Customer Reviews

Who Wants Candy?

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Serious, this is the best book on making candy out there. I've looked, I know. I own over 300 cookbooks, and yet, if I want something sweet, this is my go to book. Not only has Jane Sharrock taken all the mystery out of making candy with 27 pages of easy to follow directions and instructions, she rates every recipe, telling whether it's Novice Super Simple, Novice Easy, Average, Advanced, and Expert. She tells you how much the recipe will make and exactly what you need to make it- not only the food ingredients, but all the utensils, so you can be sure you have everything on hand before you start.

The recipes themselves are a treasure hoard of delights from the elegant to simple, from complicated to comfortable. Generations of her family are represented by recipes and she tells delightful anecdotes about most of them along with the recipes. Because such a broad range of time is covered, you'll not only discover new treats, you'll find family favorites.

My only word of warning is that there aren't many pictures, so if you're someone like my friend Lindsay that thinks cookbooks need pictures I wanted to warn you, but I still recommend this book! It's perfect the way it is.

To be perfectly honest, I thought that candy making was a lost art, or at least one on the verge of extinction. If so, then Jane Sharrock has definitely revived and resuscitated that art and brought it to a new generation. She has collected, tested, collated and preserved hundreds of recipes, and presents them with such a sense of joy and passion that it is impossible not to get caught up in her enthusiasm.

It would be difficult to imagine that there could be a stray candy recipe that has somehow managed to escape inclusion. You are sure to find some of your old family favorites, along with plenty of candidates for new family favorites, like "Marry Me Toffee", for example. Anyone who samples it invariably uses one word to describe the taste...."addictive!". It almost turned into "Divorce Me Toffee" when I took some along on a camping trip and my husband and I ended up trying to hide it from each other. Better make an extra batch of this one.

"Luscious Raspberry-Fudge Truffles" is another yummy creation. With ingredients like cream cheese and raspberry preserves, it is obviously not your "politically correct" truffle recipe.......but, who cares about politics when they are this easy to make and outrageously delicious!

A convenient feature of the book is that each recipe is assigned a skill level from super simple to advanced. Although I would have to rate my talents more towards the "super simple" end of the spectrum, I have on occasion ventured up to the "advanced" level recipe with surprising ease. Armed with a candy thermometer and the easy-to-follow directions, it is just one small leap from novice to expert.

"Who Wants Candy" is quite literally a walk down memory lane through fields of bonbons. It is a great collection of recipes and just a lot of fun to read.

This book is wonderful! It is filled with tried-and-true, well-tested candy recipes clearly written to ensure success, and prefaced by complete descriptions of why they're so special. My only quibble (and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars) is that it has the worst index on the planet (e.g., Luscious Raspberry Fudge Truffles aren't under R for Raspberry, F for fudge, C for chocolate, or T for Truffles, but L for Luscious --which you may not remember is in the name when looking for the recipe), and includes every possible version of every candy, rather than those that taste the best. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful book, and very highly recommended

This is a wonderful cookbook for all ages. It is great fun to make the more simple receipes with your children and to share the more challenging ones with your friends. How wonderful to keep alive the candy receipes of our mothers!

This is an absolutely wonderful book. I was a novice to making candy but do like to cook and try new things. Over the holidays, I tasted some homemade candy at a friend's party and was reminded again of my wish to pick up this sweet skill. Did a little looking around on this site and picked up this book, and am so glad I did! I started with a couple of the easier recipes and then progressed through more complicated candies. The amazing thing is that the easy ones are still quite impressive and the difficult ones are spectacular -- My favorites have been the various toffees, but the fudges are gorgeous, too. What's more, the author is able to break down the SCIENCE of candy-making, too; and once you understand some very basic principles, you can make adjustments to recipes with confidence. The grab-bag of tips -- When to stir, tools to use, etc -- are highly helpful as well. Recommended without reservations.

You have checked a book out of the public library more than a few times! I've enjoyed this book for quite some time and just recently broke down and purchased it. I've had great success with everything I have tried. My normally "I don't eat sweets" husband could not stop raving about the Hopscoth Candy. Beware, you may not be able to stop eating your confections! :) I've read many books on candy making and this one is by far the most informative. It has a nice layout with a wealth of recipes for every level of candy-maker. What more could you ask for?

I really liked the way this book is laid out, and the way it was written. The author could not be more clear about how easy or difficult a recipe is, what it might taste like, and how to make an easy variation if desired. She really lets you know what to expect during the process, what's going on, and how to do the job well.

The "easy" recipe took me maybe 20 minutes to make, at the most, and there wasn't a whole lot of cleanup. I'm lucky to get a home-cooked dinner on the table that fast. To get a confection done in that time? Well, let's just say it made my Christmas party a whole lot easier. The ingredients didn't cost a fortune either.

I thought about taking off a star because the recipes are just a little sweeter and simpler than I like my candy - I would prefer something with a little more depth of flavor (e.g. darker chocolate, subtler flavor undertones). But I think most people would like these as-is, because all my friends and family loved it. To be fair, too, the author gave me options for how to change up the recipe and I can use those in the future. The best thing about this book is the know-how and the tips & tricks for success from the author. Those are the kinds of things one usually learns at the expense of burned ingredients, ruined pans, and a wasted afternoon. Not so with this book - it's foolproof.

As far as I am concerned, this book is a fantastic place to start learning how to make candy. I will use her recipes again, but also I can now use other more complicated recipes, perhaps in some of my other cookbooks, because the author has clear steps on what to do (something I could not find elsewhere). This book gives you real confidence to give candy-making a try.

Homemade candy is what I'm giving to friends and relatives this holiday season. It is from my heart and bypasses my pocketbook.

This book is fabulous. All the recipes are rated by skill level: easy, average or advanced. And all the recipes sound wonderful, although I have made only four recipes so far. The New Orleans Roasted Pecan Pralines recipe is tops so far.

The info in the beginning of the book is very helpful. Topics include how to choose a candy kettle, techniques and the chemistry of candy making. The section on ingredients is great, and has helped me avoid errors, like improper substitutions.

There is a separate section on chocolate dipped candy. I had read elsewhere that tempering chocolate was essential for making dipping chocolate. I had no clue what tempering was, let alone how to do it. Jane Sharrock cut through my confusion and explained that tempering is for commercial candy making only, not for homemade candy. And Ms Sharrock includes all sorts of delicious chocolate dipping recipes and techniques.

Georgeous color photographs tempt me to try more recipes. The recipes are easy to follow, and the text is laid out in a 2 column format, like the older cookbooks, making it easy to read. The paper is good quality and the font size is perfect, not too big, not too small. Although a paperback, the pages are sewn and glued, making for a long lasting book. I know this book will still be in one piece after 10 years plus of steady use.
There are so many tempting recipes I can use this book to make different recipes each holiday for the rest of my life.

In this year of scarsity, it is fun to go back to thoughtful and traditional gifts. Last year I made fudge for the holidays. I didn't get one compliment on my fudge. It was really bad. This year I'm a pro with this book. I am successful with even the recipes rated advanced.

If I could give this book 10 stars I would.

All the recipes I have tried have turned out well, although I have to admit, if my husband had his way, all I would ever make is the Marry Me Toffee! This recipe alone is worth the price of the book. Kudos to the author for this book: people like me whose mothers did not make toffee can learn to do so with ease, confidence and with great success!

My Girlfriend bought the book and made the Marry Me Toffee recipe... she made it for me! It was fabulous I proposed the next day...

Great Book... Go Buy It and and make some candy....