Charm-o-Matic

Sugar sold separately.

Anita Chu’s Field Guide to Candy paves the way to your confectionary immortality.

Most candy cookbook writers would be satisfied producing a book brimming over with gorgeous color photographs, clear instructions, handy tips and a thorough glossary of candy-making terms and techniques. Anita Chu does all of that in Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable, but she gets a sugar-coated gold star for also featuring fascinating historical tidbits about each candy.

A Greek candy called pasteli, for example, may be the world’s first candy and has an impeccable literary pedigree to boot. Chu notes that the Iliad mentions a pie made of sesame and honey, which are the main ingredients in pasteli. Never has candy-making felt so steeped in tradition. Chu elevates her recipes by taking readers on a culinary tour from the caves of Spain to the medicinal origins of licorice in England to the complex sweetness of 17th-century France to the American contribution of chocolate-covered cherries in 1929.

The guide includes recipes for favorites such as peanut brittle and truffles, some old-fashioned ones such as molasses taffy and buttermilk candy, some Asian sensations such as Chinese milk candy and daifuku mochi and some unexpected delights such as candy corn.

One of the more surprising recipes is based on the same fizzy notion as Pop Rocks. Turns out that a medieval Arabic drink called sharbat evolved into frozen sherbet as it migrated across Europe. Once it reached England, some clever fellow invented a fizzy powder to go with it that results in that familiar, effervescent tingle. You can use Chu’s version of sherbet powder to make a drink fizzy, or you can eat it like Pixy Stix. Genius, I tell you.

Speaking of brand names, Chu also fills readers in on how to make homemade versions of Butterfinger candy bars, Tootsie Rolls and Reese’s peanut butter cups.

I love that Chu embraces all manner of candy-making – she generously compares such American inventions as the chocolate-covered potato chip with the haute fluer de sel caramels of famed French pasty chef Pierre Herme. And that may be the most charming thing of all.

Field Guide to Candy, $15.95

Still occasionally screaming for ice cream? A surprising recipe offers a new reason to indulge.

Got buttermilk!

Buttermilk always reminds me of the pioneer stories I read obsessively as a girl, so I’m forever tearing out magazine recipes featuring the old-fashioned-seeming drink. Buttermilk-cardamom pie! Buttermilk and lemon curd cake! Buttermilk fried chicken! No buttermilk mention is too small to warrant my immediate attention. One case that actually made it from “Oh, that looks interesting!” to “Gee, your ice cream tastes terrific!” is an incredibly simple recipe for iced buttermilk.

A couple of summers ago, I began an ice cream quest. It’s sort of like a tundra-based vision quest. Instead of wandering in the desert, you eat ice cream. You can see the similarities already, I presume. I invested in one of those no-muss, automatic ice cream makers that comes with a bowl you stash in the freezer and started trying recipes.

The recipe in question is courtesy of Emeril Lagasse and contains only sugar, lemon juice & zest, a pinch of salt and buttermilk. His recipe calls for lots of sugar, but I reduced it with tasty results. (You can see the recipe below, or click through for the original on the Food Network site, complete with a cake that he serves along with it.)

The kicker is that since buttermilk is cultured, it has the same health benefits of yogurt. Since the buttermilk is so creamy, the texture feels much fuller than other low-fat ice creams. And thanks to the tang, the taste is similar to that addictive-to-many Pinkberry frozen yogurt.

If you really want to commit to your ice cream experiments (that sounds downright scientific – it’s like summer school, really), try David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. My favorite recipe in the book is Guinness-Milk Chocolate Ice Cream. I’ve also had fun convincing my friends to try his concoctions of Olive Oil Ice Cream and Goat Cheese Ice Cream.

But seriously, try the buttermilk. It does an ice cream quest good.

Emeril’s recipe on Food Network site (scroll past the cake for the ice milk)
The Perfect Scoop, $16.47
Ice cream maker, $49

Emeril’s Buttermilk Ice Milk (Food Network)
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar (Note: I reduced this amount.)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch salt
3 cups buttermilk

In a large non-reactive bowl combine sugar, lemon juice, zest, salt and buttermilk and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cover with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator until thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour. (Note: I never bother to chill it since I’m not a purist and the buttermilk is already cold.) Process in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Yield: about 1 quart