[Eng] “sugar in confectionery production”

The fundamental processes concerned in candy making have much in common regardless of their final form, because in the majority the chief ingredient is sugar. Some of the earlier confectioners used honey, molasses, maple (кленовый) sugar, and cane syrup as the principal sweetening agents. These same substances are used in some factory made products even today, but the above- mentioned group of sweeteners now have a limited usage in comparison with cane sugar or beet sugar.

Next to sugar itself chocolate is a very common ingredient of many candies. Starches, butter, cacao-butter, molasses, salt, nuts, gelatin, fruit, many flavouring and colouring materials, and numerous others have also their places in confectionery production.

It is the sugars present in most candies and the manner in which they have been treated that govern in large part the characteristics of the final products.

Hard candies are essentially solid solutions of sugar containing flavouring and sometimes colouring matter. To facilitate the heating and secure uniformity of the mass, water is added at the outset and later it is removed by boiling it off in a vacuum pan.

The flavouring materials are combined with the sugar when heating is completed if the flavouring material is volatile. When fruit flavours are used, acids such as citric, malic, or tartaric may also be incorporated, but only after cooking is completed in order to avoid stickiness (слипание).

Fondants are made by heating sugar and water until a supersaturated solution is produced. This is then cooled quickly and immediately beaten to incorporate air into the mixture, thus forming a cream. The creamed fondant stiffens within a few minutes and is generally allowed to stand overnight, during which period changes occur in the crystal structure and the fondant becomes softer.

The fondant is next melted in a kettle (емкость) equipped with a stirrer. The syrup batch is cooked to a definite temperature in an adjacent kettle, the batch consisting of a solution of cane sugar, or invert sugar, or a mixture of these in water. The batch is then added to the fondant and the mixture is put in the moulds of desired shape.

Somewhat different from various kinds of candy⁴ are the marshmallow products, which are much lighter in character. In making marshmallows cane sugar, corn syrup, or invert syrup is heated with water and then subsequently mixed with a warm-water solution of gelatin, gum, or albumin. Then the mass is beaten to incorporate air, which is an essential step in the process. After heating, the marshmallow is run into the starch mould to give the desired shape and produce a dry surface.

Стр. 39 UNIT 3 TEXT B^a₃

[Eng] “progress in confectionery production”

Confectionery industry has a long history. It goes back into ancient times. It starts with the discovery of honey. Ancient people learnt to mix honey with chopped fruit and nuts. It was a delicious sweetmeat. This was the first confectionery item in the world. When in the middle ages cane sugar was brought to Europe it was used for the production of sugar sweets.

Chocolate was first brought to Europe by the Spaniards in the 16^th century. At that time it was used as a beverage. Later on the manufacture of chocolate candies was started in France. The first chocolate candies consisted of ground cacao beans (1) and sugar and were prepared by the mere mixing of these two ingredients.

The 17^th century was a period of considerable progress in confectionery. Many new types of confectionery goods appeared. But till the end of the 18^th century most of the processes in confectionery production had been carried out manually (by hand) or water-driven machines. The invention of steam power engines by James Watt gave rise to the development of confectionery machinery as well.

Nowadays all the processes in confectionery production are done by machines. At a chocolate producing plant cleaning and grading machines (2) free raw beans of foreign bodies, such as clay, metal, stone, fibre, etc.

Various roasters (3) are usually installed at modern plants for roasting cacao beans. Removal of shell and germ is also carried out by machines. The cacao bean from which the shell and germ were removed is called a nib (4). Nibs are fed into the hopper (5) of a grinding mill (6) which grinds them into a liquor (7). The liquor is pumped to a pressing machine (8) for extraction of cacao-butter. At this stage of production cocoa powder can be made. If chocolate is to be produced the liquor is passed to the melangeurs (9) or mixing machines (mixers) and some sugar is added to the mass.

The treatment of conching (10) imparts very fine physical structure to chocolate and improves its taste. After conching the chocolate is moulded, cooled and wrapped. This procedure is almost entirely automatic at modern confectionery factories.

1 cacao beans - какао-бобы

cocoa - какао (порошок, напиток)

2 cleaning and grading machine - очистительная и сортировочная машина

3 roaster - обжарочный аппарат

4 nib – ядро

5 hopper – загрузочная воронка, бункер

6 grinding mill – размольная машина, дробилка, мельница

7 Liquor - раствор

8 Pressing machine – отжимное устройство, пресс

9 Melangeur = mixer – меланжер, смеситель

10 Conching - конширование

Conching machine – конш-машина (шоколадно-отделочная)