Q&A: Confectionery 101

[Marmish]

These days I use the aluminum bars.  They are lighter (I've got a drawer full of these things and it barely pulls out) and much less expensive.

I get 1/2 inch square cut into 2 - 18inch, 2 - 12 inch and 2- 8 inch pieces.  I'm sure for the right price they would polish the ends for you.  Never forget the chocolate discount - apparently I get the best rate for my bars because I always bring them goodies.

I also have 1/4 by 1/2 inch bar cut into the same sizes - this works for two layered fillings, I lay them on the 1/4 inch side for the first layer - then on the 1/2 inch side (or replace with the 1/2 inch square bars) for the second layer.

I have some 3/4 inch bars too - now you know why my drawer is so heavy.  Can't imagine what it would be like if they were all stainless.

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OK, so I get the square not the tube square? The measurement are a little weird--for example, if I get grade 202T43, I could get 1.5", but it doesn't tell me the rest of the dimensions (I'm assuming the 1.5" refers to height).

Does it matter what grade I get? Can I just get the cheapest kind?

It's so confusing being a girl! (I just set the women's lib movement back a few decades. . . )

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Oh geez, it's not genetic you know! You just don't have experience in that area.

[Kerry Beal]

These days I use the aluminum bars.  They are lighter (I've got a drawer full of these things and it barely pulls out) and much less expensive.

I get 1/2 inch square cut into 2 - 18inch, 2 - 12 inch and 2- 8 inch pieces.  I'm sure for the right price they would polish the ends for you.  Never forget the chocolate discount - apparently I get the best rate for my bars because I always bring them goodies.

I also have 1/4 by 1/2 inch bar cut into the same sizes - this works for two layered fillings, I lay them on the 1/4 inch side for the first layer - then on the 1/2 inch side (or replace with the 1/2 inch square bars) for the second layer.

I have some 3/4 inch bars too - now you know why my drawer is so heavy.  Can't imagine what it would be like if they were all stainless.

←

OK, so I get the square not the tube square? The measurement are a little weird--for example, if I get grade 202T43, I could get 1.5", but it doesn't tell me the rest of the dimensions (I'm assuming the 1.5" refers to height).

Does it matter what grade I get? Can I just get the cheapest kind?

It's so confusing being a girl! (I just set the women's lib movement back a few decades. . . )

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I never paid any attention to the grade - just told them I wanted aluminum square bar cut in the lengths. If you go in to the store they will show you the variations.

[prasantrin]

I never paid any attention to the grade - just told them I wanted aluminum square bar cut in the lengths.  If you go in to the store they will show you the variations.

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Thanks! I was hoping just to order online, but I guess I'll have to just make the trek out there (it's quite far).

I also found some aluminum bars at Canadian Tire. I might try to use those--only $5 for each 36" (about) bar, but they're not very heavy. I might have to weigh them down a bit if I go with those.

eta: The bar looks like this http://www.fdsons.com/solid-aluminum-angle...62-pi-4143.html . It also comes in steel. Bad idea?

Edited August 17, 2009 by prasantrin (log)

[Kerry Beal]

I never paid any attention to the grade - just told them I wanted aluminum square bar cut in the lengths.  If you go in to the store they will show you the variations.

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Thanks! I was hoping just to order online, but I guess I'll have to just make the trek out there (it's quite far).

I also found some aluminum bars at Canadian Tire. I might try to use those--only $5 for each 36" (about) bar, but they're not very heavy. I might have to weigh them down a bit if I go with those.

eta: The bar looks like this http://www.fdsons.com/solid-aluminum-angle...62-pi-4143.html . It also comes in steel. Bad idea?

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I'd go for the solid square bar. Like the one on the left in this picture.

[JAZ]

A couple of years ago, I wrote this about pouring caramels:

By the way, I tried a square silicone cake pan to pour them out, and it worked better than any other pan I've ever used -- no buttering, no lining with foil and then peeling it off. They just popped out of the pan. I highly recommend it.

Since then, I've used the silicone pans a couple of times, but have always been looking for silicone molds that are a small enough size for caramels. No luck until very recently, when I saw these ice cube trays that are almost the perfect size. You can't tell from the photo, but the cubes are just under 1 inch on a side. They're too large (for my purposes) when filled all the way up, but halfway filled is the perfect size to fit the candy papers I have.

I refrigerated the caramels overnight, and the next day they popped out of the molds perfectly shaped. I'll never cut another caramel again. (Next time I make them, I'll take photos to post.)

