Boiled French Cream Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and stir well.
Do not stir again.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Test the mixture by dipping a fork into it; if the last drop forms a hair, it's ready.
Drop a teaspoonful into cold water; if it forms a soft ball between your fingers, it's done.
Cool and work the candy
Pour the mixture into a shallow dish and let it cool.
When it's blood warm, begin stirring with a spoon.
As it stiffens, take pieces and work them between your palms like bread dough.
The quicker and harder you work, the finer your candy will be.
Add flavoring as desired.
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
- Sugar
- Forms the sweet, crystalline body of the candy as the syrup cooks and sets.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a syrup evenly.
The step that matters
Do not stir again after combining. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup can encourage sugar crystals to form, which leads to a grainy rather than smooth candy. Keeping the pan undisturbed helps the syrup cook evenly and crystallize slowly when worked later.
“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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