Candy Making

Though there are literally hundreds of different kinds of candies around the world, we can classify them into three main categories:

Hard candies

As the name suggests, hard candies are known foremostfor the density of the sugar crystals. Such candies fall under the most basic type, requiring only some flavoring and lots of sugar.

Some food color can also be added to enhance the presentation of the candy after it has been molded and packed. Good examples of hard candies are fruit drop candies and even peppermint candies.

Anything that is hard and meant to be consumed slowly over a period of time is considered to be a hard candy. Childhood favorites like rock candy are almost always cooked with pure sugar with little or no flavoring.

Soft candies

Soft candies use very small portions of ingredients, like cream and sugar.  Cotton candy, an all-time favorite, is made simply with mild flavoring, spun sugar and sometimes, powdered milk.

Marshmallows are classified as soft candy because it contains a lot of air, thereby preventing tough sugar structures to harden.

Marshmallows are created mainly with small amounts of corn syrup, sugar and egg whites.  Color and powdered sugar can be added later on, under the candy maker’s discretion. Harder marshmallows are used to create 3-D marshmallow figures, usually for commercial distribution.

Ingredient-rich candies

If soft candies use very small portions of ingredients, the third type of candy, ingredient-rich candies, are cooked with large volumes of solid sweeteners, liquid sweeteners and other ingredients.

Chocolate fudge is a good example of an ingredient-rich candy, as well as marzipan and caramels. Any candy that requires half a pound of an ingredient is an ingredient-rich candy. In addition to large amounts of sweeteners, significant amounts of dairy ingredients, nuts and other flavor-enhancing ingredients are also added to these candies.