The holiday season seems to sneak up on us faster each year, especially for candy makers. If you’re looking to elevate your confections this year, RCI member LorAnn Oils shares five ingredients and accessories that can make your holiday candy-making even sweeter.
1. Desiccant Packs
Shipping delays can be a headache during the busy holiday rush, but desiccant packs are a simple solution. These food-grade packs absorb moisture, ensuring your confections remain fresh during storage and transit. By protecting your sweet creations from humidity, you can avoid spoilage and maintain that delicious flavor.
2. Invertase
For those rich, creamy treats we all love—think mint
patties, truffles, and chocolate-covered cherries—invertase can be a game
changer. This natural enzyme, derived from yeast, transforms table sugar
(sucrose) into a liquid form by splitting it into glucose and fructose. This
“invert sugar” not only enhances flavor but also keeps your candies fresh
longer.
3. Dipping Tool Set
Creating eye-catching, sweet treats this holiday season is
a breeze when you have a dipping tool set on hand. With dipping tools, like a
fork or a spiral tool, you can easily dip and decorate fruits, candies, nuts
and more with melted chocolate and other coatings.
4. Cream of Tartar
Rather than using liquid corn syrup, opt for cream of
tartar when making hard candy. This age-old ingredient prevents sugar
crystallization, ensuring your candies have that smooth, glassy finish everyone
craves. Nobody wants large, crunchy sugar crystals ruining their holiday
treats, and cream of tartar is your secret weapon for achieving the perfect smoother,
glassy candies.
5. Soy Lecithin
Not all flavors respond the same when added into cooked
sugars, particularly heavier, oil-soluble ones that can be more difficult to
fully incorporate. The flavor may pool in moulds or float to the tops of candy,
yielding uneven flavor throughout. To ensure an even distribution of flavors in
your candies, add a small amount of soy lecithin to your boiled candy syrup.
This emulsifying agent helps keep oils evenly mixed and emulsified throughout
the batch. A quarter teaspoon of lecithin per cup of sugar will do the trick.
With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, these
“not-so-secret” ingredients and tools can take your confections to the next
level of perfection. By incorporating these tips, you’ll create candies that
are consistently longer lasting, fresher tasting, but also deliciously smooth
and creamy. This holiday season, make your sweet creations the highlight of the
festivities! Happy candy-making!
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