It's hard to imagine life without sweets, the best of which are given to us by pastry chefs. Some recipes for their manufacture date back thousands of years, but they continue to amaze with the novelty of nuances and freshness of impressions.

1. The first confectioners did not use sugar, because they did not know how to make it yet. But they actively used natural ingredients - dates and honey were the basis of sweets in Ancient Egypt, magicians, nuts and honey were especially popular among the Romans, the Arabs preferred figs and almonds, and the Slavs preferred honey and molasses.

2. Chocolate in the 16th century became a popular delicacy first in high society, and then quickly spread to other segments of the population. But for a long time people believed that he possessed witchcraft, perhaps even unkind, and then there were those who even refused to touch this devilish drink.

3. German scientists have investigated the relationship between character and preferences in the filling. It turned out that creative people love coconut filling, and romantics love strawberry filling. Shy people will prefer chocolate with hazelnut filling, while decisive people, on the contrary, will choose cherry.

4. In the 19th century, Russia did not yet have its own candy factories, and then the creations of confectioners had to be ordered abroad. As a result, only the richest people could afford to spice up their evening party with a sweet delicacy made especially for the occasion.

5. In 1663, Jean Neaus's recipe appeared, which eventually became one of the most popular in Germany and Switzerland. He suggested making a filling for sweets from a mixture of sugar and refried nuts and called this miracle praline.

6. At one of the many culinary shows, the first place was taken by confectioners from Master Food, who built a box of chocolates 2.5 m long, 1.5 m wide and weighing 800 kg.

7. The largest candy in the world was created by the confectioners from the Gummi Bear Factory. To cast a bear, 1.68 m tall, they needed a mold weighing 4 tons. The candy itself "stretched" by 633 kg.

8. When, in 1995, astronauts were asked to transfer sweets to the Mir station, scientists conducted serious research in search of the safest culinary delights. The winner was the chupa-chups, which were sent into orbit. So "round joy" became the only candy that has been in space.

9. The Finns turned out to be great originals. They are ready to eat even beer with sweets, and therefore products with salty taste, with sour and even "oil" filling.

10. Do you still remember the taste of the Soviet " bird milk"? Do you know what it is made of, as well as marmalade, soufflé, marshmallows, etc. did? Agar-agar was the main gelling component. This South Asian substance completely replaces gelatin. It is made from sea brown and red algae after special processing. The result is an amazing substance that dissolves when heated strongly, and turns into a gel at a temperature of 30-40C. By the way, it is widely used in microbiology to create nutrient media.

Citrus... Most desserts cannot be prepared without citrus zest and juice. It is important to choose fruits that are not treated with chemicals, since harmful substances are concentrated in the peel of citrus fruits. For flavoring confectionery the colored part of the zest is used (yellow - for lemon, orange - for orange and green - for lime). With a knife for peeling potatoes, a thin layer of zest is removed from the fruit. The white skin, which gives the confectionery a bitter taste, is removed.

Butter ... The butter is whipped from the cream and contains about 80% fat. Due to its excellent taste and delicate texture, the oil is indispensable for making creams and baking. Important note: in cooking, only fresh oil... The butter can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 weeks, and freezer- 3 months.

Cocoa... Cocoa powder consists of pure chocolate and a small amount of cocoa butter (8% to 20%). For the preparation of confectionery, as a rule, bitter cocoa powder is used.

Chestnuts... Chestnuts are prized in the confectionery business for their sweet taste and mealy. Chestnuts are boiled, peeled and peeled and mashed. Cooked chestnuts can be stored in a hermetically sealed glass container for 1 week, in the refrigerator (in plastic containers with ventilation holes) for 1 month, in the freezer for 6 months. Chestnut puree is stored in a hermetically sealed container in the freezer for 6-8 months.

Chocolate... The Latin name for chocolate ( Theobroma cacao) translates as "food of the gods." Chocolate is made from cocoa beans and cocoa butter. High quality chocolate must contain at least 35% cocoa butter. In confectionery, bitter, dairy and White chocolate made without added cocoa, but with a high content of cocoa butter. Specialty shops sell chocolate for icing cakes, which, due to the increased content of cocoa butter (up to 50%), melts easily and quickly. Chocolate should be stored in a dry, well-ventilated area at a temperature of 16 ° C.

Flour... For baking, flour is usually used from soft varieties wheat, lighter, with a high starch content. Store flour in a sealed container in a cool dry place.

