Confectionery

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Confectionery is a collective term for sweets/candy and chocolate. A broader definition includes pastry and thus distinguishes bakers' confections (cakes and pastries) from sugar confections (including chocolates, but not explicitly ice-cream or marmalade). This broader definition of confectionery is equivalent to the archaic term sweetmeat.

Bakers' confectionery, also called flour confections, includes principally sweet pastries, cakes, and similar baked goods. Sugar confectionery includes candied nuts, chocolates, chewing gum, and various other products. Terms vary among English-speaking countries: candy (US and Canada), sweets (UK and Ireland), and lollies (Australia and New Zealand) are common words for the most common varieties of sugar confectionery.

Traditional confectionery goes back to ancient times, and continued to be eaten through the Middle Ages into the modern era.

Video Confectionery

History

Before sugar was readily available in the ancient western world, confectionery was based on honey. Honey was used in Ancient China, Middle East, Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire to coat fruits and flowers to preserve them or to create sweetmeats. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, made contact with India and its "reeds that produce honey without bees". They adopted and then spread sugar and sugarcane agriculture. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia.

In the early history of sugar usage in Europe, it was initially the apothecary who had the most important role in the production of sugar-based preparations. Medieval European physicians learnt the medicinal uses of the material from the Arabs and Byzantine Greeks. One Middle Eastern remedy for rheums and fevers were little twisted sticks of pulled sugar called in Arabic al fänäd or al pänäd. These became known in England as alphenics, or more commonly as penidia, penids, pennet or pan sugar. They were the precursors of barley sugar and modern cough sweets. In 1390, the Earl of Derby paid "two shillings for two pounds of penydes."

As the non-medicinal applications of sugar developed, the comfitmaker, or confectioner gradually came into being as a separate trade. In the late medieval period the words confyt, comfect or cumfitt were generic terms for all kinds of sweetmeats made from fruits, roots, or flowers preserved with sugar. By the 16th century a cumfit was more specifically a seed, nut or small piece of spice enclosed in a round or ovoid mass of sugar. The production of comfits was a core skill of the early confectioner, who was known more commonly in 16th and 17th century England as a comfitmaker. Reflecting their original medicinal purpose however, comfits were also produced by apothecaries, and directions on how to make them appear in dispensatories as well as cookery texts. An early medieval Latin name for an apothecary was confectionarius, and it was in this sort of sugar work that the activities of the two trades overlapped and that the word "confectionery" originated.

Maps Confectionery

Sweetening agents

Confections are defined by the presence of sweeteners. These are usually sugars, but it is possible to buy sugar-free sweets, such as sugar-free peppermints. The most common sweetener for home cooking is table sugar, which is chemically a disaccharide containing both glucose and fructose. Hydrolysis of sucrose gives a mixture called invert sugar, which is sweeter and is also a common commercial ingredient. Finally confections, especially commercial ones, are sweetened by a variety of syrups obtained by hydrolysis of starch. These sweeteners include all types of corn syrup.

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Bakers' confectionery

Bakers' confectionery includes sweet baked goods, especially those that are served for the dessert course. Bakers' confections are sweet foods that feature flour as a main ingredient and are baked. Major categories include cakes, sweet pastries, doughnuts, scones, and biscuits/cookies. In the Middle East and Asia, flour-based confections predominate.

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Sugar confectionery (sweets/candies)

Sugar confections include sweet, sugar-based foods, which are usually eaten as snack food. This includes chocolates, candied fruits and nuts, chewing gum, and sometimes ice cream. In some cases, chocolate confections are treated as a separate category, as are sugar-free versions of sugar confections.

Different dialects of English use regional terms for sugar confections:

• In Britain, Ireland, and some Commonwealth countries, sweets (the Scottish Gaelic word suiteis is a derivative). Candy is used for large crystalline sugar candy and occasionally for (brittle) boiled sweets. Lollies are boiled sweets fixed on sticks.
• In Australia and New Zealand, lollies. Chewy and Chuddy are Australian slang for chewing gum.
• In North America, candy, although this term generally refers to a specific range of confectionery and does not include some items of sugar confectionery (e.g. ice cream). Sweet is occasionally used, as well as treat.

In the USA, a chocolate-coated confectionery bar (e.g. Snickers) would be called a candy bar, in Britain more likely a chocolate bar than unspecifically a sweet.

Chemical composition

Chemically, sugar confectionery is broadly divided into two groups: crystalline and amorphous. The crystalline products are not as hard as crystals of the mineral variety, but derive their name and their texture from their microscopically organized sugar structure, formed through a process of crystallization, which makes them easy to bite or cut into. Fudge, creams, and fondant are examples of crystalline sugar confections. The amorphous products have a disorganized crystalline structure. They usually have higher sugar concentrations, and the texture may be chewy, hard, or brittle. Lollipops, caramels, nut brittles and toffees are all examples of amorphous sweets/candies, even though some of them are as hard as rocks and resemble crystals in their overall appearance.

Crystalline confections are chemically described as having two phases, because the tiny, solid sugar crystals are suspended in a thick liquid solution. These are also called grained candies, because they can have a grainy texture. Amorphous sweets/candies have only one phase, which is either solid or liquid, and do not have a grainy texture, so they may be called ungrained.

Commercially however, confections are often divided into three groups, according to the amount of sugar they contain:

• 100% sugar (or nearly so), such as boiled sweets or creams
• 95% sugar or more, with up to 5% other ingredients, such as marshmallows or nougats, and
• 75 to 95% sugar, with 5 to 25% other ingredients, such as fudge or caramels.

Classification

The United Nations' International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) scheme (revision 4) classifies both chocolate and sugar confectionery as ISIC 1073, which includes the manufacture of chocolate and chocolate confectionery; sugar confectionery proper (caramels, cachous, nougats, fondant, white chocolate), chewing gum, preserving fruit, nuts, fruit peels, and making confectionery lozenges and pastilles. In the European Union, the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE) scheme (revision 2) matches the UN classification, under code number 10.82. In the United States, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS 2012) splits sugar confectionery across three categories: National industry code 311340 for all non-chocolate confectionery manufacturing, 311351 for chocolate and confectionery manufacturing from cacao beans, and national industry 311352 for confectionery manufacturing from purchased chocolate. Ice cream and sorbet are classified with dairy products under ISIC 1050, NACE 10.52, and NAICS 311520.

Types

Boiled sweets and pulled sweets

Boiled sweets (also called hard candies) are single-phase, amorphous sweets that are commonly made from a combination of sucrose and glucose syrups. They are typically about 98% or more solid sugar. They have a glassy, translucent appearance. A pulled sweet/candy, like rock or Brach's starlight mints, is a hard sweet that has been pulled or stretched to incorporate air. This process makes the sweet opaque, as the air bubbles that are incorporated lead to more light being reflected back.

Fondants

Fondant is a partly crystallized, two-phased confection. It is about 88% sugar by weight, usually with much more sucrose than glucose. In making fondant, a stiff sugar paste is cooked to a high temperature, then carefully cooled in order to let the sugar soften and mechanically beaten to produce the desired texture. Used also as "icing" for cakes.

Caramels and toffees

Caramels contain milk and are cooked to a lower temperature than most sweets; toffees are similar, but use less milk and are cooked hotter. In both cases, the milk protein causes these emulsified sweets to hold their shapes and prevents the sugars from crystallizing, thus remaining "tacky". Their brown color is due to a Maillard reaction between the milk protein and the sugars.

Fudges

Fudges, which are made in a wide variety of flavours, are essentially two-phased, crystallized caramels, with a short texture (easily broken). Sugar crystals are formed either due to agitation or the addition of crystal seeds in the form of powdered sugar or crushed fondant. The texture depends on the number and size of sugar crystals, the fat content, and the dispersion of milk solids.

