The essential equipment for making homemade candies.
What equipment is needed to make candies?
Making artisanal candies is both a creative and gourmet activity. Whether you're a beginner pastry chef, a beekeeper looking to transform your honey, or simply a confectionery enthusiast, a few well-chosen tools can make the process much simpler and more efficient.
Discover here the essential equipment for making successful homemade candies, from controlling sugar cooking to the final shaping.
1. A sugar thermometer: the basis of all confectionery.
The first step in making candies is to master sugar cooking. In confectionery, a few degrees of difference can completely change the final texture.
A thermometer allows precise control of the different cooking stages:
- small ball stage.
- large ball stage.
- crack stage.
- caramel stage.
For more precision on the uses of hot sugars, click here.
For this, you can use:
- a manual sugar thermometer, robust and simple to use
- an electronic thermometer, which offers fast and very precise reading
These tools allow you to cook your sugar to the right temperature before moving on to the shaping stage.
2. The Berlingotière: easily shaping berlingots
Once the sugar is cooked, it must be given its final shape. For berlingots, this step can be delicate if done only by hand.
The Berlingotière quickly transforms a hot sugar rope into a series of regular berlingots.
Its operation is very simple:
- prepare a hot sugar rope.
- insert it into the machine.
- turn the crank.
- the berlingots appear, perfectly formed.
This tool allows for regular candy production while reducing work time and handling of hot sugar.
3. The Boulier: creating other candy shapes
If you want to diversify your creations, The Boulier is an excellent complement.
It allows you to easily make:
- round candies
- sugar cushions
- regular shapes to enrich an artisanal range
It's a tool appreciated by pastry chefs, confectioners, and beekeepers who wish to offer several candy shapes with a simple and regular gesture.
4. Understanding berlingot manufacturing.
If you are new to artisanal confectionery, it is helpful to understand the different manufacturing steps.
We have dedicated a complete guide to this topic: Complete guide to making berlingots.
You will discover:
- the basic recipe.
- the sugar cooking stages.
- the shaping techniques.
- tips for successfully making your first berlingots.
5. Simple equipment for accessible confectionery
Artisanal confectionery may seem technical at first, but with a few adapted tools, it quickly becomes accessible.
The basic trio to start with is simple:
- sugar thermometer: for mastering cooking
- Berlingotière: for shaping berlingots
- Boulier: for varying candy shapes
With these tools, you can easily produce traditional berlingots, honey candies, and other artisanal confections with more regularity and peace of mind.