Potato starch ... Potato starch looks like a white powder. It is used to thicken sauces and puddings. When added to the dough, the starch is first mixed with flour.

Cheeses... Such cheeses as ricotta, mascarpone, English cream cheese (better known as "Philadelphia"), French fromage frais, German quark, are famous for their delicate aroma and therefore are widely used in culinary business. Cheese goes well with fruit and is one of the main ingredients in all kinds of sweets. Cheese is stored in the refrigerator for 2 to 7 days.

Fruits... Fresh ripe fruits are selected for the preparation of desserts. Peeled and chopped apples, pears and bananas drizzle lemon juice so that the fruits do not turn black. Apricots and peaches are poured over with boiling water to make it easier to peel the fruit. The berries are washed in ice water and then dried on a kitchen towel.

Dried fruits... One of the main ingredients in the confectionery business. Dried fruits good quality should be soft and have a bright saturated color. Too dry raisins are soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes, and then pat dry on a kitchen towel.

Gelatin... On sale you can find gelatin in plates and granules. Usually, 7 g of gelatin is taken for 1/2 liter of liquid. For creamy mixtures, more gelatin is required. Before use, gelatin is soaked in cold water, and then either dissolve in a water bath, or add to a hot cream and stir the mass until the gelatin dissolves. It is important to know that fresh pineapple contains enzymes that inhibit the gelatinous properties of gelatin.

Glucose... Grape sugar, which is found in honey and fruits. Glucose is usually sold as a syrup.

Milk... In the confectionery business, mainly cow's milk is used. Desserts are prepared only from fresh milk (check the expiration date of the milk). For the preparation of some confectionery products, powdered and condensed milk is also required. Fresh milk is stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

Yeast

Brewer's yeast (natural yeast) is kneaded into a thick, heavy dough. Yeast ferments the sugar substances contained in flour, decomposing them into carbon dioxide and alcohol. The bubbles of carbon dioxide lift and loosen the dough. The ideal fermentation temperature is 30 ° C. On sale you can find fresh (in cubes) and dry brewer's yeast. Fresh yeast should be refrigerated.

As a baking powder for biscuit, shortcrust pastry, pancakes and fritters usually use chemical yeast, which contains baking soda and an oxidizing agent (usually tartar). These substances become active when they react with water. Chemical yeast should be added to ready dough because they work for 10 minutes.

Corn starch... White starch made from corn kernels is used in cooking to thicken creams and puddings.

Honey. Different varieties honey differ in color and smell. It is believed that the lighter the honey, the more aromatic it is. The addition of honey gives desserts not only a special taste, but also allows them to keep the pastry fresh longer.

Nuts... Almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios, pine nuts are widely used for the preparation of confectionery. The nuts must be fresh, as rancid nuts will ruin the taste of any dessert. In-shell nuts can be stored for 2-3 months in a cool dry place, and without the shell in a hermetically sealed closed banks... Nuts can also be stored for 3 to 6 months in the refrigerator and 1 year in the freezer.

Coconut... To test the freshness of a coconut, shake it: there is coconut milk in a fresh nut. Shredded coconut pulp is used for making cakes and puddings, and as a sprinkle. Opened coconut can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 week, and in the freezer for 9 months.

Nut and olive oil ... In some parts of Italy, olive oil is used to make traditional sweets such as casstanaccio (chestnut flour gingerbread). For baking, it is best to choose high quality refined olive oil. Peanut butter is ideal for frying: it is odorless and does not foam when heated. It is best to use light, aromatic almond butter for lubricating pudding molds and making nut cookies.

Cream... Only fresh cream is used for the preparation of pastries. Cream can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days or in the freezer for 3 months. However, once stored in the freezer, the slurry is not suitable for whipping.

Spices... We have listed here the spices most commonly found in recipes:

Cinnamon (pieces of cinnamon or cassia bark). In cooking, it is most often used ground.

Cardamom. The seeds of this plant of the ginger family are used as a spice. Cardamom is commonly added to fruit desserts.

Cloves (dried flower buds of an equatorial plant). The aroma of cloves (like cinnamon) goes especially well with the taste of apples.

Juniper. The crushed cones of this coniferous plant of the cypress family give a special taste and aroma to the spicy crispbread.

Nutmeg and Macis are the seed and dried herb of the nutmeg tree.

