I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have cornstarch listed
as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why cornstarch?? to keep the sugar dry???
I need just powdered sugar to make truffles. Does anybody know of a brand of sugar
w/o the cornstarch?
Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?
--
Conny - Sonora - CA - USA

Conny > wrote:

>I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have cornstarch listed
>as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why cornstarch??

To keep the sugar from caking up. Without the cornstarch all you'd
have is a solid block of sugar that used to be powdered, and is now
compressed into a cake.

> Does anybody know of a brand of sugar
>w/o the cornstarch?
I don't think there is one.

>Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?
Grinding in a spice grinder will give you smaller granules. To get
powdered sugar, you'll have to use a mortar and pestle, at least
according to my friends who wanted plain powdered sugar for a
redaction of a 15th century recipe.

jenn
--
Jenn Ridley

"Conny" > wrote in message
...
> I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have
cornstarch listed
> as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why cornstarch?? to keep the
sugar dry???
> I need just powdered sugar to make truffles. Does anybody know of a brand
of sugar
> w/o the cornstarch?
> Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?
> --
> Conny - Sonora - CA - USA

The cornstarch is added in very small amounts to prevent caking. You might
check at a health food store to see if they have any without cornstarch. If
you have an ethnic grocery, you might also check there for imported brands.
Frankly, I wouldn't worry about using it in the truffles. Since virtually
all confectioner's sugar contains cornstarch, the recipe you have most
likely assumes that you will be using sugar with cornstarch. Also, I doubt
that you will be able to produce anything close to the consistency of
powdered sugar at home.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 16:12:45 +0000, Conny wrote:

> I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have cornstarch listed
> as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why cornstarch?? to keep the sugar dry???
> I need just powdered sugar to make truffles. Does anybody know of a brand of sugar
> w/o the cornstarch?
> Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?


Icing sugar. Find your nearest British food shop. I think there's one in
LA. I'm not certain what other ethnic food shops might have it.

--
Cymru Llewes
Caer Llewys

Thanks for the info, but the truffles were a disaster, and my source in the
Netherland said that was due to the cornstarch in the Powdered sugar. The Recipe is
from him, a friend in the Netherlands.

Most likley I have to find another recipe, or grind the sugar real fine. It's a
Whipped cream trufffle and delicious.
Etnic stores are not found here in the mountains. You have to make a lot from
scratch, which is fine with me.
Trying again.
Thanks
Conny

> "Conny" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have
> cornstarch listed
> > as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why cornstarch?? to keep the
> sugar dry???
> > I need just powdered sugar to make truffles. Does anybody know of a brand
> of sugar
> > w/o the cornstarch?
> > Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?
> > --
> > Conny - Sonora - CA - USA
>
> The cornstarch is added in very small amounts to prevent caking. You might
> check at a health food store to see if they have any without cornstarch. If
> you have an ethnic grocery, you might also check there for imported brands.
> Frankly, I wouldn't worry about using it in the truffles. Since virtually
> all confectioner's sugar contains cornstarch, the recipe you have most
> likely assumes that you will be using sugar with cornstarch. Also, I doubt
> that you will be able to produce anything close to the consistency of
> powdered sugar at home.




--
Conny - Sonora - CA - USA

at Tue, 30 Dec 2003 16:12:45 GMT in >,
(Conny) wrote :

>I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have
>cornstarch listed as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why
>cornstarch?? to keep the sugar dry???

To prevent caking and clumping. IMHO this is simply a visual/consumer
appeal thing - it's easy enough to break up clumps in undoctored powdered
sugar with a fork.

> I need just powdered sugar to make
>truffles.

Why do you need powdered sugar at all? The classic truffle ganache uses no
added sugar, simply cream and chocolate. IMHO it works better than using
any sugar additive. You could coat truffles with powdered sugar instead of
cocoa, but this wouldn't be an application for which the addition of
cornstarch would be critical. If it's used in the truffle mix itself,
though, you will want no cornstarch at all.

> Does anybody know of a brand of sugar w/o the cornstarch?

Wholesome Sweeteners makes one. I can buy it in bulk at my local co-op - it
looks pretty clumpy, but works nicely. I suppose any store around your area
that carries Wholesome Sweeteners (best known for their Sucanat product)
will be able to order it for you if you ask.

>Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?

Not recommended. These grinders won't grind it nearly fine enough, and are
also not designed to handle products that liquefy under heat and mechanical
action. The sugar will probably gum up the machine and unless you start
with block sugar, the grinder will most likely not get any "bite" into the
sugar, so the net result would be poor.

