Small, firm and flavourful cherries sold in jars with syrup. The best brands are Italian. The syrup can be used over ice cream and desserts when the cherries are gone.
This is usually a combination of bicarbonate of soda and an acid agent that is mixed to a special formula and sold as baking powder. Double-acting baking powder is fairly standard nowadays and although it works in two spurts, once when liquid is added and next when heated, it is still imperative that cakes be baked as soon as they are mixed. Biscuit doughs with baking powder that need to rest before baking have been designed with that in mind.
On its own, bicarbonate of soda doesn’t have much power and needs an acid to help it act. This will usually be provided in the recipe, so there is no need to take further action.
Unless otherwise stated, unsalted butter is used throughout this book. Do not substitute margarine; it lacks flavour and will not give the same result, because it may behave erratically, depending on its composition.
All of my recipes use premium quality alkalised cocoa. Alkalisation (a process also called ‘Dutching’) reduces the acidity and gives a deep colour and is standard in Europe. Non-alkalised cocoa is the norm in the United States and needs an acid ingredient to make it taste well in a cake. Readers should look for European-style cocoa.
The Before You Start section (see p.22) gives a lot of general information about chocolate, but here are the practicalities. Choose any good-quality chocolate that you like, but I would suggest something along the following lines as far as the percentage of cocoa solids go: dark chocolate 55–70%; milk chocolate at least 35%; and white chocolate at least 30%. If you deviate greatly from these, you can expect different results. Callebaut 55% is my standard dark chocolate and it is what I use when a recipe simply says ‘dark chocolate’; it is easy-going and will allow itself to be put to almost any use. For truffles, Lindt 70% has a wonderful fruity flavour, but needs a little more attention. Green and Black’s is also superb.
Also known as sprinkles, these are small, thin lengths of dark, milk or white chocolate and sometimes come as flattened flakes. They are good for decorating chocolates, especially truffles. Interestingly, the Dutch look down on them as decoration because they are usually eaten on bread. They come in a variety of flavours and qualities, including intensely dark.
Only one recipe calls for fresh coconut, which can also be bought ready-grated and frozen. The others use unsweetened desiccated coconut that comes in fine or medium cuts. When a specific cut is required in the recipe, substituting another may alter the results, but there will no dramatic changes.
This is not to be confused with cornmeal, which is ground from the whole kernel. Cornflour is the starch extracted from corn and as it contains next to no gluten, it is often used to ‘cut’ flour, producing a more tender product.
Double cream is used in these recipes and it is interchangeable with whipping cream as long as the fat content is at least 48%. Use single cream (18% fat) only if specifically requested. Pasteurised cream from the chilling cabinet has a far finer flavour than UHT (ultra heat-treated) cream, which has a longer shelf life.
Crystallised rose and violet petals add fragrance and colour to whatever they adorn. Whole petals are eye-catching but quite expensive and the more economical fragments are usually large enough to decorate chocolates. Note that both kinds are hard and solidly coated with sugar; they are not simply petals that have been dipped in egg white and passed through sugar.
The eggs called for weigh between 60 g/2½ oz and 65 g/2¼ oz in the shell, yielding a net weight between 50 g/1¾ oz and 55 g/2 oz. A few grams will not affect the overall outcome in a cake, but for recipes where a weight is given for egg whites, do stick strictly to that. The egg whites in nougat and marshmallows are uncooked and although it is quite rare for whites to be infected with salmonella, they could form a potential health risk for vulnerable groups such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly and those whose immune systems are under strain. Small cartons of pasteurised egg whites are becoming increasingly available in large supermarkets. This will be a safer option, but it is up to you to choose what to do.
Unless otherwise stated, this refers to wheat flour. I use plain flour. This allows the raising agent to be added as required and it does not contain any salt, as some kinds of self-raising flours do.
Rose water is distilled from the petals of roses, and orange flower water from the flowers of bitter oranges. Both have a distinctive and fragrant perfume and combine well with sweet things. Buy wisely and choose pure products, as there are many inferior brands on the market that are synthetic and nasty tasting. Indian grocers will sometimes steer you in the direction of kewra extract or essence as a substitute for rose water. However, kewra extract is made from the flowers of the screwpine (Pandanus tectorius) and has a different flavour.
Ghee is clarified butter widely employed in Indian dishes. It contains less moisture than butter, making it less prone to spitting and burning when heated in a pan. Vegetable ghee is simply a nice name for margarine, so beware.
Glucose syrup (see Liquid glucose)
Sold in tiny vials or in books between sheets of tissue paper, these are pure forms of the metals and are edible although without apparent flavour. They are hammered down from small nuggets to an almost unbelievable thinness. Buy from a reliable source to ensure pureness; there have been cases in India of aluminium being substituted for silver. Indian grocers stock silver leaf (called vark), which is abundantly employed as a decoration for sweets. Gold leaf, which is more expensive, is available from good stockists of cake decorating materials and makes an extremely elegant decoration for chocolates and cakes.
Golden syrup is a golden-coloured flavourful by-product of cane sugar refining that is used in sweets and cakes as well as on its own as a sweetener. Unless actively encouraged to do so in the recipe, do not substitute corn syrup of any kind. The two syrups are very different in composition and arbitrary substitution can have unexpected – usually negative – results. Even when substitution is possible, the proportions may vary. Because golden syrup is often used in the UK as a substitute for corn syrup, many believe that it works both ways, and that golden syrup can be replaced with corn syrup. It may work in recipes with a soft baked filling, such as Pecan Pie (the American original uses corn syrup in any case), but many hard sweets such as brittle and honeycomb need golden syrup to achieve the characteristic flavour and texture. Where possible, I have given alternatives in the recipes, but I urge readers most fervently to look for Lyle’s Golden Syrup. It can be found in many large supermarkets, in international groceries and most certainly online. Amazon carry it in both tins and bottles.
