I urge you in the strongest of terms to use metric weights. These are not only extremely precise, but they also show you the proportions at a glance. Imperial weights are the next best thing, but it is not that easy to weigh out quarter ounces. Volume measurements make me uneasy. 100g is always 100g, and a pound is always a pound. When it comes to volume, a cup is what the cook makes of it. If flour is dipped from a bag and the crown swept off with a knife, it can weigh 10-20% more than a cup into which flour is spooned. Similarly, a reader will immediately understand that 100g of ground blanched almonds is exactly the same as 100g of blanched almonds that still have to be ground. Using cups the reader must be careful to read what is intended: is it 1 cup of already ground blanched almonds or 1 cup of blanched almonds, still to be ground? Careless reading can cause unnecessary problems. If you use volume measurements, note that the ‘dip and sweep’ method has been used in the conversions in this book.
Sugar is such a plain and simple ingredient, but there can be pitfalls. Although each recipe tells you what kind of sugar to use for the promised result, it is an unfortunate fact of life that sugar can vary, depending on its origin and method of production. I have never had any trouble with granulated, caster and icing sugars, but demerara sugar now comes in many guises. Real demerara sugar is a joy. It is unrefined cane sugar that has hard, pale golden crystals with a flavour that veers towards caramel. However, it dissolves more slowly than other types and if you rush things and bring it to the boil before it dissolves completely, it will re-crystallise erratically and give hard flecks to your sweets. An even greater problem is the authenticity of demerara sugar and the creative new ways of labelling. I strongly suspect some types of being tampered with. Avoid any demerara sugar that is too moist; particularly avoid ‘dark’ demerara sugar, which is so syrupy as to lean towards muscovado. These will make your sweets sandy-textured. If in any doubt, substitute granulated sugar for demerara.
A sugar thermometer is really the only fail-safe way to ensure the correct temperature and stage of the sugar. Buy a good one and put your trust in it. I like a flat clip-on model, with the bulb neatly encased so that it does not touch the base of the pan and give you a reading for the pan rather than its contents. The clip is usually adjustable and once you attach it to the pan, it stays in place so that you can constantly monitor the temperature. The stages are usually also printed on the flat metal backing in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, leaving little room for error. Whatever thermometer you choose, make sure that it is a sugar thermometer and not an ordinary cooking one, and read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully. Unless your thermometer is digital, bend down to read it from the front – don’t look down from above, which may give you a false reading.
To check the accuracy of your thermometer, put it in a pan of boiling water and see if it registers 100°C/212°F. If you can’t use a thermometer, guidelines for hand-testing follow and the names of the stages are very descriptive. You may get some deviation as to texture, so be prepared for that. Milk mixtures are not usually cooked beyond firm ball stage. Chewy caramels and toffees go from firm to hard ball stage. Brittles go from soft to hard crack. Follow the directions in each individual recipe.
Thread (110–112°C/230–234°F): Press some of the mixture between your thumb and forefinger, then extend your fingers. The mixture should stretch in a thread.
Soft ball (112–115°C/234–240°F): Pour a little of the mixture into a bowl of very cold water. If you press it between your thumb and forefinger, it should stay together as a very soft whole without dissolving or falling apart immediately.
Firm ball (118–120°C/245–248°F): Pour a little of the mixture into a bowl of very cold water. If you press it between your thumb and forefinger, it should form a firmly pliable whole.
Hard ball (121–130°C/250–265°F): Pour a little of the mixture into a bowl of very cold water. If you press it between your thumb and forefinger, it should stay together as a hard and barely pliable ball that will not crack when pressed.
Soft crack (132–143°C/270–290°F): Pour a little of the syrup into cold water. It will harden into threads but will still be flexible.
Hard crack (149–154°C/300–310°F): Pour a little of the syrup into cold water. It will harden into brittle threads that break when you try to bend them.
Caramel (158–170°C/320–340°F): The syrup will darken in colour. The sugar breaks down and re-forms crystals in a different way. Strange though it may sound, the darker the colour, the softer the caramel.
Use a saucepan that is uncoated so that you can see the changes of colour. The saucepan should be quite large, holding at least four to five times the amount you put in. Sugar syrups bubble merrily but fairly modestly; fudge can be quite tempestuous, rising volcanically from time to time. See Creamy Creations (p.80) for more specific information on milk and sugar mixtures.
Follow the instructions in the recipe regarding stirring, or you can get very unexpected results. If you don’t allow the sugar to dissolve, for instance, before boiling it to the required stage, you may find that it all crystallises on the surface, looking like a desert landscape, and it will be next to impossible to break up all the crystals in time for it to cook to the right consistency.
Simple sugar mixtures tend to cook a lot faster than those enriched with milk and butter. Enriched or not, the mixture ‘pauses’. Just when you think that things are moving along nicely, it pauses quite stubbornly and may even make a slight downward movement before continuing to climb again in the right direction.