Still, can you post your truffle recipe? I suspect your best results will
come from using no sugar at all.
--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Alex Rast wrote:

> at Tue, 30 Dec 2003 16:12:45 GMT in >,
> (Conny) wrote :
>
> >I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have
> >cornstarch listed as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why
> >cornstarch?? to keep the sugar dry???
>
> To prevent caking and clumping. IMHO this is simply a visual/consumer
> appeal thing - it's easy enough to break up clumps in undoctored powdered
> sugar with a fork.
>
> > I need just powdered sugar to make
> >truffles.
>
> Why do you need powdered sugar at all? The classic truffle ganache uses no
> added sugar, simply cream and chocolate. IMHO it works better than using
> any sugar additive. You could coat truffles with powdered sugar instead of
> cocoa, but this wouldn't be an application for which the addition of
> cornstarch would be critical. If it's used in the truffle mix itself,
> though, you will want no cornstarch at all.
>
> > Does anybody know of a brand of sugar w/o the cornstarch?
>
> Wholesome Sweeteners makes one. I can buy it in bulk at my local co-op - it
> looks pretty clumpy, but works nicely. I suppose any store around your area
> that carries Wholesome Sweeteners (best known for their Sucanat product)
> will be able to order it for you if you ask.
>
> >Guess I have to make it myself in my spice/coffee grinder?
>
> Not recommended. These grinders won't grind it nearly fine enough, and are
> also not designed to handle products that liquefy under heat and mechanical
> action. The sugar will probably gum up the machine and unless you start
> with block sugar, the grinder will most likely not get any "bite" into the
> sugar, so the net result would be poor.
>
> Still, can you post your truffle recipe? I suspect your best results will
> come from using no sugar at all.
> --
> Alex Rast
>
> (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Thanks Alex for your reply.
Here is the translated recipe:
CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES WITH WHIPPING CREAM

½ lb. butter of good quality with a minium of water
½ lb whipping cream 35%
½ lb. powdered sugar (w/o cornstarch)
(500 gr) 500 gr. chocolate

In a pan with thick bottom, bring cream and butter slowly to the boil
and add the sugar
(donut be in a hurry with this).
Cool cream to room temperature.
Stir butter to a cream and add slowly to the cream and sugar. DO NOT
WHIP.
Put the mix into a pastry bag and make little balls on a baking sheet
with baking paper.
Cool the balls on the sheet in a freezer for about 30 min.
Cover at this stage the balls with white or regular chocolate
confiture.

Melt chocolate in microwave dish or au Bain Marie.
Take 2 or 3 balls at the time from the freezer.
With white chocolate you can roll the truffles in coconut, with
brown chocolate, roll the balls in cocoa powder.
Cool truffles.

Thanks again
Conny

--
Conny - Sonora - CA - USA

at Wed, 31 Dec 2003 04:59:01 GMT in >,
(Conny) wrote :

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>> at Tue, 30 Dec 2003 16:12:45 GMT in >,
>> (Conny) wrote :
....
>> > I need just powdered sugar to make
>> >truffles.
>>
>> Why do you need powdered sugar at all? The classic truffle ganache
>> uses no added sugar, simply cream and chocolate. ...
>>
>> Still, can you post your truffle recipe? I suspect your best results
>> will come from using no sugar at all.
>
>Thanks Alex for your reply.
>Here is the translated recipe:
>CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES WITH WHIPPING CREAM
>
> ½ lb. butter of good quality with a minium of water
> ½ lb whipping cream 35%
> ½ lb. powdered sugar (w/o cornstarch)
> (500 gr) 500 gr. chocolate

0.5 lb = 227 g.

Typically, butter has 80% fat. Thus, 227 g butter + 227 g 35% cream = 452 g
total dairy, at 57.5 % fat. Roughly, this is equivalent to clotted cream.

It's not clear what percentage of sugar the chocolate has. If the 500g
chocolate is unsweetened, then the equivalent amount of sweetened chocolate
would be 727 g of 68.8 % bittersweet chocolate. Since sugar contains no
fat, and unsweetened chocolate has about 50% fat, the approximate fat
percentage would be 34.4 %. This is a lower-cocoa-butter chocolate, similar
to El Rey's "Gran Saman". In that situation, this would be close to 1.6 : 1
proportions of 70% bittersweet and clotted cream to make a ganache.

