Sweets…. when you were little you loved them ! Growing up, they’ve become your worst enemy : a crazy longing to eat them while telling yourself it’s not right if you want to keep your figure ! Candy can even be cooked – yes, cooked – you read that correctly ! So here are some ideas for pleasing the little ones … and the big ones !

Here we go …

In cooking, recipes using sweets – or ‘retro’ recipes – are in fashion. By ‘retro’ we mean that the recipes take us back to our childhood. Usually they’re done to make the kids happy but they can also please the parents too. What’s more, cooking with candy can prove fun for children; you can get them to take part and discover new things – as demonstrated by Cyril Lignac in an appearance on the Top Chef programme.

So let’s get back to our topic of sweets ! Despite everything, it mustn’t be forgotten that sweets are made up of refined sugars and chemical flavouring, so it’s essential to eat them in moderation ! However you can decide to make your own sweets to keep down the amount of industrial additives.
For your recipes you can choose all types of candy – mass produced or hand-crafted (https://www.french-candy.com/)- the only limit is your imagination !

Methods

You can incorporate candy into your cooking in different ways.

Fondu

This involves melting or infusing candy and then incorporating it into classic dessert dishes such as tiramisu, mousse or cake. In this way, candy will change the taste of your dish to make it different from the original recipe.
The important thing is to let your creativity and your taste buds speak for themselves !

Carambars are often melted and incorporated into dishes.

Crushing

You can also keep the candy in its original state if that works well for taste or aesthetics. For example, you can include pieces of Dime or Kit Kat in cookies to change their textures.

Reinvent

You can also choose to make your own candy; some of it is very easy to do. It’s an ideal way to reduce additives and to keep the kids happy if they have any allergies. Making a Bounty or marshmallow teddies is a real game for kids, so don’t be scared to try it !

Trompe-l’œil

You can also choose to fool people by re-making savoury recipes with candy.
For example, transforming a simple yogurt cake into the real deal, thanks to sugar paste and a bit of candy !
Revisiting a savoury recipe is also possible: you can create a sweet pizza decorated with sweets for a tasty treat full of surprises !
To do that, nothing could be simpler : make a classic pizza base and then embellish it with a mixture made from mixing cooking chocolate, fluid cream, white cooking chocolate and multi-coloured sweets. Your pizza will be a huge hit !

Those are the sort of good ideas you can have, but always in moderation !