Foil sweet wrappersThis is the only way to guarantee success with mixtures that need to be cooked to a specific temperature. See p.22 for details on using a sugar thermometer and a few tips on how to check the stages manually.
A chocolate thermometer is required for tempering chocolate. It is easier to read than a sugar thermometer, as it has a narrower and more clearly defined range.
If you plan to dip truffles and chocolates in melted chocolate, dipping forks are highly recommended. Round ones with a simple loop are good for truffles and forks with long and thin tines will work well for other shapes. A dining fork can be used if necessary, but you will not have quite such a neat result as the tines are thick and close together and will retain more chocolate than necessary.
Each recipe tells you what size saucepan to use and whether it should be coated or not. While coated pans are excellent for sticky mixtures such as many Indian sweets, other mixtures are best cooked in uncoated pans with a very heavy base. That way, you can monitor colour changes better and the contents will be less likely to burn.
Chocolate needs to be melted slowly and carefully, especially if it is to be used as a coating. A double boiler does the best job. If you don’t have one, improvise by using a saucepan topped by a heatproof bowl that fits snugly on top, so that no steam can escape and spoil the chocolate.
Wooden spoons and spatulas and silicone spatulas are called for. Wooden spoons are an all-purpose aid for very liquid mixtures, but spatulas are good for scraping the bases of pans. Silicone spatulas are useful for their flexibility to scrape things that are in danger of sticking to the sides of pans. Flexible plastic scrapers are good for any number of jobs, especially those that involve removing or spreading sticky mixtures.
A small wire whisk is useful for stirring mixtures that have a tendency to become lumpy and will also give a smoother finish than a spoon when blending other ingredients such as chocolate and cream.
A silicone mat is a wonderful non-stick aid that can replace baking parchment or greaseproof paper in many cases and can also be used to roll out anything from pastry to marzipan.
Useful for lining tins for both sweets and cakes, baking parchment is coated with silicone, making release easy. It can be used with hot or cold mixtures. Use greaseproof paper for cold or cool mixtures, or the wax coating will melt and stick firmly to the product as it cools.
This is absolutely essential for wrapping and also for rolling marzipan and pastry in a mess-free and safe way.
I use plain wooden rolling pins that have become seasoned with use. A working length of about 30 cm/12 in will cover most possibilities.
A large offset palette knife will serve most purposes. A small one is useful for decorating smaller items neatly.
A ruler is absolutely essential for measuring diameters, heights and widths. A metal one is very hygienic in the kitchen, as it can be washed after use.
The recipes tell you what size to use for which purpose. A 20-cm/8-in square tin and small, medium and large loaf tins will take you quite far. The base measurements are more important than the volume in most cases. Here are some indications: Small: 8.5 × 17 cm/3 × 7 in. Medium: 10 × 20 cm/4 × 8 in. Large: 10.5 × 29 cm/4 × 11 in, or 11.5 × 23 cm/4½ × 9 in.
A heavy-duty freestanding electric mixer makes quick work of cake batters and is also needed for some sweets such as marzipan and nougat. Hand-whisking can replace it in some cases, but always check the advice in the recipe.
This is one of the most useful tools to have in the kitchen. It is extremely easy to use as it can be immersed into any bowl of mixture. It gives unbeatably smooth results for sauces, fudge, etc., but will not introduce much air and is less suitable for whipping cream.
A food processor is an ideal tool for grinding nuts finely or chopping chocolate. Failing that, you can try a hand-held rotary grater for nuts and a regular coarse grater for chocolate.
I cannot stress enough how important good digital scales are; they are the only way to ensure accuracy. I am not a fan of volume measurements as they can be very hit-or-miss, depending on how you use them, e.g. spooning flour into a cup or dipping the flour from a canister with the cup. Liquid measures are fine, as are measuring spoons for small amounts of dry ingredients and liquids. When things like syrup and honey are given by weight, an easy way to measure them is to put the container on the scales and use the tare function to set it at 0. After that you simply have to keep count of how much you have removed. For instance, removing 25 g/1 oz will register as -25 g/-1 oz. If you don’t have a tare function, you can do it by mental arithmetic.
Attractive presentation can give great satisfaction. Think of truffles in coloured cases packed in a pretty cardboard box or peppermint creams in foil wrappers or neat stacks of biscuits in paper cases in a tin. Here are some of the items you might like to consider:
Foil sweet wrappers
Squares of greaseproof paper
Foil or paper cases in various sizes
Pretty tins for biscuits
Decorated waxed cardboard boxes
Food grade cellophane bags and pouches
Food grade roll of cellophane
A quick surf on the internet will soon find any online suppliers or cake decorating shops in your neighbourhood and many items are now stocked in the baking section of good supermarkets. Check shops that carry articles for kids’ parties too; they often have colourful waxed cardboard boxes in various sizes, intended for carry-home treats. I have used Jane Asher and Squires Kitchen’s mail order services and find them to be prompt and efficient. They stock all kinds of exciting articles including thermometers, gold and silver leaf, flower waters and pretty packaging materials.