That wouldn't be a bad effort, although it would be undoubtedly slightly
greasy, owing to the high milkfat percentage and lower cocoa butter
percentage. It would be rather soft, for similar reasons, and because the
total amount of chocolate is somewhat less than the "classic" 2:1 ratio.

>
> In a pan with thick bottom, bring cream and butter
> slowly to the boil
>and add the sugar
> (donut be in a hurry with this).
> Cool cream to room temperature.
> Stir butter to a cream and add slowly to the cream and
> sugar. DO NOT
>WHIP.

My guess is that the recipe at this point wants you to add the chocolate,
after melting it - i.e. that "stir butter to a cream" means "melt chocolate
and stir to a creamy consistency". This would make more sense in light of
the previous instructions.

> Put the mix into a pastry bag and make little balls on a
> baking sheet
>with baking paper.
> Cool the balls on the sheet in a freezer for about 30
> min. Cover at this stage the balls with white or regular
> chocolate
>confiture.

I assume the word you're looking for is "couverture".

....

As written, the recipe is somewhat confusing. Is it supposed to create
buttery, cream centers with no chocolate in them, surrounded with a hard
chocolate "shell"? Or is it supposed to be creamy, chocolatey centers
coated with the same shell? The first would really be chocolate-covered
clotted cream frosting. The second is true chocolate truffles, albeit with
the shell.

If you're trying to create chocolate truffles, then based on the analysis I
outlined above, a classic-technique 2:1 ganache would work just as well if
not better for fewer steps and less hassle. Get some high-quality 70%
bittersweet couverture, and some 40% fat heavy cream. Use twice as much
chocolate as cream. Grate or chop the chocolate finely. Scald the cream,
and pour it, still hot, right over the grated/chopped chocolate. Stir
gently with a spatula until well-blended. Cool. You can then chill for
centers, if making truffles with a hard shell, or roll in cocoa, if you
prefer the classic presentation.

If you really do want a white, cream center, it might be worth seeking out
clotted cream which will help you avoid mixing butter and whipping cream.
Instead of using powdered sugar, I might suggest using the candy-making
method: dissolve some ordinary sugar in a bit of water, bring to the soft-
ball stage, then pour carefully into the cream. You seem to have a very
unusual recipe - I'm not quite sure what the objective of it was, but it
does seem to me that it takes a rather roundabout route to achieve results
you can get using other, more practical methods (more practical in the
sense that they don't require you to track down esoteric ingredients)
--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Conny wrote:
>
> Thanks for the info, but the truffles were a disaster, and my source in the
> Netherland said that was due to the cornstarch in the Powdered sugar. The Recipe is
> from him, a friend in the Netherlands.
>
> Most likley I have to find another recipe, or grind the sugar real fine. It's a
> Whipped cream trufffle and delicious.
> Etnic stores are not found here in the mountains. You have to make a lot from
> scratch, which is fine with me.
> Trying again.
> Thanks
> Conny
>

If used just to coat the outside of the truffles, the problem probably
wasn't the powdered sugar. I use powdered sugar to coat one of three
types of truffles each year at Christmas and haven't had a problem
unless the truffles were too loose (like my first attempt at Chocolate
Raspberry where I didn't change anything except adding Raspberry
Puree). I have had some success with using regular granulated sugar to
coat truffles--hardens into a nice shell even on moist truffles. what's
your recipe? Maybe there is something with it.

PAX!
Greg

Alex Rast wrote:

> 0.5 lb = 227 g.
>
> Typically, butter has 80% fat. Thus, 227 g butter + 227 g 35% cream = 452 g
> total dairy, at 57.5 % fat. Roughly, this is equivalent to clotted cream.
>
> It's not clear what percentage of sugar the chocolate has. If the 500g
> chocolate is unsweetened, then the equivalent amount of sweetened chocolate
> would be 727 g of 68.8 % bittersweet chocolate. Since sugar contains no
> fat, and unsweetened chocolate has about 50% fat, the approximate fat
> percentage would be 34.4 %. This is a lower-cocoa-butter chocolate, similar
> to El Rey's "Gran Saman". In that situation, this would be close to 1.6 : 1
> proportions of 70% bittersweet and clotted cream to make a ganache.
>
> That wouldn't be a bad effort, although it would be undoubtedly slightly
> greasy, owing to the high milkfat percentage and lower cocoa butter
> percentage. It would be rather soft, for similar reasons, and because the
> total amount of chocolate is somewhat less than the "classic" 2:1 ratio.
>
> >
> > In a pan with thick bottom, bring cream and butter
> > slowly to the boil
> >and add the sugar
> > (donut be in a hurry with this).
> > Cool cream to room temperature.
> > Stir butter to a cream and add slowly to the cream and
> > sugar. DO NOT
> >WHIP.
>
> My guess is that the recipe at this point wants you to add the chocolate,
> after melting it - i.e. that "stir butter to a cream" means "melt chocolate
> and stir to a creamy consistency". This would make more sense in light of
> the previous instructions.
>
> > Put the mix into a pastry bag and make little balls on a
> > baking sheet
> >with baking paper.
> > Cool the balls on the sheet in a freezer for about 30
> > min. Cover at this stage the balls with white or regular
> > chocolate
> >confiture.
>
> I assume the word you're looking for is "couverture".
>
> ...
>
> As written, the recipe is somewhat confusing. Is it supposed to create
> buttery, cream centers with no chocolate in them, surrounded with a hard
> chocolate "shell"? Or is it supposed to be creamy, chocolatey centers
> coated with the same shell? The first would really be chocolate-covered
> clotted cream frosting. The second is true chocolate truffles, albeit with
> the shell.
>
> If you're trying to create chocolate truffles, then based on the analysis I
> outlined above, a classic-technique 2:1 ganache would work just as well if
> not better for fewer steps and less hassle. Get some high-quality 70%
> bittersweet couverture, and some 40% fat heavy cream. Use twice as much
> chocolate as cream. Grate or chop the chocolate finely. Scald the cream,
> and pour it, still hot, right over the grated/chopped chocolate. Stir
> gently with a spatula until well-blended. Cool. You can then chill for
> centers, if making truffles with a hard shell, or roll in cocoa, if you
> prefer the classic presentation.
>
> If you really do want a white, cream center, it might be worth seeking out
> clotted cream which will help you avoid mixing butter and whipping cream.
> Instead of using powdered sugar, I might suggest using the candy-making
> method: dissolve some ordinary sugar in a bit of water, bring to the soft-
> ball stage, then pour carefully into the cream. You seem to have a very
> unusual recipe - I'm not quite sure what the objective of it was, but it
> does seem to me that it takes a rather roundabout route to achieve results
> you can get using other, more practical methods (more practical in the
> sense that they don't require you to track down esoteric ingredients)
> --
> Alex Rast
>
> (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Hi Alex;

This is not the first time we converse about truffles. I knew, when I saw your name,
that it was familiar to me.
Sure enough, I think it was December 1997, you advised about making chocolate
truffles. I made them and they were delicious!!!!
Now on to the cream truffles.
They are a white , soft center, in a jacket of either white or regular chocolate. Of
course they melt in the mouth. I translated the recipe from the Dutch language, and
yes I meant "couverture" instead of the (jam confiture) Sorry about that. In my haste
to translate and find a solution, I boo-booed.
I'm not sure if I can find "clotted cream" here, but I think I have a recipe how to
make it. other than the aforementioned recipe. I have all ingredients, (Belgian
chocolate for the outer jacket) and I will as per your advise, melt the sugar in the
water and cook it to a syrup. I wonder if I could instead of making the syrup, use
white syrup from the bottle?
And do away with looking for powdered sugar w/o corn starch.
Thanks so much for your tips and explanations.
I will keep you posted about the results.
Happy New Year to you and the group!!
Conny

--
Conny - Sonora - CA - USA

Alex Rast wrote:

