Sweet Ideas for the Candy-Maker

Where candy is concerned, there’s good news and bad news for fans of microwave ovens. Because the microwaving of concentrated sugar mixtures is not recommended by at least one major cooking dish manufacturer, it probably would be best if some types of candy are not made in the microwave. Yet a few kinds of candy are possible.

In the past, Corning Inc., manufacturer of Pyrex bakeware, Corning Ware and Visions Pyroceram cookware, has routinely recommended against caramelizing sugar in the microwave, since it can reach 310 degrees in the pan. Corning maintains that caramelizing can result in dish chipping and breakage. The company says top temperatures should not exceed 270 degrees. This means that if you use a Corning dish or casserole to cook peanut brittle, toffee, some types of syrup for popcorn balls and other sugary mixtures, you probably are not using the dish as recommended.

You can identify this type of candy by its test for doneness. Candies cooked to the soft-crack stage (270 to 290 degrees) or to the hard-crack stage (300 to 310 degrees) are now taboo, as is the process of caramelizing sugar for flan and other desserts.

Cooling at Different Rates

Why the taboo? The reason is a rare but undesirable phenomenon known as spalling, meaning to chip, splinter or break off in fragments. Spalling can occur if a very hot syrup is allowed to cook in a Corning dish. This can happen because both the syrup and the glass dish are at about the same temperature when they are taken from the microwave but cool at different rates. The candy syrup, which is more porous, cools the fastest. Because it’s sticky, it adheres to the glass; during the candy’s cool-down period, it shrinks. It is this shrinkage, coupled with its adhesive quality, that can cause the candy to pull away some of the glass on the inside of the dish. This means that small glass chips could get into the candy.

Spalling occurs only with a high-temperature sugar syrup mixture and only if it is left in the dish to cool down. Obviously we can avoid spalling if we remove such mixtures from cooking dishes immediately after they’re cooked. Remove brittle and toffee to metal cookie sheets to cool and harden. Finish popcorn syrup by blending the syrup with cooked popcorn while the syrup is still soft enough to mix.

Over the past 15 years or so, peanut brittle has become a classic microwave recipe because it’s easier to make in the microwave than on the stovetop. Although Anchor Hocking, Corning’s leading competitor in the glass ovenware business, doesn’t agree with the 270-degree limit for candy, many people may choose to eliminate brittles, toffee and caramelized sugar from their list of recommended microwave foods. I am among them. At this point, there is no commonly available substitute for glass cookware for this type of candy--and plastic won’t work.

Fudge, pralines, fondants, mints, caramels, marshmallows and divinity--candies within the “soft ball” (234 to 240 degrees) and firm-ball (244 to 248 degrees) stages are still within Corning’s temperature recommendations. Since we will have to console ourselves with fudge, here is my favorite recipe, made with chocolate rather than cocoa.

A couple of additional hints for successful fudge making: Be sure to cook it until it reaches the soft-ball stage. Beat it until almost firm. Fudge is ready to pour into the dish for final setting when, according to “The Joy of Cooking,” “the drip from the spoon, when you flip it over, holds its shape against the bottom of the spoon.”

CREAMY CHOCOLATE FUDGE

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

2 (2-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

Combine sugar, salt and milk in 3-quart microwave casserole. Add chocolate and butter. Cover with lid or wax paper. Microwave at HIGH (100% power) 6 minutes, until bubbling and chocolate can be stirred smooth.

Stir mixture well. Microwave, uncovered, at MEDIUM-HIGH (70% power) 10 to 14 minutes, stirring well every 5 minutes. After 10 minutes, test mixture by dropping about 1 teaspoon into cup cold water. Mixture should form soft ball or register about 238 degrees on microwave candy thermometer.

Let fudge stand until lukewarm (about 110 degrees). Add vanilla and beat with spoon or mixer until thick and no longer glossy. Quickly stir in nuts and pour into buttered or wax paper-lined 8x4-inch loaf pan. Let stand until firm, then remove from dish, peel off wax paper and cut fudge into pieces. Makes about 1 pound.

Note: To speed cooling, place fudge in refrigerator or in larger pan cold water.

Once you cook pralines in the microwave, you won’t make them any other way. Be sure you measure correctly. Once, after I had demonstrated these to an audience, a distraught lady called me to report that her pralines were exceptionally hard, even though she had followed my recipe exactly. After some discussion, we discovered that her husband had bought her a two-pound bag of brown sugar, which she had used instead of the one-pound bag called for in the recipe.

CHOCOLATE PRALINES

1 pound light brown sugar, packed

1 cup whipping cream

1 (1-ounce) square semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 pound pecan halves (about 2 cups)

Combine sugar and whipping cream in 3-quart microwave casserole, stirring well. Microwave, uncovered, at HIGH (100% power) 10 to 14 minutes, until small amount of syrup dropped in cup of cold water forms soft ball (about 238 degrees on microwave candy thermometer).

Quickly stir in chocolate, butter and pecans. Return to microwave at HIGH 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, just to reliquefy. Quickly drop mixture by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Let stand until cool and firm. Store in airtight container. Makes 20 to 30 pralines, depending on size.