Ever since primitive man stumbled upon a honeycomb and tried its contents, people have steadily developed a taste for sweetness. Across the ages, honey made way for sugar, and sugar went from being a luxurious seasoning to a cheap household staple, but it never lost its charm and continues to hold us in its thrall. The first sweets were sold by apothecaries as remedies for chest and stomach complaints as well as other minor disorders, and ladies prided themselves on being able to create home cures based on sugar and herbs from their gardens. As time went by and sugar became more widely available, sweet-making began to thrive. By the eighteenth century it was quite prestigious to be a confectioner, but this was not only a case of being able to make small and tasty titbits, fabulous sugar sculptures were created by masters of the art.
At the root of it all lies sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum), which was domesticated between 8000 and 4000 B.C., most likely in Papua New Guinea. From there, it travelled to Southeast Asia, China and India as well as the Pacific Islands. Native species already existed in these places, but they were soon replaced with the choicer Papuan variety. Several nations have been involved in the development, cultivation and popularisation of both cane and sugar and no continent has escaped its touch. Papuans refined the cultivation, Chinese and Indians invented methods for producing sugar from the juice of the sweet reeds, Arabs took it westwards to the Mediterranean and Europe, Africans suffered enslavement to satisfy Europe’s sweet tooth. It is a complicated story that is filled with enterprise, inventiveness, opulence, decadence, cruelty, atrocity and greed, all so tightly intertwined that it is best if we reflect on the product itself rather than its turbulent past. The production of beet sugar in commercial quantities started only in the early nineteenth century and while it is an ideal crop for temperate zones, it remains simply a sweetener, with none of the flavour of cane sugar.
This book is about sweet treats, but what is a sweet? Is it a toffee, a truffle, a tiny pastry drenched in syrup, a piece of marzipan or a slice of cake? It is all of these things and more, depending on where you happen to be. The common denominator is sugar (or, in rare cases, honey) and things developed around this key ingredient. You will find that sweets easily fall into one of five main categories. There are those that depend almost exclusively on sugar, e.g. boiled sweets and honeycomb; then there are the milk-based marvels such as fudge and burfi; next, we can identify nutty delights including marzipan; moving on, we arrive at chocolate in all its sumptuousness in truffles and brownies; and we close the list with flour confectionery in the form of cakes, biscuits and pastries. Naturally, there are many hybrids and a sweet can fall into more than one category at the same time.
Looking at the recipes, you may feel that a particular region is heavily represented in a specific category. This is not intended as a statement, but is simply a reflection of the culture. My quest was to give you the best there is. Spaniards, for instance, are uneasy around butter, but give them a handful or two of almonds and they will charm the taste buds right out of your mouth. North Africans constantly use nut bases and give them variety by adding a few drops of rose water here or orange flower water there. It can never be doubted that Indians know how to turn a pan of milk into a delectable treat, nor can anyone contest that Americans rule the brownie-making world. I had to do all of these the justice they deserve. For those of you who are wondering at the blatant omission of the wonderful world of filo and baklava, there is a valid reason: I dealt with those in great depth in my previous book, Warm Bread and Honey Cake.
I have tried out these treats on many people: friends, relatives, neighbours, people working around the house, even the colleagues of my husband and daughter. The one thing that became quite clear was that sweets make people’s eyes light up, but at the same time they are very personal and can inspire strong likes and dislikes. There is no universal standard for appreciating sweets. It is a taste that is generally learned by exposure and experience, or acquired as a result of circumstances. Preferences will often depend on your geographic location and ethnic background. Wherever you live, you are bound to find a familiar favourite here, but I hope to tempt you to try many others that you may not yet know. I have given as wide a range as I could and even with the most basic skills, you will be able to find something to suit you.
Preparation times vary and things like fudge, for instance, require patience. But you’ll have the pleasure of watching the ingredients blend and meld and metamorphose into something splendid. Others take just a few minutes, meaning almost instant gratification. All of the recipes have been well tested, but if things don’t turn out the way they should, don’t throw away your efforts prematurely. If you read the temperature on the thermometer wrongly, for instance, and your caramel doesn’t reach the right setting stage, you can use it warm as a sauce or topping. Remember that commercial sweets are made up to precise formulas that will produce uniform taste, texture and appearance and cannot be compared on any level with the joy of homemade ones. It can take a try or two to get accustomed to boiling and working with sugar and a minor setback can happen on occasion. Approach things lightly and enjoy yourself. Sweet-making at home should be a pleasurable activity with a tangible reward at the end. Once you have made them, you can brighten up so many peoples’ day. Single items, or boxes of assorted fudge, truffles or brownies all make good gifts, especially when well packaged. Don’t forget to add a little card with storage advice and an indication of shelf life.
I have greatly enjoyed putting together this collection and I hope it will appeal. For those of you who like to have their food put into perspective, there is background information sprinkled throughout the book. For those who prefer to get straight down to business, do so, but take the time to read through the ingredients and method before you start, so that your products turn out as they should.
Enjoy!