> 0.5 lb = 227 g.
>
> Typically, butter has 80% fat. Thus, 227 g butter + 227 g 35% cream = 452 g
> total dairy, at 57.5 % fat. Roughly, this is equivalent to clotted cream.
>
> It's not clear what percentage of sugar the chocolate has. If the 500g
> chocolate is unsweetened, then the equivalent amount of sweetened chocolate
> would be 727 g of 68.8 % bittersweet chocolate. Since sugar contains no
> fat, and unsweetened chocolate has about 50% fat, the approximate fat
> percentage would be 34.4 %. This is a lower-cocoa-butter chocolate, similar
> to El Rey's "Gran Saman". In that situation, this would be close to 1.6 : 1
> proportions of 70% bittersweet and clotted cream to make a ganache.
>
> That wouldn't be a bad effort, although it would be undoubtedly slightly
> greasy, owing to the high milkfat percentage and lower cocoa butter
> percentage. It would be rather soft, for similar reasons, and because the
> total amount of chocolate is somewhat less than the "classic" 2:1 ratio.
>
> >
> > In a pan with thick bottom, bring cream and butter
> > slowly to the boil
> >and add the sugar
> > (donut be in a hurry with this).
> > Cool cream to room temperature.
> > Stir butter to a cream and add slowly to the cream and
> > sugar. DO NOT
> >WHIP.
>
> My guess is that the recipe at this point wants you to add the chocolate,
> after melting it - i.e. that "stir butter to a cream" means "melt chocolate
> and stir to a creamy consistency". This would make more sense in light of
> the previous instructions.
>
> > Put the mix into a pastry bag and make little balls on a
> > baking sheet
> >with baking paper.
> > Cool the balls on the sheet in a freezer for about 30
> > min. Cover at this stage the balls with white or regular
> > chocolate
> >confiture.
>
> I assume the word you're looking for is "couverture".
>
> ...
>
> As written, the recipe is somewhat confusing. Is it supposed to create
> buttery, cream centers with no chocolate in them, surrounded with a hard
> chocolate "shell"? Or is it supposed to be creamy, chocolatey centers
> coated with the same shell? The first would really be chocolate-covered
> clotted cream frosting. The second is true chocolate truffles, albeit with
> the shell.
>
> If you're trying to create chocolate truffles, then based on the analysis I
> outlined above, a classic-technique 2:1 ganache would work just as well if
> not better for fewer steps and less hassle. Get some high-quality 70%
> bittersweet couverture, and some 40% fat heavy cream. Use twice as much
> chocolate as cream. Grate or chop the chocolate finely. Scald the cream,
> and pour it, still hot, right over the grated/chopped chocolate. Stir
> gently with a spatula until well-blended. Cool. You can then chill for
> centers, if making truffles with a hard shell, or roll in cocoa, if you
> prefer the classic presentation.
>
> If you really do want a white, cream center, it might be worth seeking out
> clotted cream which will help you avoid mixing butter and whipping cream.
> Instead of using powdered sugar, I might suggest using the candy-making
> method: dissolve some ordinary sugar in a bit of water, bring to the soft-
> ball stage, then pour carefully into the cream. You seem to have a very
> unusual recipe - I'm not quite sure what the objective of it was, but it
> does seem to me that it takes a rather roundabout route to achieve results
> you can get using other, more practical methods (more practical in the
> sense that they don't require you to track down esoteric ingredients)
> --
> Alex Rast
>
> (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Hi Alex;

This is not the first time we converse about truffles. I knew, when I saw your name,
that it was familiar to me.
Sure enough, I think it was December 1997, you advised about making chocolate
truffles. I made them and they were delicious!!!!
Now on to the cream truffles.
They are a white , soft center, in a jacket of either white or regular chocolate. Of
course they melt in the mouth. I translated the recipe from the Dutch language, and
yes I meant "couverture" instead of the (jam confiture) Sorry about that. In my haste
to translate and find a solution, I boo-booed.
I'm not sure if I can find "clotted cream" here, but I think I have a recipe how to
make it. other than the aforementioned recipe. I have all ingredients, (Belgian
chocolate for the outer jacket) and I will as per your advise, melt the sugar in the
water and cook it to a syrup. I wonder if I could instead of making the syrup, use
white syrup from the bottle?
And do away with looking for powdered sugar w/o corn starch.
Thanks so much for your tips and explanations.
I will keep you posted about the results.
Happy New Year to you and the group!!
Conny

--
Conny - Sonora - CA - USA

at Wed, 31 Dec 2003 18:30:33 GMT in
>, (Conny) wrote
:

>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>> 0.5 lb = 227 g.
>>
>> Typically, butter has 80% fat. Thus, 227 g butter + 227 g 35% cream =
>> 452 g total dairy, at 57.5 % fat. Roughly, this is equivalent to
>> clotted cream.
>> ...
>>
>> As written, the recipe is somewhat confusing. Is it supposed to create
>> buttery, cream centers with no chocolate in them, surrounded with a
>> hard chocolate "shell"? Or is it supposed to be creamy, chocolatey
>> centers coated with the same shell? The first would really be
>> chocolate-covered clotted cream frosting. The second is true chocolate
>> truffles, albeit with the shell.
>>
>> If you really do want a white, cream center, it might be worth seeking
>> out clotted cream which will help you avoid mixing butter and whipping
>> cream. Instead of using powdered sugar, I might suggest using the
>> candy-making method: dissolve some ordinary sugar in a bit of water,
>> bring to the soft- ball stage, then pour carefully into the cream. ...
>
>Hi Alex;
>
>This is not the first time we converse about truffles. I knew, when I
>saw your name, that it was familiar to me.
>Sure enough, I think it was December 1997, you advised about making
>chocolate truffles. I made them and they were delicious!!!!
>Now on to the cream truffles.
>They are a white , soft center, in a jacket of either white or regular
>chocolate.

