Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Candy Book: More than 700 Quick and Easy, Soft and Chewy, Hard and Crunchy Sweets and Treats

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this book as one my first to learn about the art of candymaking, before I really made much.

I got it, read through it and found the recipes looked tasty but were seemed to assume some degree of expertise despire the attempts to lay out the basics early in the book.

I ended up setting it aside in favor of other books to help me learn the art.

Now that I'm more familiar with "the art", I've gone back to this book and made a handful of the recipes with extreme success.

In short, a good book for your collection, but not the place to start.

The author provides alot of valuable information on what kinds of ingredients to use and what kinds of tools to use. He's included MANY clear, concise recipes. Unfortunately, there are no photos at all; there are only simple black and white drawings here and there. If you can get past the lack of photos and can do with imagining how your candy would look like, buy this book.

Not only are there traditional homemade favorites here like divinity, but you can reproduce commercial treats like caramel turtles and chocolate cherries. Only much better.

Since a lot of commercial candy tastes full of additives, chemicals and too much high-fructose corn syrup, it's great to have recipes to make your own.

Only problem is that these are TOO good. So make them as gifts and wrap them up before too much damage can be done. Or wear a hockey mask a la Hannibal Lecter. This book is evil. These are just too good. You've been warned.

At first, I thought, impossible. Me, candy. They won't mix. But they do. Weinstein starts with the quick and simple recipes--ones that I can whip up in no time, like Bourbon Balls and Chocolate Pretzels. But then he moves on to Soft and Chewy or Hard and Crunchy treats. Like brittles, barks, divinities, fudge, chocolate-covered cherries, pralines, turkish taffy, and raspberry cups. It just goes on and on--to over 700 recipes in the end, even if there's no end in sight. It's a wonderful book--and a great deal, really. So many recipes, a reference book, as it were, that's simply impossible to exhaust. What fun Christmas, Valentine's Day, and my birthday will be!

I haven't tried all the recipes in this book, but I bought it because I was interested in techniques for making fondant and chocolate-covered candy. However the techniques are not well described and simply wrong - for example the method for chocolate tempering leaves out several steps. I only discovered this when I went to another cookbook to find out what I was doing wrong. Now I use this book for ideas, but other methods for technique. This book is not for novices. Very disappointed.

I bought this book for my daughter for xmas. She wants to be a pastry Chef (thanks to the food network). So far, she has made the carmel corn (absolutely fantastic), the homemade marshmallows (amazing)and carmel (gooey fun).

The only down side to this book is that there are NO pictures, NONE. Not demonstrating or showing the final product. We may need to purchase another book that has pictures.

This book has really helped me learn so much about candy making. I have been making family recipes for chocolate candy for a few years now and finally decided to buy a book to learn more (my Grammy taught be but passed away last year and I still had so many questions). I now know why certain batches I made failed and why last year I got a weird color on my chocolate covered pretzels. I would probably not suggest this book for true beginners but if you are somebody like me who has little experience and no formal training this should truly be your ultimate guide book. I do wish there were pictures that is the only reason I did not give 5 stars. Thank you Bruce Weinstein!

There are hundreds of amazing treats in here. My kids have always loved rice krispie treats and this book offered variations that were fun and unusal for all sorts of holidays. And the peanut candy reminds me the stuff my grandmother used to make, only this version is easier than I remembered it to be. The chocolate covered cherries recipe is worth the price alone, but there are so many wonderful treats in here that I suggest every candy lover buy this book.

I bought this book because I had others in this series--love that ultimate ice cream and ultimate brownies--and I'm not disappointed. I'm not much of a candy maker, never made any in fact, but I've started with the simple things in here and it's been really fun. I love making these easy treats for my kids and friends. They've been a hit at church pot lucks! So despite what some people have said about this book, it's a great book for a great value--and I just love these guys on the morning show on Comcast!

This book is so easy and the recipes are great. I have other candy making books but this one has some of the better recipes. The Torrone variation of the nougat recipe on page 158 is so good
and easy to make . It is like the imported Italian Torrone. Do not miss out on this book.