Diverging from chocolates, the next portion of our lab focused on crystalline confections. In teams of two, we got to make penuche and fudge. As a class we made liqueur cordials, which is actually a misnomer on the syllabus because Chef Webb did all the work.
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| Chef Webb doing the demo on Penuche. The white clump in the middle is the vital fondant added before agitating. |
The greatest part about penuche and fudge is that you are actually trying to promote crystallization by constant agitation. This builds the texture of the penuche and fudge and in order to achieve the desired firmness you have to table the products thoroughly. The penuche contained toasted pecans and we had more freedom to add our desired ingredients for the fudge. My partner and I decided to add crushed pretzels and extra salt. Our penuche was tabled adequately, but we did not cook the fudge long enough and ended up having to re-do the whole thing. The second time around the product was much firmer. Preference wise, fudge and penuche are not my favorite because I find them to be on the sweet side. However, the soft, chewy texture is great and this is an interesting method of producing candy.
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| Penuche, cut and ready to be wrapped |
The liqueur cordials were an overnight process. Chef Webb poured the sugar mixture into cornstarch molds. After the cordials set they emerged as little morsels bursting with booze, literally. When you eat one the shells cracks and you get an initial hit of liqueur. But they are also coated in dark chocolate, which would contrast nicely with the whole candy.
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| Shiny gems of penuche and fudge |
After we cut the penuche and fudge into evenly portioned squares, we wrapped them in wax paper lined foil paper in various colors. The presentation was nice so long as the paper was handled gently. Also, these would make great gifts.
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