Often referred to by its Indian name besan, gram flour is made from chickpeas. Toasting brings out a pleasant nutty aroma that makes it delicious in sweets. It is generally used in its natural form in savoury dishes. Indian brands are best for these recipes.
This is matcha, a very fine powdered tea that is best known as Japanese tea ceremony tea. It gives marvellous colour and flavour to sweets and baked treats. It is quite expensive, but a little goes a long way. You will not be able to achieve the same effect if you try to turn green tea leaves into powder at home.
The oldest sweetener known to man is not quite immune to human intervention. There is pure natural honey that is totally untampered with and there is ‘pure’ honey made by bees who have been fed large amounts of sugar to speed up production and eliminate the need to forage. Then there is thickened sugar syrup sold by the unscrupulous as honey. Obviously, pure and natural honey is to be used. I use runny golden to amber-coloured honey unless otherwise stated.
These are called coloured sprinkles in the US, but they are not exactly the same as they are tiny sticks. Hundreds and thousands are minute sugar balls coated with bright colours and make a simple but attractive decoration.
Use sipping quality ones that you would also enjoy in a glass. They have the strongest flavour in uncooked preparations such as truffles. Cooking will make the alcohol evaporate, leaving flavour without an alcoholic kick. Maraschino is very often sold in tiny bottles, so you can use it up very quickly as needed, with little loss of flavour.
Liquid glucose is a thick clear syrup that is valued in sweet-making because it retards crystal formation and allows a smooth texture to develop. It is not quite the same in composition as light corn syrup, but can be substituted if absolutely necessary.
When simply ‘milk’ is called for, you can use either full cream milk with a fat content of 3–4%, or semi-skimmed milk with a fat content of 2%. Take the advice given in the recipe into account – for instance, using pasteurised whole milk rather than homogenised or UHT (ultra heat-treated) milk for making paneer. Evaporated milk has had almost half of its moisture removed, leaving a concentrated cream-coloured product with a slightly caramelised taste. It is not sweetened, unlike condensed milk whose sticky texture is due to its being cooked with sugar until thick and concentrated. Powdered milk (called dry milk by some) comes in full cream and fat-free variants that are widely used in Indian sweets. The two are not interchangeable, so use the kind specified.
Molasses (see Treacle)
Buy your nuts as freshly as you can from a reliable source. Walnuts are best bought in the shell, unless you use large amounts at a time. Choose French walnuts above Indian and Chinese. They are worth the expense. When selecting pistachios, try to get attractive green ones. Good-quality ground almonds will be finer than you can achieve at home and flaked almonds are best bought. Cashews have more flavour if you toast them just before use, so buy raw nuts from an Asian grocer or health food shop. See the Nice and Nutty chapter (p.128) for more information about nuts. The Before You Start section (p.22) will also tell you more about how to deal with the nuts.
There is a clear distinction between glutinous and non-glutinous rice flours and the two are not interchangeable. Glutinous rice flour gives a gummy texture and is used primarily in Asian food. Non-glutinous rice flour is used in this book. It is the ‘regular’ kind that you will find on a Western supermarket shelf. It makes looser-textured cakes and biscuits.
Coarsely milled durum wheat that comes in fine, medium and coarse grades. It holds its shape well after cooking and retains moisture, adding bite and texture to products.
These balls of sugar are coated with a fine layer of edible silver and come in various sizes. They have no clear flavour apart from sugar and are used for decoration.
Also known as edible wafer paper, starch wafers are made from various kinds of starches and are very useful for lining tins when making sticky confectionery. Sweet shops sell coloured versions, but plain white gives the best effect.
Comes in jars, preserved in syrup. The pieces are usually the size of a finger joint and, as it is a natural product, strength varies. It is usually chopped very finely before being added.
Given the choice, I would always choose cane sugar above beet sugar, as it has so much more flavour. However, in Europe we generally have to make do with the beet sugar that lines supermarket shelves, with the exception of demerara sugar. Real demerara sugar has very hard golden crystals and does not dissolve easily. This makes it unsuitable for creaming with butter, but it is very good in sweets when you take the time to handle it as it should be. Granulated sugar is the coarsest of the other sugars, followed by caster sugar, which has slightly smaller crystals. Icing sugar is ground to a fine powder and dissolves almost instantly. Each kind of sugar has been chosen for its special characteristics, so do not interchange them in the recipes, except in rare cases where absolutely necessary, such as substituting granulated sugar for unreliable brands of demerara sugar. (Please also see Before You Start, About Sugar, p.22.)
Dark treacle is known as molasses in some countries. Like golden syrup, it is a by-product of cane sugar refining, but unlike its clearer and sweeter sister, dark treacle is extremely deep in colour and has a pleasantly pungent, earthy flavour with a restrained sweetness. It gives a unique flavour to sweets and cakes.
I find that with vanilla, you get what you pay for, so it is well worth spending a little extra on this most delectable of flavourings as it will add life to your sweets. Choose natural extracts or fresh soft pods. The main kinds are Tahitian, Madagascar and Mexican and each has its own flavour characteristics.
A few of the sweets require vinegar. Use a neutral-tasting natural product.