Confectionery
Encyclopedia : C : CO : CON : Confectionery
The term confectionery refers to food items that are (at least perceived to be) rich in sugar. Different dialects of English also use regional terms for confections:
- In Britain, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries, "sweets"
- In Australia and New Zealand, "lollies"
- In the United States, "candy" (although this term can also refer to a specific range of confectionery and does not include some items called confectionery (e.g. fudge) (See below and the separate article on candy.)
Confectionery items include sweets, lollipops, candy bars, chocolate, and other sweet items of snack food. The term does not generally apply to cakes, biscuits, or puddings which require cutlery to consume, although exceptions such as petits fours or meringues exist. Speakers of American English do not refer to these items as "candy."
American English classifies many confections as candy. The many categories and types of candy include:
- Hard candy: Based on sugars cooked to the hard-crack stage, including suckers (known as boiled sweets in British English), lollipops, jawbreakers (or gobstoppers), lemon drops, peppermint drops and disks, candy canes, rock candy, etc.
- Fudge: Although some people regard any soft, chocolate-flavored confection as 'fudge', the name properly refers to a confection of milk and sugar boiled to the soft-ball stage.
- Toffee (or Taffy): Based on sugars cooked to the soft-ball stage and then pulled to create an elastic texture.
- Swiss Milk Tablet: A crumbly milk-based soft candy, based on sugars cooked to the soft-ball stage. Comes in several forms, such as wafers and heart shapes.
- Licorice candy: Containing extract of the liquorice root. Chewier and more resilient than gum/gelatin candies, but still designed for swallowing. For example, Liquorice allsorts.
- Chocolates: Used in the plural, usually referring to small balled centers covered with chocolate to create bite-sized confectionery.
- Gum/Gelatin candies: Based on gelatins, including gum drops, jujubes, Lokum / Turkish Delight, jelly beans, gummies, etc.
- Marshmallow: "Peeps" (a trade name), circus peanuts, etc.
- Marzipan: An almond-based confection, doughy in consistency, served in several different ways. It is often formed into shapes mimicking (for example) fruits or animals. Alternatively, marzipan may be flavoured, normally with spirits such as Kirsch or Rum, and divided into small bite-sized pieces; these flavoured marzipans are generally served coated in chocolate to prevent the alcohol from evaporating, and are very common in northern Europe. Marzipan is also used in cake decoration.
- Divinity: A nougat-like confectionery based on egg whites with chopped nuts.
- Pastry: A baked confection whose dough is rich in butter, which was dispersed through the pastry prior to baking, resulting in a light, flaky texture; see also pie and tart.
- Chewing gum: Uniquely made to be chewed, not swallowed.
- Ice cream: A suspension of microscopic ice crystals in cream; also ice cream cones.
- Halvah: Confectionery based on tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds.
- Alfajor: a traditional South American cookie typically consisting of two round sweet biscuits joined together with a sweet jam, generally dulce de leche (milk jam).
See also
- Spangles - for a British iconic confectionery.
Further reading
- Sweets: A History of Candy, Tim Richardson, Bloomsbury, New York, 2002, hardcover, 392 pages, ISBN 1-58234-229-6
- A Treatise on the Art of Boiling Sugar, Henry Weatherley, London, 1864 (generally found in an American reprint by Henry Carey Baird & Co., Philadelphia, 1903)
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.