Traditional Boiled Sweets
Traditional hardboiled sweets made by the pull method.
Ingredients
- 450 g granulated sugar
- 150 ml water
- 15 ml 1 table spoon liquid glucose (any supermarket stock these in the baking section)
- 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- Vegetable oil
Instructions
- Gently heat the sugar, liquid glucose and water in a heavy saucepan, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved.
- Add the cream of tartar, bring to the boil and cover and boil for 3 minutes. Time the 3 minutes if you can. Than uncover and boil until the temperature reaches 143 C (the soft crack stage). Keep an eye on the thermometer, it takes anything up to 5 minutes to reach that temperature. Don't stir the sugar at this stage, otherwise it will crystallise.
- Pour the syrup on to the oiled marble slab and leave it to cool for a bit. As the syrup cools lift the edges with an oiled palette knife and fold them into the centre. You need to do this several times, especially if your marble is not big enough and the syrup keeps running away.
- So far, so good, but now comes the tricky bit. You need to oil your hands and start working with the syrup by pulling it and twisting in at the same time. And you need to work really fast - not only because the syrup cools down quickly, but also because it's really hot! Keep your hands oiled - it will help with the heat and you really don't want the hot syrup to stuck to your hands.
- Keep pulling the mass of syrup and you will see that it becomes opaque - paler in colour and it will change to satin finish. When this happens, you need to be ready with oiled scissors and start cutting the rope up to a small (about 1cm) pieces.