Vanilla is the fruit of a plant of the orchid family. Since vanilla pods are very expensive, they are mainly used in cooking. vanilla essence or vanillin - synthetically produced vanilla. However, vanillin does not have such a subtle and rich aroma as natural vanilla.

Ginger. In cooking, the rhizome of this tropical plant is used as a spice. For the preparation of desserts, candied ginger and ground ginger are most often used.

Eggs... Only very fresh eggs are suitable for making desserts, therefore it is recommended to use them within 3 weeks from the date of purchase. In order to check the freshness of the egg, it is immersed in water: very fresh egg remains at the bottom; an egg that is 2-3 weeks old floats vertically; rotten egg - remains on the surface of the water. Whole eggs are kept in the refrigerator; yolks with the addition of a small amount of water - in a hermetically sealed container in the refrigerator; proteins remain fresh for 2 weeks in a hermetically sealed container in the refrigerator and several months in the freezer. Defrosted egg whites whisk just as well as fresh ones.

Yogurt. Fermented milk product... Made in Italy from cow's milk... Fatter and thicker greek yogurt prepared on the basis of sheep's milk. Yogurt, combined with yeast, is often used as a leaven for dough.

Sugar... A sweet substance extracted from beet or sugar cane.

Contemporary confectionery art has been shaped by centuries of experimentation by amateurs and professionals, dreamers and innovators who have put their hearts into sweet creations. And although our main goal is to find the optimal culinary school and organize admission, today we are pursuing an educational mission. How? We broaden your horizons by talking about incredible facts related to the art of confectionery. After reading, you will definitely be inspired to make a dessert with a twist.

It all started in Egypt

Did you know that the first masters of confectionery art appeared not in France, but in Egypt? Until the 7th century, European sweets were content with fruit in different types, ate them fresh and dried. But the Egyptians actively experimented and pampered themselves. delicious desserts from honey, spices, seeds, grains and sweet fruits. The Muslim invasion in the 7th century allowed delicacies to migrate to Europe, where the confectionery frenzy literally began.

Italian origin

Nevertheless, for several centuries the Arabs maintained a "monopoly" on sweets. The fact is that they knew and used sugar since 850, and the Europeans put it into circulation only at the end of the 15th century. It was from this time that active development began, the center of which was Venice. The word “pastry chef” itself comes from the Italian verb “candiere”, which meant “to cook in sugar”. By that time, the Latin word "confectioner", that is, a cook, was in common use. As a result of an accidental mixing, in the 18th century Europeans began to call everyone who knew how to cook sweets "confectioners".

The secret past of pasta

A few years ago, the traditional french dessert pasta conquered the whole world. A delicious sweetness made from protein, sugar and ground almonds literally melts in your mouth and conquers with a variety of flavors. And if everything is clear with the public's love for pasta, then his past is vague. Gastronomic encyclopedia Larousse traces the origin of this dessert to Venice and the Renaissance. Many believe that pasta was first cooked in France at Cormerie several centuries earlier. The third version says that the delicacy was nevertheless brought from Italy after 1560.

We don't have a time machine to solve this mystery, but we know for sure that you can learn how to cook perfect pasta at a culinary and pastry school. For details about the programs and the cost of training, contact the STUDIES & CAREERS consultants in any convenient way.

Exact science

From the first lessons, students of schools of confectionery art understand that "sweet business" is an exact science, where proportions, temperature and cooking time cannot be neglected. Compliance with the recipe is the success of any dessert. Thus, the pastry direction is recognized as one of the most difficult in cooking.

Chocolate River

We are sure that you have watched the colorful film Charlie and Chocolate Factory". Remember the huge river that flowed through the kingdom of the protagonist? Yes, yes, we are talking about an endless flow of chocolate. We reveal a secret, this river was "made" of real chocolate with the addition of 500 liters of water and cream.

Polish dessert in France

In the beautiful 50s, the Polish confectioner Alexander Mika, who owned a pastry shop, worked in Saint-Tropez. One fine day, he put on the counter a dessert made according to the recipe of his beloved grandmother. The treat was a sugar brioche cut into two pieces, stuffed with custard and whipped cream. 5 years later Roger Vadim and his team came to the French Riviera to shoot the film And God Created Woman. By a lucky coincidence, it was Alexander who was engaged in catering, treating the actors delicious treats... The main performer of the film, Brigitte Bardot, was amazed by the Polish dessert and gave it the name "La Tarte Tropezienne". "Tart Tropezienne".

