Gluten Free / Vegan Voyage

I don't have to live a gluten free life, which is such a blessing to me because I don't really think I could if I tried.  This makes it more important to me to be able to create something so very delicious and authentic tasting for someone who is not quite as fortunate.
There are so many people affected by celiac who have to live a life free of wheat and other glutinous grains.  This makes it a challenge to create breads, cakes and cookies with that texture and flavor we all know and love.
Gluten makes dough pliable and fluffy and gives body to breads and cakes.
Wheat flour gives a lovely crunch to cookies.
Gluten is the magic that makes stuff good.
Or is it?
Likewise, vegans eliminate from their diets the very ingredients that also lend to the perfection of the finished product when it comes to cakes, pastries and breads.  What is egg challah without eggs?  What is a sponge cake without egg whites?  What is the custard in a Boston Cream Pie without cream and eggs???
And what happens when you combine these two restrictive diets and try to make stuff taste really delicious and authentic??
It came as a great surprise to me that I was actually able to conjure up some pretty delectable treats without the use of these products.
The more I study food, the more I realize how simple it is to come up with alternatives.
I have always had to observe a special diet of my own.  Since I was raised ultra orthodox, I had to observe the kosher dietary laws.  When cooking a meal containing meat, we couldn't use dairy ingredients...so making a steak with a sauce mounted with butter was just not an option.  And using lardons or bacon or any kind of pig product was strictly forbidden.  So we had to come up with alternatives.
I truly believe that this experience has made it easier for me to find alternatives in other areas of cooking and baking.

Pate de Fruit with a Twist

This week I played around with fruit and creating candy with it.
With delicious applesauce and berries I whipped up some delightful pate de fruit, but I found it way too cloyingly sweet.  So I sprinkled it lightly with citric acid and then coated it with some sugar crystals, creating a healthier and tastier version of a sour patch kid that an adult can really go ga-ga over...and still give it to their kids knowing it isn't completely junky and bad for them.
I made an apple guava jelly (but the guava flavor seems to have faded in the cooking process - so maybe more guava, less apple, next time around).  I cut those into delightful little birds and bears and also into squares and rounds.

Then I made one with a bit of applesauce combined with blueberry and raspberry puree.  I made some of them in little dome molds and then put the rest in a tray to firm.  Cut some into squares and the rest into rings.  I just had to try to recreate the Joyva jelly ring.
After the little gems had "cured" exposed to air for a couple of days, I tested them.  With the citric acid and sugar they were so tart, tangy and fruity.
Then I did the chocolate test.  I had no idea if it would work.

I melted the chocolate and then gave them a beautiful, silky brown bath. Then I set them on wax paper to  firm up. They looked pretty authentic. Then, the taste test...
PERFECTION!

The chocolate was just bitter enough...the jelly just fruity and sweet enough...the tart hint of citric acid...
Absolutely the best jelly ring I have ever let melt in my mouth.
What a sweet treat!

Sugar - A New Friendship Is Born

I never knew that there were quite so many kinds of sugar available.  I knew of several, but the entire gamut?  Well, I wasn't quite aware there was so much more.  I am not even sure I've acquainted myself with everything out there yet, but I hope to.
Sugar is my new friend.  Feisty sweet demon, it is...but I'm enthralled and I'm hooked.
Mind you, I have to be careful as I was diabetic many years ago (since having lost a great deal of weight my diabetes is still a risk, but not a threat at this point - as long as I do not eat sugar in excess).
White sugar, light and dark sugar are probably most widely available and popular.  However, I am discovering all sorts of other sugars like palm, date, coconut, etc.
I hope to share many new recipes as I test them, along with photos of the goodies I produce with them.

