Spanish Liquorice Jujubes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gum
Dissolve the gum arabic in hot water and strain it clean.
Make the jujube base
Boil the dissolved gum with the sugar until it reaches the small pearl stage.
Incorporate the prepared Spanish liquorice into the mixture.
Remove any scum from the surface.
Cast the mixture in layers of starch powder in a flat box.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Gum arabic
- Forms a flexible gel that gives the jujubes their chewy, elastic body.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, when boiled to pearl stage, helps set the candy's firm texture.
- Spanish liquorice
- Supplies the characteristic licorice flavour and dark colour to the mixture.
The step that matters
Boiling to the small pearl stage. Boiling to the small pearl stage concentrates the sugar enough for the candy to set firm rather than sticky. Underboiling leaves the jujubes soft and tacky, while overboiling makes them hard and brittle.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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