Confectionery
Confectionery is the
Bakers' confectionery, also called flour confections, includes principally sweet pastries, cakes, and similar baked goods. Baker's confectionery excludes everyday breads, and thus is a subset of products produced by a baker.
Sugar confectionery includes candies (also called sweets, short for sweetmeats,
The confectionery industry also includes specialized training schools and extensive historical records.[6] Traditional confectionery goes back to ancient times and continued to be eaten through the Middle Ages and into the modern era.
History
Before sugar was readily available in the ancient western world, confectionery was based on
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 learned 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 drops. In 1390, the Earl of Derby paid "two shillings for two pounds of penydes.[citation needed]"
In the cuisine of the Late Ottoman Empire diverse cosmopolitan cultural influences were reflected in published recipes such as European-style molded jellies flavored with cordials. In Europe, Ottoman confections (especially "lumps of delight" (Turkish delight) became very fashionable among European and British high society.[16] An important study of Ottoman confectionery called Conditorei des Orients was published by the royal confectioner Friedrich Unger in 1838.[17]
The first confectionery in
Sweetening agents
Confections are defined by the presence of sweeteners. These are usually sugars, but it is possible to buy sugar-free candies, such as sugar-free
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 cookies.[20] In the Middle East and Asia, flour-based confections predominate.
The definition of which foods are "confectionery" vs "bread" can vary based on cultures and laws. In Ireland, the definition of "bread" as a "staple food" for tax purposes requires that the sugar or fat content be no more than 2% of the weight of the flour, so some products sold as bread in the US would be treated as confectionery there.[21]
Types
Cakes have a somewhat bread-like texture, and many earlier cakes, such as the centuries-old stollen (fruit cake), or the even older king cake, were rich yeast breads. The variety of styles and presentations extends from simple to elaborate. Major categories include butter cakes, tortes, and foam cakes. Confusingly, some confections that have the word cake in their names, such as cheesecake, are not technically cakes, while others, such as Boston cream pie are cakes despite seeming to be named something else.
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Welsh cakes are cooked on a griddle.
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Koreanrainbow rice cakeis for celebrations.
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Birthday cakesmay be elaborately decorated.
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European spit cakes are baked around a metal cylinder.
Pastry is a large and diverse category of baked goods, united by the flour-based doughs used as the base for the product. These doughs are not always sweet, and the sweetness may come from the sugar, fruit, chocolate, cream, or other fillings that are added to the finished confection. Pastries can be elaborately decorated, or they can be plain dough.
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Empty shells made with puff pastry can be filled with fruit or cream.
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pie crustand a sweet filling.
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phyllopastry.
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Mooncake pastries are made to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in East Asia.
Doughnuts may be fried or baked.
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Glazed raised doughnut
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Oliebollenand similar doughnuts are fried in hot fat.
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Decorated doughnuts
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Apple fritterwith powdered sugar
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Scones with jam
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Cranberry scones with icing
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A sweet rock cake
Cookies are small, sweet baked treats. They originated as small cakes, and some traditional cookies have a soft, cake-like texture. Others are crisp or hard.
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Spicy lebkuchen are a Christmas treat in Germany.
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Cookies can be elaborately decorated.
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Cookies can be mass-produced.
Sugar confectionery
Sugar confections include sweet, sugar-based foods, which are usually eaten as
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 specifically for rock 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.[24]
- 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 US, a chocolate-coated candy bar (e.g. Snickers) would be called a candy bar, in Britain more likely a chocolate bar than unspecifically a sweet.
American English | British English |
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confectionery (formal) | confectionery (formal) |
rock candy, rock sugar | sugar candy, candy, rock, rock sweet |
hard candy | boiled sweet, candy (rare) |
candied fruit, glazed fruit | candied fruit |
cotton candy, fairy floss (archaic)[25] | candy floss |
candy, treat (rare), sweet (rare) | sweet |
dessert | pudding, sweet, dessert |
pudding | custard, blancmange, jelly |
chocolate bar, chocolate candy bar | bar of chocolate (e.g. Cadbury's Milk Chocolate) |
candy bar (chocolate coated types) | chocolate bar (e.g. Snickers) |
box of chocolates | chocolates, box of chocolates |
Classification
The United Nations'
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.[27]
Ice cream and sorbet are classified with dairy products under ISIC 1050, NACE 10.52, and NAICS 311520.[28]
Examples
Sugar confectionery items include candies,
- Chocolates: Bite-sized confectioneries generally made with chocolate, considered different from a candy bar made of chocolate.
- 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 candies.
- 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.
- lemon drops, peppermint drops and disks, candy canes, rock candy, etc. Also included are types often mixed with nuts such as brittle, which is similar to chikkis.
- Ice cream: Frozen, flavored cream, often containing small pieces of chocolate, fruits and/or nuts.
- Jelly candies: Including those based on sugar and starch, gummies, etc.[29]
- star anise.
- Marshmallow: For example, circus peanuts.
