annieb123
Written on Feb 8, 2020
Candy Making for Beginners is a recipe and tutorial collection for candymaking by Karen Neugebauer. Due out 18th Feb 2020 from Callisto on their Rockridge Press imprint, it's 176 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats (ebook available now). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.
The book has an accessible, appealing format. An introductory chapter gives a good overview of tools, supplies and ingredients, some safety and food handling. The following chapters contain tutorials and recipes arranged roughly thematically: barks and fudge, chocolates and truffles, caramels and butterscotch, brittle and toffee, lollipops and hard candies, gummies and chews, and mints and party favors. The book includes some conversion charts and resource links as well (but no ingredient index).
Ingredients are listed in a bullet sidebar with both metric and American standard measures given (yay!). Info and tips about the ingredients or the recipes themselves are given in sidebars below the preparation information. Prep time, yields, and cooking time are given in the header info. Nutritional information and special diet concerns/allergens (nuts, celery, wheat, etc) are not given.
These are yummy and (mostly) made from easily sourced ingredients.
I am very much a visual learner and one of my concerns with several cookbooks I've reviewed recently has been the lack of photography and serving suggestions. I know that photography can increase the cost of a published book significantly but it enhances the end result so much that in my case at least, it's a necessary part of any cookbook which I buy and use. This book is somewhere in the middle. There aren't many photos, but the ones which are included are clear and appealing.
Four stars. This is a good niche cookbook with a wide variety of goodies included.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes