Truffles, Candies, and Confections: Elegant Candymaking in the Home

Whether you're a beginner or professional, this compact paperback is the perfect candy making guide available to date. The author focuses on tools and techniques at the beginning, which is half the battle in preparing anything with chocolate or sugar. There are a huge selection of recipes and flavour combinations to experiment with, so it never gets boring. Classics include truffles, caramels, Florentines, nougat, tuiles and more. Truly a MUST for anyone making chocolate and candy confections.

Pros: Fabulous recipes - which are easy to half when you don't need six dozen truffles. Clear, easy to follow directions. Fantastic photography. This book gives the home cook the "I can do this" feel in a clear and comfortable way. All of the truffle cream recipes I've tried have been fantastic. Good cursory overview of different chocolate types. Plus, Marzipan! Cons: A little light on information about the different types of chocolate, and the variances in working with them. The boiled sugar recipes don't mention the absolute sheer danger of doing some of them. For instance, those are not recipes where children should be allowed to help. Other reviewers have said that her tempering information was insufficient, but I've been able to successfully manage my batches using her techniques. That said, I'm doing very small batches, usually half of a recipe, which may have something to do with how easy it is for me to keep the chocolate in temper while I'm working with it. I've not made any of the cluster or caramel recipes, since I've got braces on, and braces and sticky candies are never a good mix. However, once they come off, some of those recipes are on my "must have NOW" list. All in all, I think this book is a must have for the amateur confectioner.

This book made a great Christmas gift for my daughter. Thanks

This is a great book that shows you how to make fabulous candies at home easily.The author gives a wealth of information about chocolate and other ingredients, minimal equipment needed, and great recipes. My favorites are Caramel Chocolate Truffles, Orange-Hazelnut-Chocolate Clusters, Chocolate Nut Bark, and Mocha-Spice Fudge. Everyone on my list will be receiving homemade candy this holiday season.I enjoyed this book [...].My personal favorites are the truffles, especially the Green Tea Truffles

Carole Bloom says that this book is "all about pleasure" on page 1. This 200-page book includes recipes and techniques for making a wide variety of candy and chocolates right in your own home. The book is organized topically into chapters: Introduction, Ingredients, Equipment and Tools, Techniques, Truffles, More Chocolate Candies, Caramel Candies, Nut Brittles and Marzipan, Fudge Nougat and Divinity, Fruit Candies and an Appendix of Sugar Stages/Temperatures/Weights and Measurement Equivalents.Using the chapters on techniques and ingredients, even the beginner will be able to create luscious truffles at home. While there are only 11 photographs in the book, the equipment chapter has several drawings that will enable you to locate the right tool. Each recipe includes a brief introduction, an expected yield, a list of ingredients, paragraph-style instructions on how to prepare the recipe, and variations. Recipes include Tropical Clusters, Swiss Chocolate Truffles, and Florentines. From the basic to the exotic, you are sure to find the candy recipe you need in this little book.