- Marzipan: An almond-based confection, doughy in consistency.
- Mithai: A generic term for confectionery in the Indian subcontinent, 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.
- Tablet: A crumbly milk-based soft and hard candy, 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 candy production.
- Taffy (British: chews): A sugar 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 arise from the caramelization of the sugars.
Storage and shelf life
Shelf life is largely determined by the amount of water present in the candy and the storage conditions.[30] High-sugar candies, such as boiled candies, can have a shelf life of many years if kept covered in a dry environment. Spoilage of low-moisture candies tends to involve a loss of shape, color, texture, and flavor, rather than the growth of dangerous microbes. Impermeable packaging can reduce spoilage due to storage conditions.
Candies spoil more quickly if they have different amounts of water in different parts of the candy (for example, a candy that combines marshmallow and nougat), or if they are stored in high-moisture environments.[30] 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 candy, rendering it rubbery, or the loss of desirable water from a high-moisture candy into a dry environment, rendering the candy dry and brittle.
Another factor, affecting only non-crystalline amorphous candies, is the glass transition process.[30] This can cause amorphous candies to lose their intended texture.
Cultural roles
Both bakers' and sugar confections are used to offer hospitality to guests.
Confections are used to mark celebrations or events, such as Christmas, Easter a wedding cake, birthday cake or Halloween.
The chocolate company Cadbury (under the guidance of Richard Cadbury) was the first to commercialize the connection between romance and confectionery, producing a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in 1868.[31]
Nutrition
Generally, confections are low in
Many sugar confections, especially caramel-coated popcorn and the different kinds of sugar candy, are defined in US law as foods of minimal nutritional value.[33]
Risks
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.[34]
Candy colorants, particularly yellow colorants such as
See also
References
- ^ "confectionery". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ISBN 9780199677337.
- ISBN 9781405187404.
- ISBN 978-0-19-931339-6.
- ISBN 9780854045938.
- ^ a b "The Art of Confectionery" Archived 18 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Historic Food.
- ISBN 978-1-590-20297-5.
- ISBN 9788178331539.
- ISBN 9781444305142.
- ^ "Agribusiness Handbook: Sugar beet white sugar" (PDF). Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ George Watt (1893), The Economic Products of India, W.H. Allen & Co., Vol 6, Part II, pages 29–30
- ^ J.A. Hill (1902), The Anglo-American Encyclopedia, Volume 7, page 725
- ISBN 978-0849305429, page 7 (Chapter 1, by Thomas D. Luckey)
- ISBN 978-1579583804, Routledge, pages 145–146
- ^ "American Heritage Dictionary Entry: candy". Ahdictionary.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
- ^ Roufs, Timothy G.; Roufs, Kathleen Smyth (2014). Sweet treats around the world: an encyclopedia of food and culture. p. 343.
- ISBN 978-0-19-931362-4.
- ^ Snodgrass, M. E. Encyclopedia of Kitchen History, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers (2004)
- ^
- ISBN 9781405187404.
- ^ Oxner, Reese (1 October 2021). "For Subway, A Ruling Not So Sweet. Irish Court Says Its Bread Isn't Bread". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
- ISBN 9780199313624.
- ISBN 9780854045938.
- ^ "Definition of chuddy Oxford dictionary (British & World English)", www.oxforddictionaries.com, 2014, archived from the original on 12 July 2012, retrieved 15 July 2014
- ^ "Cotton Candy". The Straight Dope. 7 February 2000. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ^ "ISIC Rev.4 code 1073: Manufacture of cocoa, chocolate and sugar confectionery". United Nations Statistics Division, Classification Registry. 2014. Archived from the original on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ "Correspondences for ISIC Rev.4 code 1073". United Nations Statistics Division. 2014. Archived from the original on 22 July 2014.
- ^ "Correspondences for ISIC Rev.4 code 1050". United Nations Statistics Division. 2014. Archived from the original on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ Margaret McWilliams. (2006) Nutrition and Dietetics Eighth edition edn. Prentice Hall: Pearson Education Inc.
- ^ S2CID 19980997.
- ISBN 9781910561348. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2021., eldest son of John Cadbury who founded the now iconic brand, was the first chocolate-maker to commercialize the association between confectionery and romance, producing a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in 1868
Richard Cadbury
- ISBN 9781845413897.
- ^ "Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value". www.fns.usda.gov. Appendix B of 7 CFR Part 210. Food and Nutrition Service, United States Department of Agriculture. 13 September 2013. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
- ^ "EFSA Scientific Opinion on Lead in Food" Archived 16 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Retrieved 13 November 2012
- ^ "Ministers agree food Color ban" Archived 7 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News, Retrieved 14 November 2012
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.
- 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. H.C. Baird. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
- Confectionery, International (2018). International Confectionery Journal. Hand Media International. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
External links
- Media related to Confectionery at Wikimedia Commons
- Confections at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject
- The dictionary definition of confectionery at Wiktionary