OK, now I'm clear what you're talking about. IMHO the people who made this
recipe are rather stretching the term "truffles" - I'd give this confection
a different name. The original truffles are, of course, the mushrooms.
Chocolate truffles, in the classic recipe, are balls of firm ganache that
have been crudely rolled and then dusted with cocoa, so that they look a
lot like the mushroom. In this context, the term makes sense.

But the next step people seem to have taken was to call a ganache center
enrobed with a hard chocolate shell a "truffle" - already a stretch IMHO
since they don't look anything like mushrooms at this point, obscuring the
logic of the name. However, at least the center is essentially identical
with the classic chocolate truffle, so perhaps one can understand the
point.

Now, however, this recipe is calling "truffle" an object which does not
actually contain ganache, and doesn't look like the mushroom truffle
either. Where does it end? At some point the definition of "truffle" would
become so blurred that it would be almost impossible to pinpoint what the
terminology meant. Certainly it seems as though the way we're headed is
towards "any confection with a soft, creamy consistency that can be sold at
a suitably high price at a confectionery".

OK, end of tirade.

> Of course they melt in the mouth. I translated the recipe
>from the Dutch language, and yes I meant "couverture" instead of the
>(jam confiture) Sorry about that. In my haste to translate and find a
>solution, I boo-booed. I'm not sure if I can find "clotted cream" here,

Clotted cream is a very British thing - you can get it here in Seattle, and
I suspect in most major urban centers in the USA. In Canada it should be
even easier to find. In Britain it's ubiquitous, and you can find it in
Europe with a bit of searching. You're looking for a sweet cream product
that's solid and spreadable, sort of the consistency of cream cheese, with
a slightly yellow colour.

>but I think I have a recipe how to make it.

It's not easy to make. You need unhomogenized milk, an oven that can go at
a low setting, a wide pot, and lots of patience. Without experience it's
not very likely you'll get it right. It's easier to buy than make.

> other than the
>aforementioned recipe. I have all ingredients, (Belgian chocolate for
>the outer jacket) and I will as per your advise, melt the sugar in the
>water and cook it to a syrup. I wonder if I could instead of making the
>syrup, use white syrup from the bottle?

No, because it has far, far too much water. Candymaking technique creates a
very concentrated sugar solution - even the soft-ball stage is almost
entirely sugar. In addition, white syrup often has other ingredients and
typically includes a liquid sugar - either invert sugar or corn syrup, both
of which never solidify and so will never reach the soft-ball stage.

>And do away with looking for powdered sugar w/o corn starch.

Another option which would achieve very similar results is to make white
chocolate truffles - simply substitute white for bittersweet in the truffle
recipe I already described. Be sure to use El Rey white chocolate if you
can, far and away the best. Scald the cream only lightly - if the cream is
too hot when you add it to white chocolate, the truffles will be grainy.

Again, powdered sugar without cornstarch isn't impossible to find, but it
does require some persistence and in any case I think using soft-ball sugar
will yield even smoother, silkier results.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Jenn Ridley > wrote in
:

> Conny > wrote:
>
>>I have checked several brands of powdered sugar, and they all have
>>cornstarch listed as the second ingredient other than sugar. Why
>>cornstarch??
>
> To keep the sugar from caking up. Without the cornstarch all you'd
> have is a solid block of sugar that used to be powdered, and is now
> compressed into a cake.

No - it has lumps in it, but they're easily broken up. In Australia, (and
in UK too, I think, possibly also in Canada) you can get icing sugar
(powdered sugar) without cornflour (cornstarch). There are two types of
icing sugar available - one is mixed with cornflour and is labelled icing
sugar mix. The other has no cornflour and is labelled pure icing sugar.
There are always lumps in it, but I just break them up when sifting the
icing sugar. The type without cornflour is preferred by cake decorators
etc, I believe, for making hard setting icings - royal icing etc.

As far as availability in the US goes, someone else (Alex, I think) has
mentioned a wholefoods/healthfood store. Possibly the OP could also try
checking with cake decorating suppliers?

Rhonda Anderson
Cranebrook, NSW, Australia