! Attractive though it is to allow children to see things like honeycomb foam, keep them away from the actual process, as hot sugar can inflict severe burns if treated carelessly and accidental spills do happen to even the most careful cook.
Each recipe tells you whether the nuts should be toasted or not, and if you should leave them whole, chop or grind them.
To toast nuts, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Scatter the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet with sides. Give the sheet a shake a few times during the process. The exact toasting time depends on how well toasted you want the nuts to be and toasting is meant to bring out the flavour. If you allow them to become too brown, they will have an unpleasantly bitter taste. Use the following guidelines based on whole skinless nuts, but rely on your sight and sense of smell. Allow them to cool before using, unless the recipe explicitly states otherwise.
Almonds 10–12 minutes
Cashews 8–10 minutes
Hazelnuts 10–12 minutes
Pine nuts 5 minutes
Pistachios 7–10 minutes
Walnuts and pecans with skins 10–12 minutes (although I find them better and sweeter untoasted)
Macadamias are crisp enough to use as they are
You can also toast nuts in a dry frying pan, but timing depends on the pan, heat and type of nuts. I generally use the frying pan only for pine nuts. Keep shaking the pan until the nuts reach the desired stage. The drawback with this method is that the nuts are prone to developing dark spots where they come into contact with the pan and do not colour as evenly as in the oven.
Grinding is best done in a food processor and if you add a small amount of the sugar or flour from the recipe (don’t add extra!), you will be able to grind finer and drier as some of the oil will be absorbed.
Chopping is best done by hand so that you can monitor the size of the pieces. A large knife and a chopping board will work well, but if you have one, a mezzaluna and a shallow wooden bowl (used to chop fresh herbs) work even better, as the nuts don’t fly all over the place.
Chocolate needs to be melted for a number of recipes. Chop it into small pieces to ensure even melting. If you are handy with the microwave method, use it by all means and remember to use short bursts rather than prolonged heating. I don’t care for this method, as it can scorch the chocolate and it heats less evenly. Slower and more even melting over hot water on the stove is better. If you don’t have a double boiler, improvise one with a saucepan and a heatproof bowl that fits snugly over it so that steam will not escape and fall onto the chocolate. The water should be barely simmering and the bowl should not touch the water. Leave to melt, stirring as necessary, and remove from the heat. If the chocolate is to be combined with cream (for truffles and glazes), the cream is usually heated in a pan and the finely chopped chocolate is added off the heat and left to melt before being stirred until smooth.
Melted chocolate will be fine for most things, but if you want a crisp and shiny finish, you will need to temper it. I’ll provide you with some facts and views as well as a way to temper chocolate manually, and leave you to decide whether it is for you.
Essentially, tempering chocolate means putting it into a good frame of mind so that it will set with a crispness and attractive sheen. This can happen only if the cocoa butter melts completely and is evenly distributed. Tempered chocolate will also contract on cooling, so tempering is absolutely necessary for moulded chocolates or you will have a hard time prising them out of their moulds. Professional chocolatiers use machines that will do it all and end up with great results. Hand tempering has got to be the most frustrating culinary process known to man. It sometimes seems that every possible element joins the conspiracy to sabotage all one’s careful monitoring. And you don’t discover it until you have dipped an entire batch. The dipped chocolates glisten up at you very desirably and bit by bit they set. If you have been successful, they will keep on glistening, but in a dry way. The odd renegade or two are not so hard to take; they can be eaten as samples. But when you see a pattern, like a gilded abstract painting appear, dejection sets in. The first time it happens, you tell yourself that it is actually quite a nice pattern. But you know that you would prefer to have no pattern. I cling to the consoling belief that hand-tempering does not sit well with my philosophy that sweet-making should be enjoyable and rarely bother with it. There are many methods, some involving several stages of heating and cooling, others requiring some of the chocolate to be worked on a marble slab. I use the following method on the rare occasions that I bother to temper. I have found that larger quantities work better than smaller ones and it will be hardly worth your while to use less than 500 g/1 lb 2 oz. The excess can be re-melted later for other uses.
You will need a chocolate thermometer. A sugar thermometer will not work as the range is wider and that makes it difficult to get a precise reading. Chop the chocolate finely. Melt 80 per cent of the quantity in the pan or bowl above barely simmering water and allow dark chocolate to reach 45°C/113°F (milk chocolate 32°C/90°F and white 30°C/86°F). Remove the pan or bowl immediately and put it on a wooden surface or a mat. Thoroughly stir in the remaining 20 per cent, then allow the temperature to decrease to 30–32°C/86–90°F (milk chocolate 30°C/86°F and white 28°C/82°F). If you need to dip a lot of chocolates, put the bowl of tempered chocolate over a pan of warm (not hot) water to keep the temperature stable.