Nougats and marshmallows

Nougats and marshmallows are confectionery foams, full of air. In the final product, there is often as much air, or even more, than sugar; for marshmallows, a ratio of five parts air to two parts syrup by volume is typical. Chemically, they may be single-phase or two-phased. Marshmallows are stabilized by a colloid like gelatin. Compared to nougats, marshmallows have higher moisture content, are softer and more rubbery, and dry out more easily.

Jellies and gums

Jellies and gums are thick liquid sweets. Gums, such as wine gums, are drier than jellies. They are made from sugar syrup plus a gelling agent. They are cooked to the lowest temperature of all sweets and consequently have the highest water content, about 20 to 25% water. Their stiffness depends on the type and amount of gelling agent, the final concentration, the pH of the product, and other factors. The most popular forms of gelling agent are gelatin, agar-agar, starch (more typical of American jelly sweets), and pectin (more typical of European sweets). These produce different effects. For example, starch produces cloudy jellies, while high-methoxyl pectin produces clear ones. Agar-based jellies are harder to dissolve, and gelatin-based jellies have a more rubbery texture.

Nut pastes

The most common nut paste candy is marzipan, which is an almond nut paste. Nut pastes are made by mixing crushed nuts with a sugar syrup.

Panned sweets

Panned sweets are a category of sweets that includes dragées and comfits. These sweets are formed by coating nuts, preserved fruits, or other sweets with either sugar or chocolate in a revolving pan.

Pralines, truffles, and noisettes

There is significant variation among pralines, truffles, and noisettes. In general, they involve roasting nuts in a high-temperature sugar syrup, and then grinding the cooled result into a paste.

Lozenge pastes and cream pastes

Lozenge paste is a sweet made by combining fine sugar with a natural gum like gum arabic. The paste is stamped, cut, and dried until almost no water content remains. Conversation hearts are an example of lozenge paste sweets that have been manufactured for over a century. A cream paste may include gelatin and is not dried as completely.

Liquorice

Liquorice/Licorice (Brit./Am. spelling) is a sweet flavored by liquorice plants. It is usually a stiff, gelatinous paste.

Sugar candy

or (in Brit. English) simply "candy", are large sugar crystals produced from concentrated sugar solutions. It is also called rock candy in America.

Examples

Sugar confectionery items include sweets, lollipops, candy bars, chocolate, candy floss, and other sweet items of snack food. Some of the categories and types of sugar confectionery include the following:

• Chocolates: Bite-sized pralines in French/Belgian tradition made of nut paste and often cream and coated with chocolate. Not to be confused with a large rectangular bar of chocolate (pure chocolate with or without nuts, raisins etc.) nor with a snack-sized chocolate bar (a chocolate-covered confectionery bar such as Snickers, known as "candy bar" in the US but not Canada).
• Divinity: A nougat-like confectionery based on egg whites with chopped nuts.
• Dodol: A toffee-like delicacy popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines
• Dragée: Sugar-coated almonds and other types of sugar panned sweets.
• Fudge: Made by boiling milk and sugar to the soft-ball stage. In the US, it tends to be chocolate-flavored.
• Halvah: Confectionery based on tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds.
• Hard candy/boiled sweets: Examples include suckers, lollipops, jawbreakers (or gobstoppers), lemon drops, peppermint drops and disks, candy canes. Also included is brittle.
• Ice cream: Frozen, flavoured cream, often containing small pieces of chocolate, fruits and/or nuts.
• Jelly sweets: Including those based on sugar and starch, pectin, gum, or gelatin such as Turkish delight (lokum), jelly beans, gumdrops, jujubes, gummies, etc.
• Liquorice: Extract of the liquorice root added to a starch/gelatin base.
• Marshmallow: For example circus peanuts.
• Marzipan: An almond-based confection, doughy in consistency.
• Mithai: A generic term for confectionery in India, typically made from dairy products and/or some form of flour. Sugar or molasses are used as sweeteners.
• Persipan: similar to marzipan, but made with peaches or apricots instead of almonds.
• Pastillage: A thick sugar paste made with gelatin, water and confectioner's sugar, similar to gum paste, which is moulded into shapes, which then harden.
• Sugar candy, also known as rock candy, are large crystals of sugar. They are tradiitonally used for sweetening tea in Asia and elsewhere.
• Tablet: A crumbly milk-based soft and hard sweet, based on sugars cooked to the soft ball stage. Comes in several forms, such as wafers and heart shapes. Not to be confused with tableting, a method of sweet production.
• Chews/Taffy, (Brit./ Am. English): A confection that is folded many times above 120 °F (50 °C), incorporating air bubbles thus reducing its density and making it opaque.
• Toffee: A confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses along with butter. Toffee has a glossy surface and textures ranging from soft and sticky to a hard, brittle material. Its brown color and smoky taste arises from the caramelization of the sugars.