My Mission - My Story

I have big dreams.
I am the mom of a phenomenal 4.5 year old.  She is my greatest gift.
I work hard in an office all day so that I can pay my bills and give my daughter the life I never had.
Then I come home to my mommy world and I dream in the few minutes in between making dinner, reading stories, kissing boo-boos, doing some homeschooling (in addition to her regular public school), help with piano practice...you know...all that mommy stuff.
I dream big dreams - like how, someday, I will take a trip to France to study with the greatest confiseurs and pastry chefs and really learn how candy is made.
I wish too...I wish I could win the lottery or be discovered by the right person who will discover that I have an innate talent and help to give me a push in the right direction.
The truth is I never had an education.  I was raised in the insular hasidic world - where women are practically non-existent and only count when they are cooking, sewing or making babies.  I wasn't allowed to attend college.  I was barely allowed to read books - they all had to be censored.  What really hurt was that I watched my father live out his dreams of becoming a famous cantor.  But I, as a woman, was not permitted to sing.  The laws of "kol isha" (literally translated: the voice of a woman) prohibited me from doing so.  I love music.  It flows, like molten sugar, in my veins.
Likewise, I could never attend the CIA or the FCI or any other notable cooking school for fear of assimilation and also because I would likely have to cook using non-kosher ingredients, and - OH horror of horrors - have to taste what I had cooked.
So I did what I was expected to do.
And when I realized I couldn't live a lie any longer and needed to be free I left a marriage and found a job in an office selling pagers.
I had no education.  I had to do what I could.
The world, since those days about 20 years ago, has opened before me like a glorious plump oyster.
I have, however, never had the tools to really find my niche.  I didn't really have a mentor...someone to guide me and show me the way to break into a career in a field that was exciting to me.
I guess I am a late bloomer.  But I am realizing that while working in an office is really fulfilling on one level, it is not my dream.  It is not my greatest love.  I long for more.
So now...when my daughter is in bed...I create recipes.  I test recipes.  I make candy.  I bake.  I take my tasty treats to work and invite friends over for tasting parties.
Honestly, if I had the money to do so, I would probably take a class at night.  Maybe even beg my boss to allow me to take a sabbatical (I have been working for the same company for 15 years now).  I would take a trip to San Francisco and beg Elizabeth Falkner to let me be her intern.  (I would have asked Johnny Iuzzini...but I hear he's camping in the woods right now.)  I would sit at Jacques Torres' door until he agreed to teach me.  And, secretly, I wish I could be Jean-Michel Carre.
Simply put...I wish I had time and money.  And if I had the money I could definitely make the time.
But maybe...just maybe...someone will read my story and realize that I have a fire burning inside me that really wants to do something I love.  Someone that has as much faith in my dreams as I do.  Someone who has a few extra bucks - who will give me a chance to live out my dream.
Until then, I will work my ass off and help make everyone's life a little sweeter...until I get there myself.

My Earliest Candy Memory

Living in Montreal...I must have been about 3 or 4 years of age...We had a babysitter who didn't adhere to the laws of kashrut (adherence to the kosher dietary laws) and she brought over some marshmallow broom-shaped lollipops coated in dark chocolate.
My mother made it very clear that we were forbidden to touch them, but I so desperately wanted to try it...to bite into that delightful hardened chocolate shell and sink my teeth into the sweet, gelatinous goo that hid beneath.  I knew, in my mind, even at that tender age, exactly how it would feel and taste.
I remember it to this day...roughly 40 years later.
Oddly enough, while I remember how my mother caught me, red-handed, as I tried to get away with marshmallow broom murder, I don't quite recall the details except that I was punished somehow.
As these 40 years have passed, like an everlasting jawbreaker of Wonka proportion, I've had my share of candy experiences, now but bittersweet chocolate memories of the 85% cacao kind.
Let me give it to you straight.  Kosher candy, when I was growing up, bore but a bare and insipid resemblance to the "treyf" (non-kosher) goodies on the market.  The taboo stuff always looked so pretty and exciting and enticing and came in every imaginable flavor, color, texture, shape, size!
I have grown a lot since then.  I now realize that if you use the finest and freshest ingredients you can find, even kosher candy can be delicious.
Yes, there are restrictions.  There are rules and regulations of what can and can't be mixed together.  You have to check your eggs for bloodspots and make sure not to use dairy ingredients if you intend to serve our sweets at a meal where meat is served.  But it can be done.  Good candy can be made...and it can be made kosher.

