Book Review: The Sweet Book of Candy Making by Elizabeth LaBau; Quarry Publishing

Create your own delicious, gorgeous, and professional-quality candies with The Sweet Book of Candy Making. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned candy maker, you will find mouthwatering recipes and expert tips to inspire you—and satisfy your sweet tooth.

Inside, you'll find:

—Candy-making essentials: all you need to know about equipment, ingredients, and techniques, including step-by-step lessons on pulling taffy, rolling truffles, filling peanut butter cups, and more

—More than 50 recipes for sugar candies, fondant, caramels, toffee, fudge, truffles, chocolates, marshmallows, and fruit and nut candies

—Troubleshooting tips for each type of candy

—How to perfect the classics you love, from English Toffee to Chocolate Fudge to Peanut Brittle

—Try your hand at something new: Pistachio Marzipan Squares, Passion Fruit Marshmallows, Mango-Macadamia Nut Caramels, Lemon Meringue Lollipops, and more

—Decorating techniques to show off your tasty results

Get started in your kitchen with The Sweet Book of Candy Making!

My Review

I have a ton of candy/confection books and this is probably my top favorite out of all of them. I love it because it focuses on 9 types of candies and also helps with getting it CORRECT every single time because it helps you with troubleshooting IF something does go wrong.

The other candy books I have don’t do this, which makes it hard to figure out what to do next IF something DOESN’T go just as planned. The pictures help as well. They are very detailed and the instructions are easy to understand and very descriptive.

I love how she goes into detail and fully explains each ingredient and tools. It fully describes why you can’t mix this with that and what will happen- so if you DO happen to adventure further with candy making you won’t have a ton of mistakes on your hands.

The ingredients that are detailed are broken into sections:

• sweeteners; granulated sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar..
• chocolates; cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, dark chocolate..
• Dairy Products; Cream, Milk, Evaporated Milk, Sweetened Condensed milk..

She also explains which type of Nuts, Fruits, Flavorings, Extracts, and Salt is best used when making candy.

Then there is a whole chapter dedicated to techniques of working with candy making ingredients. This is what I definitely LOVED most about this book. It fully takes you step by step WITH pictures to show you how to work with melting sugar, calibrating your candy thermometer, working with chocolate.. and so much more.

That’s why this book is GREAT for those who wish they could make their own deliciousness at home but aren’t sure what to do, how to do it, and what’s the best way to achieve the results!! THIS book SHOWS you!

This is definitely a must have book no matter where your at in candy making. If you’re an experienced candy maker OR a beginner- this book has something (even techniques that experienced candy makers will love to know).. for everyone!

I definitely love that there are clear, precise pictures of every SINGLE recipe in the book that way I have something to compare my creations to when they are done.

 

About the Author

Elizabeth LaBau is a food writer and confectioner based in Los Angeles, California. She applies her years of experience as a professional pastry chef to bringing a modern touch to the world of old-fashioned candy making. Since 2006, she has been the Guide to Candy at About.com, an online division of the New York Times Company. At http://candy.about.com, she provides fun, creative candy recipes and step-by-step tutorials for the home cook. When she's not playing with sugar in the kitchen, she can be found running the trails around Los Angeles with a piece of candy tucked into her pocket. Visit her online at http://www.elizabethlabau.com, http://www.sugarhero.com, and http://www.runningwithsugars.com.

Buy It:  The Sweet Book of Candy Making $18.74

 

Jessica Renee