Sweetpea's Sweetie Shop (Sweet Things)

Member Name: sweetpea01

Product:	Sweet Things
Date:	19/05/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great old fashioned sweets

Disadvantages: Can be tricky to make

On a recent trip back to see my parents, my mother and I went into Knowle (a little town just outside of Solihull) as she wanted to go a few certain shops. On walking down the main high street I noticed that there had been a shop open which was a nostalgic sweet shop! Of course to me this wasn't that great but to my mum this was wonderful! We of course went in and bought millions of old fashioned sweets!

My mum later told me that she used to make sweets with her mother (my grandmother). Nowadays that sort of thing doesn't really happen in the household, so I thought it would be nice to make a few sweets while I was home for a few days and you never know I might actually be good at it! The receipes that I will be reviewing are my mothers and a small selection of many (she still has her mother's original receipe book, where she has handwritten all the recipes).

Iced Bonbons


Ingredients:-

marzipan paste (also known as almond icing)
1/4 lb icing/confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
little white of egg
pinch of salt
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method:-

1. Roll out the marzipan paste and cut into neat squares or fancy shapes with a sweet cutter.
2. Leave for a few hours to dry and then coat with icing.
3. To make the icing rub the sugar through a sieve, add the lemon juice and enough
whipped white of egg, to which the salt has been added, to form a thick cream consistency.
4. Take each piece of marzipan on a skewer, and coat the top and sides with the icing.
5. Smooth with a hot knife and leave in a warm place to dry.

Rock Cherries

Ingredients:-

2 tablespoons marzipan paste
3 1/2 tablespoons icing/confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon cream
10 glace cherries, cut into small pieces
few drops of cherry brandy
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method:-

1. Put the marzipan paste into a bowl.
2. Work into it the cream, flavoring, icing sugar, and the cherries.
3. Form the paste into little rocky shapes.
4. Leave them on sugared tins to dry, and then put them in little crinkled paper cases.

Barley Sugar

Ingredients
1.5 lb granulated sugar
1/2 pint water
half of 1 beaten egg white
1 teaspoon lemon juice
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method
1. Mix all ingredients except the lemon juice together and bring to the boil.
2. If any scum rises, skim it off.
3. If necessary strain the syrup through a piece of muslin.
4. Return to the heat and boil until a spoonful of syrup dropped into a saucer of cold water becomes brittle.
5. Remove from the heat.
6. Add the lemon juice.
7. Let the barley sugar stand for 1 minute and then pour into a greased tin.
8. Before it sets hard cut it into long strips and twist each one into a spiral.
9. Allow to set hard.

Acid Drops

Ingredients
1lb caster sugar
1/2 pint water
pinch cream of tartar
caster/superfine sugar for dusting
(see measure conversions for more information)

Method
1. Dissolve the sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan.
2. Boil, with stirring, to 155C or until the syrup is golden brown.
3. Make sure the hotplate is no larger than the pan or that gas flames do not rise up the sides of the pan.
4. Pour the mixture onto an oiled work surface and sprinkle with the cream of tartar.
5. Fold the sides to the centre to mix them together.
6. Roll the sugar into sticks, cut it into little drops and roll the drops in caster sugar.

The fact that my grandmother has all these recipes makes them all very wonderful! Now I wouldnt attempt to cook these by myself as cooking with sugar is incredibly tricky and you need to have years of experience I think to master the art! My mother has been cooking for years and knows the do's and don'ts about cooking with sugar. She did however give me a few little hints and tips which are:-

1. Use a heavy bottomed pan.
2. Make sure the pan is large. It must be big enough to accommodate the rising sugar when it boils up.
3. Use a wooden spoon.
4. Before the mixture begins to boil, make sure that all the sugar is dissolved. At this stage, stir very gently.
5. Use a damp pastry brush to knock any sugar crystals on the side of the pan back into the mixture.
6. Occasionally remove the pan from the heat and tap the bottom with the wooden spoon to help any remaining sugar crystals dissolve.
7. Do not agitate the pan. Rather than swirl the syrup to help dissolve the remaining crystals, use the method in number 6.
8. Once all the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and do not stir any more (unless the recipe particularly states that you should).
9. Bring the sugar to an even, rolling boil, keeping the heat constant until the required temperature is reached.

I hope you enjoy my recipes and I applaude you if your brave enough to try them!!

Summary: Re-live the great age of proper sweets