I am a big fan of chewy candy. For candy to be chewy, it needs to be in a rubbery state. If you look at the phase-diagram of a water-sucrose system you can see that the rubbery region is a huge one. We can produce candy with many different levels of firmness depending on the water content of the system. As you can see in the phase diagram below, amorphous candy with water content between roughly 67-96 % is in a rubbery state at room temperature.
If you want to know more about the theory of candy production, please check out my post about the basic knowledge of candy-making. Today, it’s all about the recipes. I have five recipes for you:
- Saltwater taffy
- Toffee
- Fudge
- Marshmallows
- Coconut candy
These are all very basic recipes that require only a few ingredients. You can always modify them to your taste with whatever flavorings or colorings you like.
Saltwater Taffy
In my post about aeration, I’ve already talked about the different ways of aerating candy. Saltwater taffy is aerated by kneading and pulling the hot sugar dough. However, please be cautious to not burn yourself when handling the hot candy mass.
Depending on your skill level, you can also divide the candy mass for saltwater taffy and give each dough a different color. Then you can create beautiful patterns by combining the different doughs skillfully. If you want to learn how to do that, search for candy-making videos on YouTube.
I don’t mind getting artistic when preparing candy so I usually only work with one dough. And I urge you as a beginner to do the same. Handling many doughs at once before they cool down can be a very challenging task.
Notes
Picture Source: Sean Freese, Wikimedia Commons
Ingredients
- 400 g granulated sugar
- 100 g glucose powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon flavoring extract of your choice
- a few drops of food coloring of your choice
Instructions
- Lightly spray your work surface with nonstick spray.
- In a pot with high sides, combine the sugar, glucose, salt, and water. Without stirring, cook the syrup to 124 °C (255 °F). Immediately remove the pan from the heat and add stir in the butter and flavoring extract. Pour the candy on your nonstick working surface and let it spread out. Add a few drops of food coloring and let the candy briefly cool down for a few minutes.
- With a spatula, fold the candy from the edges inwards to form the candy mass into a package. Put on plastic gloves and lightly spray them with nonstick spray before touching the candy mass. Knead the candy by hand until the food coloring is evenly distributed. Start pulling the candy apart with your hands without breaking the strands. Twist and fold the candy together, and pull it again. You need to do this for about 20 minutes.
- Divide the kneaded and stretched taffy into manageable pieces and roll it out into thin long ropes. Use scissors to cut the ropes into individual pieces of your desired size. Wrap the taffies in individual candy wrappers so they don’t stick together.
Toffee
Toffee is almost half butter which is what makes it so delicious. From a technical point of view, it is a hard-boiled candy. However, the butter softens up the texture so that you can bite through a piece of toffee.
Always work with a heavy pan that has a thick bottom. You want the heat to be evenly distributed. There’s a risk to burn the toffee or for the butter to separate from the candy mass if you have an uneven heat distribution.
Don’t forget to frequently stir the toffee while boiling the syrup. Usually, I would recommend against that because it encourages crystal formation. However, the toffee mass will burn if you don’t stir it.
Toffee
Ingredients
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 10 g glucose powder
- 225 g butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- In a pan with high sides, combine the sugar, glucose, butter, salt, and water. Heat the syrup while stirring frequently until it reaches 149 °C (300 °F). Pour the candy mass onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and spread it out into a thin and even layer. Wait for the candy mass to become pliable before scoring it into small rectangles while still warm. Leave the toffee to cool down to room temperature, then break it apart along the scored lines.
Fudge
Fudge is a softer version of toffee. Most of the butter gets replaced with heavy cream and the syrup gets boiled to only 115 °C (240 °C) instead of 149 °C (300 °F). Instead of cream, you could also use evaporated milk. However, I love fresh cream so that’s my preferred choice.
