Candy Making for Beginners: Easy Recipes for Homemade Caramels, Gummies, Lollipops, and More -Karen Neugebauer

★★★★ ½

These days most candy comes from giant factories…but it wasn’t always so. Candy, like any food, has a long tradition of being lovingly created by someone in the home, with recipes passed down from one generation to the next.

As an avid baker, I absolutely adore trying out new recipes for muffins, cakes and cookies out on my coworkers.

But there is one thing I have never tried – candy. (Dun. Dun. Dunnnn.)

It’s always seemed so difficult and the potential for disaster ran too high (have you ever smelled burnt sugar? Yeah. Not an experience I ever want to revisit).

And then, I saw this gorgeous book.

Many people think making candy at home, in your own kitchen, is complicated, difficult, and expensive. It’s not.

This book walks you through the basic techniques and equipment for over seven types of candy.

From Fudge to Lollipops to Gummies – this book has it all.

I really enjoyed the little paragraph before each section where the author broke down what made each type of candy unique.

Fudge

The ideal fudge is like a white whale – mythical, elusive, and obsession-inducing to the point of madness in some.

Plus the tips and tricks scattered throughout the sections helped really explain aspects of candy-making that I never thought of before.

Technique Spotlight
Stirring

Stirring correctly is a very important part of creating the perfect candy,,. The speed and pattern of stirring both matter.

I do wish there were more pictures – there were pictures before and after each section, but I would’ve loved to see pictures of the individual candies.

There were plenty of recipes that had just enough blank spaces for a small picture of a finished project – and when you are teaching someone how to do a (relatively) unfamiliar technique, it’s really helpful to have that extra visual to confirm (or deny) how well you followed the recipe.

Overall though, I am really excited to get into the kitchen and try out these recipes! They look like so much fun and I cannot wait for our next family party!!

Life is worth celebrating!

With thanks to the Callisto Publisher’s Club, Rockridge Press and the author for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Interested in this one from Karen Neugebauer? Buy it here:  Amazon