toand what to do if something goes wrong. In this way, we hope to encourage you to be your own troubleshooter, to minimize frustration, and to foster a love for all things sweet in your kitchen. Once you have some knowledge of the basics, youll be able to improvise and add your own flairand thats where the real fun comes in. Consider this the starting point to your personal confectionery journey.

Why Bother? Or, the Magic of Homemade Candy

Ah, candy. Childrens fondest desire, dentists bane (and boon); incentive for doing chores and homework, filler of Halloween pillowcases and holiday gifts; cheap, readily available (in fun sizes, too!), and there whenever you need it.

Heres the thing, though. Most mass-market candy you get these days is... well... crap. (Pardon our Franais.) When was the last time you really looked at a candy bar before you ate it? Weighed it in your hand, examined the center, read the ingredients? How lovingly did you savor your most recently consumed peanut butter cup, or gummi worm, or butterscotch drop?

Chances are you tended to ignore it. To pretend it wasnt there. Candy is so often thought of as taboo, bad for you, forbidden, that we often convince ourselves to ignore it as we are eating it . And were in this unique position because candy is very cheap, and its ubiquitous. Why treat as special something you can get at any corner store, gas station, or supermarket?

It wasnt always this way. Sugar used to be worth more than its weight in gold, as did chocolate. Confectioners shops kept jealously held secret techniques and recipes, passed down through generations; and many of these techniques are dying arts today.

It neednt be so extreme. There is a happy medium between All and Nothing. And we encourage you to dwell in that happy medium when you start making candy at home.

Homemade candy is a lot easier to pull off than many people think. Yes, you usually need a thermometer; and yes, you need to be precise with your measurements. But thats just until you get the basics down. Within the foundational recipessuch as caramels, brittles, and marshmallowstheres all kinds of room to innovate and improvise, and thats the real fun of it. Well, that, and the fact that everyone is always SUPER IMPRESSED when you bring homemade candy to a party. In this section well outline how this book works and give you a few things to keep in mind, so you have a general idea of what youre getting into and can step boldly into your bright candy-making future.

Things to Know Before You Go

Before you set out on your magical, mystical journey through this book, arm yourself with the following delicious morsels of information. Behold the wonder:

Our goal in writing this book is to get you to understand some of the essential techniques and theory behind making candy, and then to take the damn thing into the kitchen and make some damn candy. Dont worry about getting it dirty; dont worry about keeping it wrinkle-free. If theres a blank space on a page, write down some notes. We want you to use this book. Mmmkay?