[Kerry Beal]

A couple of years ago, I wrote this about pouring caramels:

By the way, I tried a square silicone cake pan to pour them out, and it worked better than any other pan I've ever used -- no buttering, no lining with foil and then peeling it off. They just popped out of the pan. I highly recommend it.

Since then, I've used the silicone pans a couple of times, but have always been looking for silicone molds that are a small enough size for caramels. No luck until very recently, when I saw these ice cube trays that are almost the perfect size. You can't tell from the photo, but the cubes are just under 1 inch on a side. They're too large (for my purposes) when filled all the way up, but halfway filled is the perfect size to fit the candy papers I have.

I refrigerated the caramels overnight, and the next day they popped out of the molds perfectly shaped. I'll never cut another caramel again. (Next time I make them, I'll take photos to post.)

Brilliant - I'll have to keep an eye out for those.

[Darienne]

Brilliant - I'll have to keep an eye out for those.

I'd be interested in a set of those trays if you can find them in Ontario.

[Steb]

My mother bought some fudge the other day and reminded me that she has spent her entire lifetime trying to make fudge work. So I thought we'd make some to give her peace. Of course egullet was my first point of call for a recipe, despite probably having 5 or 6 on the bookshelf.

Thank you Kerry for the recipe.

The results were quiet weird actually. At first it didn't get the semi-crumbly texture of fudge and was more like a soft stretchy caramel toffee. I couldn't lose the gloss from beating. I even got the power mixer on to it, but still it was glossy and stretchy. After a night in the fridge, a cube of it would hold shape by itself, but it would collapse from the heat of the fingers. It was still dark non-crystally.

But after another day loosely wrapped in the fridge, the block started to turn into real fudge, from the middle outwards, lightening in color. Two days later the entire block was real fudge. Was crystallization just taking longer than expected, or was the fridge just drying it out?

If not, I considered where I might have gone wrong:

1. The recipe says brown sugar but demerara sugar is pictured. Demerara here in Australia is more like a raw sugar, larger crystals and usually used in coffees. (Dark) brown sugar is finer and softer and can be heavily compressed. Are either valid?

2. Altitude - I'm 2000 feet up so theoretically I'd have to reduce the soft ball stage down by 4-5 degrees. I didn't do this. Nor did I do a soft ball test on it - I simply went by temperature.

3. Whipping cream - I was a bit scared to use the lite thickened cream we had on hand for this. This was 48% fat, but most importantly, our thickened creams here contain gelatine and vegetable gums. I've just noticed the container has 'not suitable for whipping' on it.

4. Inexactness of ingredients. Glucose always annoying to measure accurately, volumetric weights of solid ingredients I'm never confident with, especially with brown sugar that can be very light or dense. Also I only estimated the modified quantities for differences between American cups and Australian cup sizes rather than with doing it exactly.

5. I made it in enameled cast-iron to eliminate hot spots, so cooling was very slow. With my mother eager to taste it, I transferred it to the fridge to speed up the cooling.

Do any of these sound like fudge killers?

Edited January 18, 2010 by Steb (log)

[Kerry Beal]

My mother bought some fudge the other day and reminded me that she has spent her entire lifetime trying to make fudge work. So I thought we'd make some to give her peace. Of course egullet was my first point of call for a recipe, despite probably having 5 or 6 on the bookshelf.

Thank you Kerry for the recipe.

The results were quiet weird actually. At first it didn't get the semi-crumbly texture of fudge and was more like a soft stretchy caramel toffee. I couldn't lose the gloss from beating. I even got the power mixer on to it, but still it was glossy and stretchy. After a night in the fridge, a cube of it would hold shape by itself, but it would collapse from the heat of the fingers. It was still dark non-crystally.

But after another day loosely wrapped in the fridge, the block started to turn into real fudge, from the middle outwards, lightening in color. Two days later the entire block was real fudge. Was crystallization just taking longer than expected, or was the fridge just drying it out?

If not, I considered where I might have gone wrong:

1. The recipe says brown sugar but demerara sugar is pictured. Demerara here in Australia is more like a raw sugar, larger crystals and usually used in coffees. (Dark) brown sugar is finer and softer and can be heavily compressed. Are either valid?

Interesting how the naming differs by country - I'd say what I used could be called dark brown sugar in some countries - but the sugar you did use should be fine.

