Darienne

In addition to the basic ingredients of 10x sugar, gelatin and water, the Aboutcandy.com recipe for what I now know is pastillage calls for 2 tsp corn syrup and the use of a stand mixer. (I probably burnt out my B&B hand mixer making the stuff.) The two recipes used by Chefette in her wonderful eG tutorial on making and using pastillage call for corn syrup and vinegar in both of them and a stand mixer. She credits Ewald Notter for her recipes. On the other hand, RLB calls for far more gelatin, additional cornstarch and an optional pinch of cream of tartar and she mixes it by hand. I know that I am comparing by this time oranges and cucumbers. I suppose the question embedded in all of this is: has anyone used the RLB recipe? I don't have a stand mixer. I am not willing to test my new KA hand mixer. I have to go to quite a lot of trouble to use someone else's stand mixer. So I might try the RLB recipe and wonder how it compares.... Considering I am making candies and not cake decorations.... Thanks.

You cannot go wrong with a chocolate bunnie.

Lovely photos. Lovely chocolates. And lovely you too! Thanks for posting.

This book is part of The Art of Sugarcraft series. They are written for use by beginner and pro alike. I keep these books in the "indispensible" section of my personal library, as many of my cake deco and sugarcraft skills are self-taught. Theresa ← Thanks, Theresa, I can't afford the set...which one or ones should I aim for?

Ditto for me. Two more from the thrift shop, including an old...old...candy book from the 60s. What a hoot!. Each recipe bears the name of its donor, most of them signed, Mrs. Husband's name, town and state.

An excellent idea. I'll put it to my friend and see if she thinks it could work for the group.

Thanks. This time I will get photos.

I found a book I could afford on pastillage and sugarcraft. Pastillage and Sugar Moulding by Nicholas Lodge. Any opinions about it? Thanks.

I laughed out loud when I looked up the word pastillage and got the eGullet pastillage demo. Here I was making this thing and had no idea that it had this other name. Another learning experience. So if it lasts forever, then I'll make it ASAP. What a hoot! I've watched those crazy TV food challenges a couple of times to see who can make the biggest Walt Disney cake or something, and the chefs are always judged partly on their pastillage. Ooooh, thought I. I wonder what pastillage is and how hard it is to make. I'll try it someday. Thanks so much, Lisa, you made my day.

That sounds good. Make them ASAP, etc, and put them in an airtight container in the closet or whatever for using on April 6 or 9 depending upon the wishes of my next-door neighbor/landlady/friend, Denny, who works with the kids.

For last week's minor Chinese feast we had a gas stove, two carbon steel woks AND three crockpots and the crockpots acted as keep it warmers, particularly for the soups.

Everyone has seen those little sugar pastel-colored hearts with silly sayings on them...'love ya', 'be mine'...in the grocery stores. Yes, they taste awful , but children love them and this is about children. I made a batch of this candy in February, colored and flavored it in 4 sections, rolled and cut it into largish shapes, allowed it to dry 2 days...it takes at least a day to dry out...made Royal icing in several colors, bagged it and sent it all to the Multicultural Center in Moab for the little Hispanic children who are learning English. They had a ball decorating the shapes and I only wish that I had photos. These little kids have so little, in a land of so much, and it is really something to watch their joy. Now I am going to make some pastel colored little critters and a bunch of chocolate eggs for the Easter season. The recipe is from About Candy.com by Elizabeth LaBau. It contains a little bit of the following: gelatin, corn syrup, 1/2 cup of water and 2 lbs of icing sugar which you mix in cup by cup. My Black & Decker hand mixer died two weeks ago and I fear greatly using my brand new KA handmixer. I have arranged with the local Seniors' Center to use their stand mixer. OK so far. Questions: * how long might this candy keep in a covered container without going bad in some way? I suspect for half of forever. The recipe says to store in an airtight container at room temperature, but gives no time frame. I would like to get this job done as soon as possible. (I'll make the icing at the last minute.) * What if I made the stuff, cut it, dried it and put it in the freezer? Would this change the composition of the stuff at all? I suspect not, but then I have learned so many things that I was wrong about in the last few months...like about the whipping of heavy cream. This candy is wonderful for children. If you had two days, you could have the children basically make it with supervision one day and then decorate it the second day.

Hi, Cheripie, I was in contact with Chocovision a couple of weeks ago. It was hard to get anyone to call me back and I just kept on phoning until I got someone. I think they were short-handed or someone was sick or something. Can't really recall. They were very helpful, especially a young man named Matthew Demoto. Just keep calling and don't give a thought to the fact that no one has gotten back. I seem to recall that Mr. Demoto said he had hundreds of call backs to make at one point. Good luck.

Thanks for the information. I'll look it up on Amazon.

Many thanks

Your recipe looks great and I am going to try it. DH and I do long road trips back and forth between Utah and East Central Ontario and I am always looking for things to eat which are yummy enough to preclude buying cr*p in desparation and still healthy enough to warrant eating them. OK. What are liquor chestnuts? I can find chestnut liquor, but not liquor chestnuts. I suppose you could substitute what? for them. Thanks.

Thanks for that information, PastryGirl.

Hello slkinsey: they were the same square footage but I didn't pick them up. I'll try that tomorrow. Hello Chris: what do you usually pay for it? Ballpark figure... Was it just overpriced at Kroger's? Thanks.

I just learned yesterday of this wonderful non-stick, quick release aluminum foil. Found two kinds today in the local Kroger's (that's it). Kroger's brand cost about $2.50 and the Reynold's was well over $6.00. I bought neither. Thought I'd ask first. Is the Kroger's just useless? Is the Reynolds over-priced?

Hello Matt, Good try, but no go. The cream is in a pink bottle and the whipping cream is in a sort of purple. And Ambra. I buy the whipping cream always from the same company and it's the best one in Utah. Cream of Weber. The purest, fewest ingredients, lack of multisyllabic junk, freshest, etc. ps. Used the not whipping cream plus the actually whipped new cream with some sour cream which I made using whipping cream all in some ice cream today: banana pineapple.

And I would like to thank you and all the others who helped me with this problem. The knowledge of the folks on this forum and the incredible generosity of the sharing of that knowledge is simply amazing.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. A small portion of today's output.

Make some anyway! We all want to know what happens! ← OK. You are on. Be back soon........ YES! We have whipped cream. Thanks to all of you who have followed this exciting story.... It's been quite a learning experience.

I have the carbonized steel wok at home although I have not used it for a long time. Shall re-season it when we get home. In the meantime, can someone please answer my question as to why I should not use the barbecue, especially as it has a separate burner on one end. Thanks.

Aha! I have not tried coarse sugar yet but will. Today I dipped the results of a few batches of candying: ginger, lemon and oranges. Ginger because I was trying to make ginger spread and failed and had all this ginger. Lemons because they were so cheap one week and then I had all this juice and all those peels. And oranges because we go through oranges like crazy. I found this recipe for the old time Montreal orange Julep that I had as a kid. Modified it, of course, and now have all these lovely orange peels just begging to be candied. So now I have enough dipped peels to open a very little store. Very little. For a couple of hours only.