What Every Candymaker Wants To Know

Well, where the sugar is, for one thing. Only that is not what the Culinary Arts Encyclopedic Cookbook (1971) means, precisely. They mean that you want to know how to jazz up your boring old candy with food colorings, nuts, coconut (yay, coconut work!), glacé syrup all over it. And also “making fascinating designs with pulled sugar or gossamer nests of spun sugar [which] lift a candymaker from the mediocre class.”

What if you made boring designs with the pulled sugar, or your spun-sugar nests were a little – twiggy looking? You’ll be held back to repeat the medoicre class, that’s what. But to tell you the truth, the Skuse’s Complete Confectioner from yesterday is really for the professionals. I was going to give you some more of those recipes, but you sort of need a starch machine and a Cream or Bonbon Warmer and, well, all sorts of things. And even though a Bonbon Warmer sounds fun, I don’t think I can get one at Wal-Mart or even Williams-Sonoma.

So today we will be making some candy with Ruth Berolzheimer & Co. I love the photo above, by the way. I’ll bet “the results are a joy forever” – if you like cleaning your kitchen again and again and never quite getting all the sugar off. Or if you plan to keep the spun sugar under glass on the mantelpiece.

Jam Sandwiches

Cut fondant into small squares, putting two squares together with a little strawberry or raspberry jam. Dip in melted chocolate.

Baked Fruit Fudge

2 Tbs butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
2 squares chocolate, melted
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp orange extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup dates, raisins, figs, candied pineapple or cherries, chopped

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the beaten egg yolks, melted chocolate, and extracts; beat well. Thoroughly bend in the flour and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites Pour over the fruit arranged in a buttered baking pan and bake for avbout 30 minutes in a  slow oven (300 degrees). When cool, cut in squares.

I can’t resist this final recipe, since I always like recipes with strange names. I understand why it is called this, technically (sort of like the Krunchy Goo – it’s crunchy and it’s gooey) – it will stick to your teeth and by inference, to your jaw. But why would you put the lockjaw imagery into people’s minds in the first place?

Stick-Jaw

3 cups granulated sugar
3 cups brown sugar
6 Tbs glucose
4 cups water
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups shredded coconut

Place the sugars, glucose and water in a large saucepan and cook to 312 degrees. Add the extracts and coconut. Pour into an oiled platter and when cold, cut into squares.

This actually sounds rather good – I would rename it if I was passing a plate of it around. Coconut Praline Fudge would be a good name.

Ultimately what every candymaker wants to know is: why can’t we just buy some candy for once. It’s hot and sticky in there with the pots and the sugar and the candy thermometer. Believe me, I know about all that. Stick-Jaw nothing, how about Stick-Fingers, Stick-Pots and Stick-Countertops!

French Vanilla Jellies and Viennese Chocolate Bonbons, But No Coconut Work

What I need around here is a good candy recipe. Because we do not have any Easter candy in the house. We are going to get some but I didn’t want to buy loads of malted milk eggs and chocolate eggs in foil wrappers and have it all lying around whispering sweet nothings to me. But now I would like some! So I will just read a recipe or two and pretend. Which is much less fattening, right? Right.

So here I am with Skuse’s Complete Confectioner, written by anonymous people at the W.J. Bush & Co. Ltd. ”olde essence distillers” flavoring factory at Ash Grove Works, Hackney, London (England, not Ontario!) in 1921. It will be just the ticket as it tells us how to make “A.B. goods, Boiled Goods, Caramels, Chocolates, Coco-nut Work, Creams, Drops, Fondants, Fudges, Gelatines, Gums, Nougats, Pralines; and to the art of sugar boiling in all its branches, based on the results of practical work.”

Sounds perfect. I would love a little Coco-nut work. Am not sure what A.B. goods are though. Have just had a look and guess what! They don’t either: they say that A.B. goods are very popular in the US, and “We have endeavored, but without success, to ascertain the derivation and meaning of the title ‘A.B. Goods.’” And Culinary Masterdoes not know either. It says that the term refers to jellied, gum or marshmallow candy but they don’t know why.

Sounds like we have got a mystery on our hands, Scooby Doo! (Or Krunchy Goo, I suppose. Could that work? Krunchy Goo, Culinary Detective. A cat, possibly. I like cats and i think that they would make good spies. And they are discriminating diners, if our own cats are anything to go by).

These recipes were meant for professional candy makers, and they all sound quite delicious. Many of them I have never heard of before. So when the time machine is invented, I definitely want to make a stop at fancy confectioner’s shop – preferably one that used this handbook.

Vanilla French Jellies or Jelliettes

Sugar……18 lb.
Water……6 pints.
Best Gelatin……18 oz.
Cream of Tartar……1/2 oz.
Vanillin, “W.J.B.”……15 grains. [pushing the house brand - W.J. Bush!]
Blue, A.G…….a trace.

Dissolve the sugar and water in a pan over the fire. Stir until it boils. Thenplace a cover over the pan to steam down the sides. Care should be taken that no sugar adheres to the sides of the pan, otherwise the jellies will soon grain. Boil to 236 F. Remove the pan from the fire, then add the gelatin, previously soaked in another vessel until quite soft, and melted. Pour this in small quantities into the sugar batch, stirring gently, otherwise the mixture will rise and overflow. Add the essence and colour; then run into starch impressions. Sift starch over them, and place in the drying-room for ten or twelve hours. A crust will form over the jelly similar to a liqueur. Finish by crystallizing in a cold syrup, 34 degrees Beaume. Allow to stand in the crystal syrup for about twelve hours; then drain for three hours; after which knock the jellies out of the tins onto wire trays. When quite dry, they are ready to pack.

Vienna Chocolate Bonbons

Crystallized fondants of suitable shape, flavored with any desired flavor or blend of essences and colored with any appropriate shade, are so dipped that only half the centre is covered with sweet chocolate covering. The other half of the fondant thus forms a pleasing contrast to the color of the covering, and produces a very attractive form of sweetmeat for inclusion in boxes of mixed chocolates.

 Tomorrow: more candy, even stranger and more anachronistic!