2. Altitude - I'm 2000 feet up so theoretically I'd have to reduce the soft ball stage down by 4-5 degrees. I didn't do this. Nor did I do a soft ball test on it - I simply went by temperature.

I've not done any experimentation with altitude and candy - I'd try the given temperature first - as you did - then if it's too firm, drop it back

3. Whipping cream - I was a bit scared to use the lite thickened cream we had on hand for this. This was 48% fat, but most importantly, our thickened creams here contain gelatine and vegetable gums. I've just noticed the container has 'not suitable for whipping' on it.

Might be the problem here - too much fat will throw off the recipe - whipping cream here is 36%. Also the gelatin and gums may change things.

4. Inexactness of ingredients. Glucose always annoying to measure accurately, volumetric weights of solid ingredients I'm never confident with, especially with brown sugar that can be very light or dense. Also I only estimated the modified quantities for differences between American cups and Australian cup sizes rather than with doing it exactly.

I usually work by weight to get around this myself - but this recipe was volume. Brown sugar traditionally gets packed tightly in the cup. I suspect that if you just stuck to Australian cups the ratios would still work out.

5. I made it in enameled cast-iron to eliminate hot spots, so cooling was very slow. With my mother eager to taste it, I transferred it to the fridge to speed up the cooling.

I make it in the heaviest pot I can find - I might transfer it to an 8 cup glass measuring cup if I'm in a hurry to cool - but I do it immediately after removing from the heat.

Do any of these sound like fudge killers?

I'm betting on the cream myself!

[Steb]

Cheers Kerry. Not sure why I didn't think of transferring the mixture out of the pot for cooling...

Yes, strange about the sugars.

This is our brown sugar:

and our demerara:

It sounds like your demerara is our brown sugar and your turbinado is our demerara. I assume the first picture was what you used in the recipe correct?

I shall try again in a few weeks to save too much weight going on, with the proper cream.

Thanks

[Kerry Beal]

Cheers Kerry. Not sure why I didn't think of transferring the mixture out of the pot for cooling...

Yes, strange about the sugars.

This is our brown sugar:

and our demerara:

It sounds like your demerara is our brown sugar and your turbinado is our demerara. I assume the first picture was what you used in the recipe correct?

I shall try again in a few weeks to save too much weight going on, with the proper cream.

Thanks

The first picture would be correct.

[Amy D.]

I never questioned that the term demerara sugar would be used for different products in different countries, from what I can tell from the photos it looks as though the demerara sold in the UK our demerara is the same as that sold in Australia as shown in Steb's second (demerara) picture. If this is the case then I would suggest that the sugar should not have caused the problems Steb's has suffered as I've not noticed any problems using UK demerara sugar for Kerry's fudge recipe which in the 10+ times I've made it has always produced super smooth creamy fudge.

[Rick Mogstad]

I have made caramel using this recipe a few times (my first few times), and learned something each time. What I am wondering is what affects the firmness of the final product? Cream/Butter/Sugar Ratio? Temperature? I would like to make it a little bit less firm than last time, and I am wondering how I can tweak the recipe to achieve that.

I have read through some other threads that mention using sorbitol, lechitin, etc. but I don't have these things on hand, and won't have time to find a place to get them before I need to make it. Is there a way I can modify this recipe to achieve a slightly less firm texture? I think the flavor and texture are wonderful, and everyone loves them, but when coated in chocolate, they can be a bit hard to bite (or maybe I am doing something wrong?).

Thanks,

Rick

[Kerry Beal]

I have made caramel using this recipe a few times (my first few times), and learned something each time. What I am wondering is what affects the firmness of the final product? Cream/Butter/Sugar Ratio? Temperature? I would like to make it a little bit less firm than last time, and I am wondering how I can tweak the recipe to achieve that.

I have read through some other threads that mention using sorbitol, lechitin, etc. but I don't have these things on hand, and won't have time to find a place to get them before I need to make it. Is there a way I can modify this recipe to achieve a slightly less firm texture? I think the flavor and texture are wonderful, and everyone loves them, but when coated in chocolate, they can be a bit hard to bite (or maybe I am doing something wrong?).

Thanks,

Rick

Rick,

The firmness is most dependant on the final temperature. Take it down a degree C at a time until you are happy with it. I usually do a second test with ice water to see if I like the texture after it reaches 121C. Often the difference between thermometers will make a difference.

[Rick Mogstad]

Cooked to 120 using a different thermometer, and it came out perfect.

