Customer Reviews

Candy Making Basics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If the title of this book had been "Making Basic Candies" instead of "Candy Making Basics", I might not have been as disappointed. Of course, I probably wouldn't have bought the book, either. As it is, though, instead of learning the basics of candy making, I got about 15 pages of discussion of some techniques followed by about 90 pages of recipes.

Plus, about 3/4 of the recipes were just variations on the other 1/4. The book did include recipes for a few of the basic pieces (butter, but not milk, caramel, marshmallows, and fondant, though it excluded nougat and marzipan for some reason, unless I just missed those pages), and they will be helpful to me, but they were pure recipes with no discussion of why you need to do anything.

For example, one recipe might say to bring a mixture to 238 degrees over medium heat while another says to do it over low heat. Why? What would happen if I boiled the latter over medium heat? Why must this kind of candy be stirred constantly for 22 minutes while that kind only needs occasional stirring? Why did she decide to add butter to the chocolate in the rocky road? What effect does it have? How do I control the texture of caramels? Why add chocolate to your fudge before heating instead of after?

Also, the author explicitly chose to omit all recipes requiring tempered chocolate. She included a number that call for chocolate flavored covering, though, which often left me wondering whether the chocolate flavored covering was there as a substitute for tempered choclate, or because it actually works better for the application.

The book also doesn't contain any information on common problems with the recipes, how to work around those problems, or even good definitions of basic terms (what exactly makes a fondant a fondant, anyway?)

I learned more about the basics of candy making from the sections on sugar and chocolate in "On Food and Cooking" (ISBN 0684843285) than I did from this book. I am really disappointed, because this is one of the few books I've found that purports to discuss the basics of candy making in a broad sense.

My next read on the subject will be "Candymaking" (ISBN 0895863073). It sounds like that book will be much closer to what I want.

I LOVE candy and decided I'd like to make some of my own, instead of shelling out $20 per pound. This book is a terrific starter book. It has pictures of all the candy so you can see if yours turns out looking the same. It gives great tips and starter information for the beginner. There are all kinds of recipes for chocolates, caramels, hard candies, soft candies, caramel corn, etc. The book even has recipes for making your own marshmallows and sweetened milk, in case you don't have any. I am really enjoying this book alot and may even buy another copy for a gift.

I wasn't impressed with this book and here is why. The layout was boring, the directions were scanty; offered in the front of the book only. There wasn't much of an introduction at all and there was no ending. The recipes offered covered fudge, toffee, cereal snacks, but most of these were variations of one common recipe: ex- basic chocolate fudge, then choc-mint fudge, cho-coffee fudge..this sort of thing. The maple fudge recipe has no maple in it. Some of the recipes were not even what I would classify as candy since they were made from cooking corn syrup and cereal together. There was way too much emphasis on using sweetened condensed milk, confectioners sugar,and chocolate coatings. The title was inaccurate. It should of been called "quick and easy sweets". There is not much about real candy making methods in this book at all.

I gave this book 2 stars because the photos were good (the identification charts were not) and for the occasional recipe that beckoned. I don't recommend.

I am new to candy making so I bought this book since it's supposed to be "basic". It is absolutely awful! I made two batches of fudge (one called "never fail"). The first never set and the second cooked down so much it was harder than a rock. I've never experienced a cookbook that left out as many steps as this one or was as inconsistant. First, some crucial steps were left out like letting the fudge cool down to 110 degrees before beating it (this is in a sidenote in the front under "tips"). One would think that such an important step would be included in the recipe itself. Second, in one recipe she states that it should take 10 minutes to get to soft ball stage, in another it should take 7 minutes and others it takes 30 minutes. Why the difference? I can tell you from experience that it should NOT be cooked for 30 minutes. I am unable to trust any recipe in this book. I've had great success with recipes on the internet. That's where I'd suggest getting recipes before buying this terrible book.

Has the author ever made fudge?

This book is a very simple and straightforward introduction to the basics of making homemade candy. It does not provide in-depth instructions, HOWEVER, there are many many color pictures which I found very helpful as a beginning candy maker. The instructions are easy to follow and the recipes are not too complex. There is a little bit of everything in here and you really can't go wrong for the price.

I bought this book in September 2006 and dusted it off last evening to make Never-Fail Chocolate Fudge. Failed, it did. I know how to make fudge but thought I'd try this recipe, even though I had tried other recipes in her book that met with equal disappointment. I see that on June 25, 2007, I made the Chocolate Truffles (page 38) using the cream liqueur - 1/4 cup. Made a notation, "too soft" and called and spoke to someone on the Internet that sells truffles and told me to use 6 tsp. to start.

This Never-Fail Chocolate Fudge is a joke - would not harden. I put it in the refrigerator over night and it was still soft. Searched the Internet and someone said you could always use it as a center for chocolate truffles. This morning, I put it in the freezer and it is finally hard now but tasteless.

One recipe says to score into squares with a knife and then refrigerate until firm. Another says cut into squares immediately, allow to set completely and store in the refrigerator. It is impossible to score or cut fudge while it's hot. Just looking at her Layered Cream Cheese Peppermint Fudge, page 25, and it says: "chill in the refrigerator until firm. Cut into squares." That makes more sense.

I followed the recipe exactly as written and won't be using this book again. Not worth the paper it's written on.

I didn't get the type of information I was looking for in this book, but I will not say that others won't. You will learn something if you are a novice to candy making.

Nothing I have tried to do has worked out. However, it isn't the books. fault. Nice material presented in a very good way. It just helps if you have a little talent.

This book gives easy to read details and I love the colorful pictures.