For details on where you can learn to be a pastry chef, check with the STUDIES & CAREERS specialists.

Advertising ideas

Today, doing pastry business and not having your own Instagram is simply indecent. Examples of delicious pages from popular pastry chefs and ordinary mothers on maternity leave, who sometimes give them a head start.

Multi-storey and unrealistically stylish cakes to order from the Moscow confectionery studio "Tortik Annushka". The number of sweet “exhibits” is amazing. The portfolio of the studio's masters has everything: from photo cakes to skyscraper cakes, from conceptual cakes in the form of gifts from the world of high fashion to children's cartoons. In a word, it is better to see once than hear a hundred times.

A Mexican chocolatier named Jose Ramon Castillo is an American TV star and a member of a variety of food shows. In addition to his beloved, Castillo also posts his products, which are distinguished by bright colors and positive shapes. Apparently, the Mexican loves to dabble with icing and feast on chocolate women's shoes.

The author of the Ivcakes account, Victoria Sagirova, is very fond of flowers, greenery and minimalism and basically does not work with mastic, making the design of cakes exclusively from cream. According to the creator, initially the project was born as “a cake for yourself and your loved ones”, but over time it grew into something more. Now any person can order Victoria cakes, being confident in the naturalness and freshness of the products.

Dinara Kasko's creations from Kharkov are not just confectionery art, but also confectionery architecture. By education, the girl is a designer-architect, and she creates her pastries using 3D modeling and 3D printing technologies. Dinara's talent has been repeatedly appreciated at international competitions.

Anastasia Zurabova, a journalist, food photographer and author of several books on culinary topics, is very rich in delicacies. Anastasia is the ideal of many women who manage to raise children and self-actualize, tirelessly doing what they love.

A beautiful and delicious account that sells cake dishes, photography backdrops, and wood decor for flowers and pastries.

Instagram charming pastry chef from Milan Gianluca Fusto, who advises restaurants and pastry shops, and also gives master classes in different countries the world. There are so many fans of the Italian's creativity that fakes appear on the account every now and then.

An account with a huge number of desserts from food blogger and traveler Andrey Rudkov. The photographs are brought to the highest degree of palatability, and many products are specially presented in a section or in the process of eating, so that the viewers salivate.

An excellent example of self-branding is the page of the confectionery art consultant Nina Tarasova, who travels with master classes all over the world. In her blog, the girl shares not only beautiful photographs of products, but also an equally interesting process of their creation.

Darina Kossar is a food photographer and food art specialist who creates amazing artworks from fruits, berries, chocolate, whipped cream and more. In her hands, delicacies turn into edible paintings of animals, landscapes, portraits of stars and famous places in different countries.

When Lilia Vasilieva draws on her cookies and gingerbread, time stops for her. For five years now, Lilia has been doing her own thing and creating a unique sand and chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread cookies, meringues and other gift sweets, sometimes putting predictions into them.

Fine pastry art from the French pastry chef Cedric Grolet at the Le Meurice hotel in Paris. The filigree technique of this master and the ability to create confectionery fruits that are indistinguishable from real ones brought the Frenchman a whole army of fans. The account has almost a million subscribers, and each post is gaining tens of thousands of likes.

A page of the Moscow cafe YUMBAKER | Cafe with an emphasis on expensive black. Initially, the project began as an online cafe for Moscow's mother, Yulia Maryukha, who baked her first cake in 2010 for her daughter's birthday, after which she became imbued with this activity so that today many confectioners will envy her.

Wedding, cakes, donations and cupcakes from HOORAY magazine! An account where you can find not only goodies, but also many inspiring ideas for organizers and decorators of weddings.

Light and positive account about homemade cakes from an American named Ruth, who married a Canadian, moved to live in Toronto and began to do what she loved. The author of the blog brings up children and leads his culinary blog Cook Til Delicious.

Another Instagram account from the representative of the "old guard" - the chocolatier Philippe Bertrand. He received his titles back in the 90s. Bertrand is one of the people who today determine world trends and guidelines for the professional activities of confectioners.

A bright page of a young happy mother Larisa, who is raising two daughters, travels the world and pleases her subscribers with colorful cakes, pastries and other sweets.