One more question. In each batch there have been little flecks of darker something-or-another. I suspect it is from the cream, as it tends to get little solid pieces in it a bit when heated. It doesn't affect the flavor, really, or even the texture, so it is purely a visual problem, but I was wondering if there is any way to avoid that (perhaps I could add vanilla bean and nobody would notice )? I thought about straining the cream to make sure those little coagulated pieces didn't get in there, but I didn't want to remove anything crucial to the reactions.

Also, I can confirm that you can easily make a double-batch of this in an 8 qt crock pot, but a triple batch comes very, very close to boiling over (1cm from the top or so). It did boil back down after a few minutes, but I was definitely worried. Would not suggest it, nor would I try it again. I guess someone has to be the idiot to try these things though

-Rick

Edited May 20, 2010 by Rick Mogstad (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Cooked to 120 using a different thermometer, and it came out perfect.

One more question. In each batch there have been little flecks of darker something-or-another. I suspect it is from the cream, as it tends to get little solid pieces in it a bit when heated. It doesn't affect the flavor, really, or even the texture, so it is purely a visual problem, but I was wondering if there is any way to avoid that (perhaps I could add vanilla bean and nobody would notice )? I thought about straining the cream to make sure those little coagulated pieces didn't get in there, but I didn't want to remove anything crucial to the reactions.

Also, I can confirm that you can easily make a double-batch of this in an 8 qt crock pot, but a triple batch comes very, very close to boiling over (1cm from the top or so). It did boil back down after a few minutes, but I was definitely worried. Would not suggest it, nor would I try it again. I guess someone has to be the idiot to try these things though

-Rick

If I had a nickel for every batch that's boiled over - I;d have quite a few nickels!

The dark bits come off the bottom of the pot - a thicker pot helps somewhat - more stirring helps the most.

[Rick Mogstad]

So, how much stirring is too much? Could you stir constantly, and still get reasonable caramelization? Should you cook it at a lower heat if you do so?

[Kerry Beal]

So, how much stirring is too much? Could you stir constantly, and still get reasonable caramelization? Should you cook it at a lower heat if you do so?

From about 112 or 115 degrees on I stir pretty constantly. I tend to cook at a medium heat most of the way through - perhaps turning down a bit at the end.

[prasantrin]

Would it be a huge mistake to use a nonstick pan to make fudge? That's all I have. I have a thermometer, so I don't have to rely so much on colour (the main reason I wouldn't normally use a nonstick pan).

And it's just for personal consumption, so it doesn't have to be perfect or pretty or anything.

[Kerry Beal]

Would it be a huge mistake to use a nonstick pan to make fudge? That's all I have. I have a thermometer, so I don't have to rely so much on colour (the main reason I wouldn't normally use a nonstick pan).

And it's just for personal consumption, so it doesn't have to be perfect or pretty or anything.

Should probably be fine. The weight of the pan for fudge making seems more important than the colour. Sometimes you just gotta use what you got!

[prasantrin]

Thanks! I will hopefully get the ingredients together and make it tomorrow. I just have a craving that needs attention. I could just buy some fudge, but it would be more interesting to make it!

[minas6907]

Kerry, can I sub granulated white sugar for the brown sugar in the pulled candy recipe?

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, can I sub granulated white sugar for the brown sugar in the pulled candy recipe?

I'm sure you can - here is a white sugar recipe.

2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

1/2 c. vinegar

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. vanilla

Boil sugar, vinegar, cream of tartar and water to fine thread stage. Remove from fire; add vanilla. Pour onto greased plates and when cool enough to handle, butter hands and pull until satiny and holds shape.

[Tay Wei Meng]

Hi Kerry,

I visited Australia recently and I tried another version of nougat and it tasted absolutely awesome!!

It is soft yet fluffy with lots of tiny air pockets unlike the conventional nougat that is hard like rock or hard and chewy.

I've tried making a couple of batches but it always turned out too hard. Does the temperature of the syrup plays a part in the final product? ( like for example : a 260 degrees F syrup will be harder than a 250 degrees F syrup) If so, what is the temperature to take the syrup off the heat?

I am also guessing if the proportion of fine sugar and corn syrup does affect the consistency of the nougat? Would less corn syrup or not using and corn syrup make the nougat hard?

[Kerry Beal]

Tay,

 

Welcome to eGullet.  The temperature of the syrup does indeed play a role in the firmness of the nougat.  The one in the eGCI goes to 270 F and makes a pretty soft nougat.  Corn syrup affects the crystallization (by preventing it).