Candy Is Magic: Real Ingredients, Modern Recipes [A Baking Book]

I first tasted Quin hard candies and caramels few years ago when a friend of mine gave me as a gift from Portland. She loved these caramels so much, she decided to give as a gift. So when I saw this book at Amazon - I was looking for a book that had techniques, methods and unique flavor gourmet combinations made into caramels, hard candies and lollipops. Jami explains how the ingredients play an important role and the recipes that make great candies. If you want to get intense fruit flavors - roast your fruits with lemon juice (fresh and counterbalance the sweetness), granulated sugar & vanilla bean (gives another flavor dimension) and they are many more! I am glad this baker is passionate on what she does making candy, being creative on her flavor combinations and the techniques have been adapted for today's times or I should say "modern". A excellent small guide, recipes and great passion for candy making. Quin is also a great candy store in Portland. So yes, Portland has a great food history, culture and there are all sorts of foods you can try before you die. Make this one candy shop on your food bucket list.

I was inspired to purchase this recipe book after taking a candy making course on Craftsy. I really love the visual style of this candy recipe book. It has a clean, minimalistic style with a lot of white space, but in a good way. There are many hand-drawn doodles through out the book that add some "down-to-earthness". The visuals are clean and modern. This book is a designed in a way that is not intimidating to a complete beginner candy maker. The explanations are clear. The books explains why specific ingredients/methods are used and there is a story behind every recipe. The ingredients for the most part are available and easily attainable from the local grocery store or from online specialty food stores. I love that this book promotes real food over artificial flavoring for the most part.. It was the first candy recipe book that I purchased and I do not regret in the least. The recipes look quality and I cannot wait to make them!

I enjoyed reading the book and following through the simplified recipe. Everything is well explained. You just want to read the next page.

In reference to my original review below, I finally got the coffee syrup recipe to work. I still believe pictures would be really helpful. A lot can be said for having an all or nothing session. I used finer granulated sugar and when it did not dissolve into the glucose (in the manner I’m use to when making Carmel) I decided to let it sit on medium heat and if it burned it burned. Well, to my pleasant surprise I began to hearing bubbling noise inter the white, snowy looking sugar. I stirred it and realized the glucose sugar as beginning melt. I stirred occasionally and eventually it became liquid line I had thought I should. L was good in my candy land again. Recipes look delicious. I’ve made Carmel before, so I was excited to find this book. But These recipes are not fool proof. I am on my third try with the coffee syrup; it took me four times before I realized the coffee cream yields a quarter of what you start with (these kinds of tips would be helpful). As I mentioned, I’m on my third try with the coffee syrup and very frustrated. The glucose to sugar ratio appears to be approximately 1 part glucose to 10 parts sugar; I have not been able to get the sugar to melt into the glucose. Pictures of the process would be a great addition to this book. I’m a bit disappointed with my purchase. I seldom pay over $5 for a book online unless I’m really excited about it. I am excited to try other recipes. And if my final attempt at getting the sugar to melt into the glucose is a failure then I’ll go with an online alternative I found. If you are not someone who bakes or makes treats often, then I am afraid you might feel like parts of this book set you up for failure. Good Lick (pun intended :0)). I’ll reevaluate as I try new things.

Book was in good shape.

Beautiful book with great insights.

I have to agree with another 3 star review here by Anonymous. This isn't a book that makes candy easy for a home cook. I pre-ordered it because there was a promo video for the book (I think with the NYTs) that showed her making caramels without a thermometer, and I thought that the book would be about making candy at home in a straightforward fashion. Nope. There are some interesting techniques and ingredients if you're an expert home cook, but it's not really geared for the average home cook. You'll need special ingredients (glucose and silver leaf sheet gelatin are the standouts). You'll definitely need a scale which is precise down to a few grams, since she even measures things like vanilla extract by weight. I'm presuming she's just fractionated her commercial scale recipes, rather than converting to things a home cook can do easily, like buy granulated Knox gelatin at the grocery store, measure out a teaspoon of vanilla extract, or buy corn syrup at the grocery store instead of ordering glucose syrup online. It is not a comprehensive book of candy and candy-making techniques; it basically seems to be her repertoire (although I've never been to her candy shop, so I can't say for sure). There's a section on making ice cream, which even though it only takes up 7 pages seems to me out of place in a candy-making book. I may keep the book, because some of it looks interesting and fun, and I'm pretty adventuresome in the kitchen...but if I had picked up a physical copy of the book and thumbed through it in a bookstore, I probably wouldn't have bought it. What I was thought I would be getting was a fairly comprehensive candy making book specifically for home cooks; it is certainly not that. It's her specialties from her candy shop, scaled down professional recipes. I've ordered what I probably should have started with: Elizabeth LaBau's "The Sweet Book of Candy Making", Bruce Weinstein's "The Ultimate Candy Book", and Autumn Carpenter's "The Complete Photo Guide to Candy Making", as they appear to fit the bill for all-around candy making. For me right now, this book reminds me of the beautiful "Alfred Portale's Gotham Bar and Grill Cookbook". Beautiful, fascinating, but unless you've already worked your way through "The Joy of Cooking" and a book or two by Julia Child and/or Jacques Pepin, it's just going to end up being a pretty coffee table book, not something you'll actually use. Caveat emptor; maybe this book is for you, maybe it isn't - look closely to make sure it's what you're looking for. Oh, and you'll need a candy thermometer (even if you can make caramel without it).

What a beautifully written, photographed and illustrated book. The recipes make what can oftentimes be intimidating, easy and inspirational. Using real ingredients and covering all the basic techniques, I am already finding this is a go-to mainstay in my kitchen. I've even found my daughter reading it page by page whilst making a list of sugary sweet concoctions she wants to make together in our kitchen. The perfect gift for those sweet-toothed friends in your life; I've already bought several to give as gifts- truly special (coffee-table worthy) and so far, everyone has LOVED it. Highly recommend this work of art!