An example of an inspirational confectionery page from Natalie Eng from Singapore. Photos of the girl are imbued with love for France, where she is often found and the unique Parisian spirit.

Yann Duytsche makes the best panetonne pie in Spain, owns his own bakery, gives master classes in pastry art and writes books. A real professional in his field, to whose talent people from all over the world are drawn.

If you are looking for inspiration for creating eclairs, then the best place to look is the ingenious creations of Joaquim Prat. Prat owns the Maitre Choux confectionery in London and is considered one of the creators and trendsetters of eclair fashion.

Confectioner Ekaterina Shulzhenko draws her inspiration from nature. In the art of confectionery, the author prefers creamy cakes, which are beautifully decorated with berries.

We are used to buying many pastries from the store. This is often more convenient than doing them yourself. But, as a rule, the assortment of industrial confectionery products is stable. These are, first of all, sweets - chocolate, caramel and marmalade, then dry biscuits, waffles, gingerbread and biscuits - pastries, biscuits, cakes. Local food factories (not confectionery factories!) usually produce different (in name and shape) products from the same - shortbread, puff or gingerbread-sugar dough (from shortbreads to cakes), buttery dough cookies and cake muffins are less common, as well as actually oriental sweets, various halva, Turkish delight, nut products (nougat, kozinaki, churchkhela, nuts in sugar), usually produced only by local poultry factories of the Union republics of Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

The constancy of such a set is explained by the peculiarities of a large confectionery production focused on the production of a certain kind products and conditions of mass marketing. The industry produces only such confectionery products that can withstand transportation and long-term storage in a warehouse and, in addition, are adapted for machine-factory production, for production in large standard editions. But there are not so many such products. Most of the works of confectionery art are designed to be served almost directly from the oven, in any case, they would be eaten on the same day or within two days.

Such are, for example, cottage cheese confectionery, curd cakes and cakes, Viennese muffins with whipped cream, Viennese pies air dough with poppy seeds and jam, creamy toffee, various fondants, apple and quince pie pie, fruit and egg cakes, French and Spanish wind, etc., etc.

In addition, a number of confectionery products cannot be adapted to mechanized production, and they still have to be made by hand, and this leads to the fact that their circulation is insignificant and they quickly become scarce. Such are, for example, liqueur sweets. That's why home cooking confectionery, if it does not duplicate the industrial one, it is quite justified and expedient.

However, due to the fact that the traditions of home confectionery production were interrupted during the war and in the first post-war years, the young generation does not even know about the existence of many simple, easy-to-perform and affordable home-made confectionery products for food raw materials and prices, and even more so about how to make them.

In this chapter, we will focus on the manufacture of only a few of these confectionery products, for a story about all or most would require a separate book, since this is a special science, with its own, different from cook's laws, methods and techniques.

Therefore, from time immemorial, a pastry chef and a cook were different professions, which sometimes required different qualities and talents. So, for example, in Italy and France, people who were good at drawing were accepted as confectioners, and they were taught a course in the history of architecture and art history in the process of training, taught drawing, ornamentation, drafting, modeling - objects that seemed far from the kitchen craft. While the cooks studied zoology, botany, animal anatomy, and thus stood closer to the students of natural biological faculties.

So that our story about the confectionery business does not boil down to a listing of recipes that require absolutely precise execution, we will precede them with a general, very brief overview of the confectionery business. Only then will the reader be able to clearly imagine what a pastry chef should be doing, what he should be able to do, what his duties are and what share of his skill we can show in this small chapter.

All confectionery is based on three main processes:

1. Cooking sugar and sugar-like media - molasses and honey.

2. Baking confectionery products containing and not containing flour.

3. Preparation and casting various fillings and mixtures of chocolate, praline and marzipan type, as well as the production of creamy egg type creams.

All other processes are either auxiliary mechanical in nature, or are combinations and combinations of the above.

In accordance with these basic processes, the confectionery production itself is divided into caramel-marmalade, chocolate and cake (including cookies), and usually a separate factory is engaged in each of them. In a household, such a strict division cannot be made. The hostess has to be a jack of all trades, and therefore the home confectioner, willy-nilly, must understand all the processes, at least understand their essence.

Cooking sugar, molasses, honey and everything that can be cooked in them, with them and on them, is the most characteristic feature of the confectionery business.