Storage and shelf life

Shelf life is largely determined by the amount of water present in the sweet/candy and the storage conditions. High-sugar sweets, such as boiled sweets, can have a shelf life of many years if kept covered in a dry environment. Spoilage for low-moisture sweets tends to involve a loss of shape, colour, texture and flavour, rather than the growth of dangerous microbes. Impermeable packaging can reduce spoilage due to storage conditions.

Sweets spoil more quickly if they have different amounts of water in different parts of the sweet (for example, a sweet that combines marshmallow and nougat), or if they are stored in high-moisture environments. This process is due to the effects of water activity, which results in the transfer of unwanted water from a high-moisture environment into a low-moisture sweet, rendering it rubbery, or the loss of desirable water from a high-moisture candy into a dry environment, rendering the sweet dry and brittle.

Another factor, affecting only non-crystalline amorphous sweets, is the glass transition process. This can cause amorphous sweets to lose their intended texture.

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Cultural roles

Both bakers' and sugar confections are used to offer hospitality to guests.

Confections are used to mark celebrations or events, such as a wedding cake, birthday cake or Halloween.

Tourists commonly eat confections as part of their travels. The indulgence in rich, sugary foods is seen as a special treat, and choosing local specialties is popular. For example, visitors to Vienna eat Sachertorte and visitors to seaside resorts in the UK eat Blackpool rock candy. Transportable confections like fudges and tablet may be purchased as souvenirs.

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Nutrition

Generally, confections are low in micronutrients and protein but high in calories. They may be fat-free foods, although some confections, especially fried doughs, are high-fat foods. Many confections are considered empty calories. Specially formulated chocolate has been manufactured in the past for military use as a high-density food energy source.

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Risks

Excessive consumption of confectionery has been associated with increased incidences of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and tooth decay.

Contaminants and coloring agents in confectionery can be particularly harmful to children. Therefore, confectionery contaminants, such as high levels of lead, have been restricted to 1 ppm in the US. There is no specific maximum in the EU.

Candy colorants, particularly yellow colorants such as E102 Tartrazine, E104 Quinoline Yellow and E110 Sunset Yellow FCF, do have many restrictions around the world. Tartrazine, for example, can cause allergic and asthmatic reactions and was once banned in Austria, Germany, and Norway. Some countries such as the UK have asked the food industry to phase out the use of these colorants, especially for products marketed to children.

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See also

• Candy making
• Confectionery store
• List of candies
• List of top-selling candy brands
• List of foods

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References

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Further reading

• García Ballesteros, Enrique (2012). Foods From Spain History: Bakery & Confectionery. A Taste For Sweetness. 
• Goldstein, Darra (2015). The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-931339-6. 
• Kennedy, Angus (2008). Kennedy's Confection Magazine. 
• Richardson, Tim H. (2002). Sweets: A History of Candy. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 1-58234-229-6. 
• Stroud, Jon (2008). The Sucker's Guide: A Journey into the Soft Centre of the Sweet Shop. Summersdale. ISBN 978-1-84024-709-1. 
• Weatherley, Henry (1865). A Treatise on the Art of Boiling Sugar. Retrieved 14 July 2008. 

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External links

Source of the article : Wikipedia