Confectionary is a food which provides pleasure. It is often given as a gift because of the pleasure it bestows and because it is ready portability makes it easy to end long distances.
Confectionary products have traditionally been created by skilled craftsman confectioners working empirically, and scientific understanding of confectionary products has been acquired retroactively.
Confectionary has traditionally contained the sugar, sucrose as its characterizing ingredient.
The main reasons for the use of sugars in confectionary are:
*Their ability to preserve food
*Their contribution to body, flavor and texture
*Their ability to enhance the favor of other ingredients
Other important ingredients of confectionary include other sugars and syrups, milk products, fats and oils, cocoa, cereal products, nuts, dried fruits as well as flavorings and a variety of gums, gelling agents and such like.
A variety of edible fats and oils are used in confectionary products. For example, milk fat, cocoa butter and oils of palm kernel, groundnut, coconut and soya. Many of these can undergo hydrogenation to produce fats of varying hardness.
How to define confectionery?