The word “pastry chef” comes from the Italian verb “candiere”, which means “to cook in sugar”. Only by an accidental coincidence with this verb of the Latin word "confectioner" - a master who prepares food, who knows how to give it a taste - as the Romans called chefs, explains the fact that in 18th century Europe they mistakenly began to call the manufacturers of sweets not candirs, but confectioners, or confectioners. for by this time every nation had long called the cooks not by a borrowed foreign name, but by their own national name: the Russians - the cook (the person who cooks, cooks), the Germans - the kokh (the one with whom everything is cooked, boils), the French - the cook, or chef de cousin (head of the kitchen, master of the kitchen), Italians - cuocco (boil, fry something over a fire).

The confectionery art itself arose and was most developed in Italy, in Venice only with the advent of sugar in the late 15th - early 16th centuries. Until then, sweets in Europe were bought from the Arabs, the oldest confectioners in the world, who had known sugar since 850. It is no coincidence that in the East, in the Arab countries and in Iran, the most diverse sweets in the world are still being created. While in Europe the confectionery business developed in the direction of cakes and cookies, the Arabs were the first to notice that boiling (or melting) sugar - candling - opens up ample opportunities for preparing a variety of sweet, dessert, confectionery products and dishes.

The first products that began to be cooked in sugar were juices of berries and fruits and the berries and fruits themselves. In some peoples it is ground, turned into puree, in others it is only crushed, in others it is whole. This is how syrups, marmalades, jam, figs, jams, confitures, Russian jams, Ukrainian dry jams and Transcaucasian candied fruits appeared.

Cooking sugar by itself, in pure form, or with minor additions of dyes, spices, nuts, poppy seeds, butter, milk and cream, or grape wine, brought to varying degrees of density, also gave (especially in the East) a number of confectionery products: lollipops, novot, lean sugar, fondants, toffee, iris, roasted nuts, caramel, nogul, etc.

As soon as a new food product was introduced into the same boiled sugar - starch, flour or dredgers (gluten, glue-like natural plant media - gum arabic, soap root, yantak, etc.), a new family of confectionery products arose - halva, nougat, alvitsa, rahat- Turkish delight, etc., etc.

Even frying dough in melted sugar or honey produced peculiar sweet confectionery products - chak-chak, pumpernickels, pipercocks, honey custard gingerbread, teiglakhi, bagarji, baklava, etc.

In a word, sugar and its companions, molasses and honey, were the foundation on which and with the help of which confectionery skills began to develop.

Moreover, it was noticed that sugar has its own laws of boiling, melting, viscosity, brittleness, etc., and that its behavior in molten hot form can be even more insidious than the behavior of butter. Therefore, in order to master the confectionery business, first of all, one should study the methods of cooking sugar and its different states during cooking, otherwise it is impossible to competently prepare a single confectionery product.

There is a sugar scale and a special sugar thermometer, with which you can accurately determine the degree of sugar density at any minute and, depending on this, stop or continue cooking syrup, jam, caramel, fondant, etc.

But in the household, the readiness of the sugar syrup is determined by the characteristic outward signs, which confectioners call "samples". There are twelve “samples” in total. Each of them has not only a number, but also its own name, a name that is usually given in cookery and pastry books without any explanation.

Here's what these samples mean:

1. Liquid syrup(15 ° sugar thermometer).

This syrup has no stickiness, its thickness, sugar saturation is almost imperceptible. It is used for pouring winter compotes and for dried fruit compotes, sometimes for light sorbets (a mixture of hot syrup with fruit juice).

2. Thin thread(33 ° sugar thermometer). A sticky syrup that, when squeezed and unclenched with one drop, gives a thin, quickly breaking, fragile thread. It is used for jam from dense, hard fruits - pears, quince; dense apples, carrots, and sometimes for pouring winter compotes from soft berries (strawberries, raspberries), for making jelly.

3. Medium thread(approximately 40 ° sugar thermometer).

The thread is thin, but holds a little tighter. The syrup of this strength is used for jam.

4. Thick thread.

A thick syrup in which the fingers are forced to separate, forming a strong and fairly thick thread that can harden. It is used for all delicate berry jams and for canning most berries and fruits.

5. Faint sweetness.

If you put a small amount of this melted sugar in a glass of cold water, a loose mass is formed, resembling thick sour cream in consistency. This sample is a sign that you need to be ready for the sugar to thicken before the next sample. It does not matter on its own.