Fudge
Ingredients
- 200 granulated sugar
- 50 g glucose powder
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons butter
- vanilla extract, to taste
Instructions
- In a pot with high sides, combine the sugar, glucose, cream, and butter. Heat the syrup to 115 °C (240 °F). Take the pot immediately off the heat and season the candy mass with vanilla extract, to taste. Pour the candy mass into a small baking pan lined with parchment paper and leave to cool down until set. Cut the fudge into bite-sized pieces.
Marshmallows
These marshmallows are not your typical supermarket product. This recipe contains whipped egg whites to make them extra fluffy. Most commercial producers use a combination of gelatin and glucose powder to get a soft and squishy product. But if you’re working with gelatin + egg whites, like in this recipe, you should use more granulated sugar in relation to glucose.
While shopping in the grocery store, I challenge you to look at the ingredient lists for marshmallows. You will see that most commercial products don’t include egg whites. They rely on glucose syrup + gelatin as the main ingredients to make the marshmallows squishy.
If you’re feeling experimental, you can try to replicate grocery store marshmallows by reversing the ratio of granulated sugar to glucose in this recipe and by leaving out the egg whites.
Marshmallows
Ingredients
For hydrating the gelatin:
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 10 g gelatin powder
For the syrup:
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 60 g glucose powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup water
For aerating the candy:
- egg white from one large egg (about 35 g)
For seasoning and dusting the marshmallows:
- vanilla extract, to taste
- powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Line a small baking pan with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, combine the gelatin powder with 1/4 cup of cold water and set the bowl aside to let the gelatin hydrate.
- In a small bowl with high sides, combine the sugar, glucose, and salt. Add about half a cup of water and cook the syrup until it reaches 127 °C (260 °F).
- While the sugar syrup is boiling, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and briefly microwave the gelatin until liquified.
- Once the syrup has reached 127 °C (260 °F), immediately remove it from the heat and whisk in the liquified gelatin. Slowly stir the hot sugar syrup into the beaten egg whites. Continue whipping the candy mass for a few minutes until thick, shiny, and opaque. Season the candy mass with vanilla extract, to taste.
- Pour the marshmallows into the prepared baking pan and smooth out the top. Wait for the marshmallow mass to be fully set. This can take up to 8 hours.
- Dust the marshmallow and your knife with powdered sugar and cut it into pieces of your desired size.
Coconut Candy
Coconut candy is popular in tropical areas where they have many coconut trees. You can use coconut cream instead of heavy cream to create a candy similar to fudge. However, this recipe doesn’t use coconut cream but grated coconut.
This recipe is based on a Vietnamese recipe for coconut candy. Now you know that it is very hot and humid in Southern Vietnam. If you’re living in the Mekong Delta and cook candy in an open-air kitchen, you better boil your candy a little hotter than if you live in Germany because the sugar will suck up moisture from the environment as it cools down. Remember how I told you that rainy days are no good days to make candy.
So for this recipe to work, I recommend you to cook the syrup only to 116 °C (240 °F) instead of 127 °C (260 °F). Now that is quite a drastic change. I got to admit that I prefer softer candy and don’t like to bite on something hard. But it is also true that you will end up with a hockey puck if you cook the syrup to 127 °C (260 °F) on a dry winter day in Germany. Maybe on a rainy summer day, you can experiment to cook the syrup to a higher temperature and see what happens.
Coconut Candy (‘Kokos-Kaubonbons’)
Ingredients
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 60 g glucose powder
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 70 g grated coconut
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- a pinch of baking soda
Instructions
- In a pot with high sides, combine the sugar and glucose powder. Heat the syrup to 116 °C (240 °F). Stir in the butter until melted. Then continue to boil the syrup without stirring until it reaches 127 °C (260 °F) if you live in a tropical climate or if it is summer and raining outside. If you are working in a dry and cool climate, cook the syrup only to 120 °C (240 °F). Immediately take the syrup off the heat and stir in the grated coconut, salt, and baking soda. Pour the hot candy mass into a container lined with parchment paper. Wait for the candy mass to cool down to room temperature before slicing the candy and wrapping the individual pieces in a piece of candy wrapper.