What's in a name?

queen  

[kween]

noun

1.

a female sovereign or monarch.

2.

a woman, or something personified as a woman, that is foremost or preeminent in any respect: a movie queen; a beauty queen; Athens, the queen of the Aegean.

con·fec·tion

 [kuhn-fek-shuhn]

noun

1.

a sweet preparation of fruit or the like, as a preserve or candy.

2.

the process of compounding, preparing, or making something.

The name I was given at birth, Malka, means queen in Hebrew.  Seeing as I am creating sweet treats I think the name I have chosen, Queen's Confections, suits me perfectly.

Welcome to my candy kingdom!

Sweet lovers of the world!!!  Welcome to my candy kingdom!!!

Allow me to share my line of confections with you.  It is my wish to spread love and sweetness by creating confections made with care and great attention to every ingredient and detail.

I have just shared samples of my sweets with some dear friends and the reports were stellar!

There were happy faces, ooooohs and aaaaahs and, as one of my friends called it, a gustatory orgasm or two.

Here is my current menu of sweets.  It is still evolving, though, so stick around.

Homemade Sweet Treats...candy you wish your mommy would have made:
PB&Jiggy Piggy, pb&j inspired crisp rice treats dressed as little piggies on a stick
PB&Just Adorable, pb&j inspired crisp rice treats enrobed in white chocolate w/ a marshmallow button

CPBPs, chocolate smothered peanut buttery crisp rice treats on a stick

Poof Pops, chocolate coated marshmallow crisp rice treats on a stick

Regal Mints, fudgy chocolate mint bites adorned with crowns
Apple Ginger Pate de Fruit, fruit gems kissed by the autumn air

Cara-mias, soft and chewy caramels in intoxicating flavors:

Double Grey - Earl Grey and Grey Salt

Sassy Rose - Vanilla, Rose and Himalayan Pink Salt

Jazzy Momma - Jasmine and Cardamom

Creamsicle - Orange and vanilla bean cream

Cha-Cha-Chai - Chocolate Chai Spice

Hot-Hot-Hellapeno - Jalapeno

The "High Tea" Line of Biscuits...cookies influenced by tea flavors:

The Earl of Sandwich, a lacy almond tuille sandwich filled with Earl Gray chocolate ganache

Lemon Zingaling, a delicate lemon cookie sandwiched with Wild Berry Zinger white chocolate ganache

Thai Oh My, a peanut buttery rich cookie filled with a zesty Ginger Tea white chocolate ganache

O-Jazzmin, a sunny orange delight topped with a Jasmine Tea frosting bud

Matcha Magic, a Matcha Green Tea butter cookie topped with a rose flavored glaze

Everyday Favorites...based on classics, only better:

Lotta Chip, rich and buttery Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies available in large and mini

Oatie Doaties, crunchy steel-cut oat cookies laced with butterscotch chips and dried cranberries

Chocolate Orange Crinkles, crispy crinkly sparkly chocolate cookies with a hint of orange

Fluffer-Nutters, peanut butter cookies dotted with mini marshmallow bits

Who-Stole-The-Cookie, thumbprint cookies filled with an assortment of jams

A Whole Lot O Whoopie...whoopie pies galore (not available for long distance shipping):

Tradition!, devils food with marshmallow crème

24 Carrot, carrot cake with cream cheese crème

Red Devil, red velvet with red hot marshmallow crème

Very Vanilla, vanilla cake with marshmallow crème


Cake Balls...cake pops are the latest craze - these are on or off the stick
Chocolate w/ buttercream enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate
Chocolate w/ Nutella enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate
Chocolate w/ peanut butter enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate
Chocolate w/ mint enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate
Red Velvet w/ cream cheese frosting enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate
Carrot Cake w/ cream cheese frosting enrobed in dark, milk or white chocolate

Custom Cupcakes...Flavor combinations created on request - decorated with fondant toppers
Photos of possible options will be loaded soon, so stay tuned!

Price List to follow shortly, along with ordering information!

Thank you for visiting Queen's Confections...My Candy Kingdom