6. Fudge.

If you drop such melted sugar into a glass of cold water, the “drop” solidifies into a piece similar in consistency to dense butter. This sample is very unstable, it can quickly move on to the next one, therefore, if it is required according to the recipe, then the sugar boiling must be stopped immediately. Used for making fondant and candy fillings.

7. Weak ball(semi-solid ball).

Sugar in cold water hardens to a crumb-like consistency. It can be used to sculpt a soft, pliable ball. It is used for fondants, dusters, candy fillings, candied fruit preserves, figs, and sometimes for gingerbread (when mixed with honey and flour).

8. Solid ball(or a strong ball). Boiling sugar in a glass of cold water solidifies into a dense, hard ball, which after a while loses its ability to crumple. This sample is used exclusively for sweets, toffee, tartar.

9. Crackle.

Testing the sample is done like this: take boiling sugar on a fork and blow on it with all your might. If the sugar instantly turns into a film or a bubble and flies off the fork entirely, then the crackle sample is ready.

Used for meringue cookies, cakes, decorations and sweets.

10. Caramel.

Boiling sugar poured into cold water should form a lump, an icicle that does not stick to the teeth and crumbles into crystals like glass from pressure or impact. Sugar of this sample is used for caramels - sweets, lollipops, lollipops.

11. Bypass.

The fragility of sugar is the same as in sample 10, but the color of the sugar is already yellowish brown. Very often this particular sample - bypass is mistaken for caramel, since in many confectionery books and manuals the term "sugar caramelized" is used, which means yellowing and even slight burning of sugar, its browning and the appearance of a characteristic "caramelized" smell as a result of a pass (bypass) the actual caramel test.

The bypass is used for some lollipops, caramel candies and especially for roasted nuts, as well as for coloring many confectionery products, drinks (including beer) and creams, or giving them a special, "caramelized" aroma (for example, punch, burnt).

12. Combustion. Burnt.

Sugar turns brown, and a pungent smoke appears, the smell of burnt. Such sugar is diluted with boiling water until a sticky syrup is formed and is used to color sweets, candy fillings, gingerbread, glaze, kvass, ice cream crème brulee, pastries, cakes, different drinks and even some soups - beer, bread, egg, berry or sweet dairy.

To go through all these stages and see how sugar behaves in practice, it is advisable to take 400 - 450 grams of sugar and, diluting it in half a liter of water (500 milliliters), put it on high heat. As soon as the syrup begins to boil and the foam is removed from it, sample No. 1 will be obtained. Further evaporation of the water will make it possible to clearly see the transition of the remaining samples from one to another.

With samples 5 and 6, the amount of water will be halved - to 240 - 250 milliliters per 400 grams of sugar.

Cooking sugar has other rules as well.

First, the sugar must always be defoamed before other foods are dipped into it.

To facilitate the removal of foam (confectioners call it "noise", spoiled from the German word "shaum" - foam), it is customary in confectionery to always cook not on granulated sugar, but on refined sugar or crushed sugar.

Secondly, when sugar is put into water, it must be stirred all the time so that it does not stick to the bottom and does not give a yellow color to the entire syrup. But as soon as the sugar dissolves in the water, the syrup can no longer be touched, it must not be interfered with, no object must be dropped, for this will cause the syrup to crystallize, cloud it or even form lumps in it.

Thirdly, as soon as the foam is removed, it is necessary to wash the edges of the dishes with a special cloth dipped in ice water so that not a single grain of sugar remains on them. This trick - main secret in handling boiling sugar. If the operation is carried out carefully, the product will work much better. Otherwise, sugar will begin to build up at the edges, boil, burn or turn into a lump inside the pelvis, before reaching the 6th or 7th sample.

Fourth, cook sugar syrups it is always necessary on a strong, even fire, not allowing it to fluctuate.

Fifth, it is necessary to cook sugar and sugar products either in a thick-walled metal dish with a convex bottom (hemispherical cauldron), or in special brass or copper basins, where both the shape and material are most suitable for sugar refining.

Sixth, in dry confectionery mixtures, in dough, in drinks and in cakes, it is most correct to use grated in powder, crushed sugar or a special confectionery (the so-called "tambour") icing sugar... Granulated sugar in the confectionery business is not used as a product containing impurities and giving a weak syrup concentration.

Proper handling of sugar is the key to success in making not only jams at home, but also simple milk-cream confectionery products: butter fudge, toffee, roasted nuts.