Fifty-seven of these hundred candies contain something that has no business being in candy.
The other forty-three are just very good candy.
That split is the whole idea. WEIRD CANDIES is a working confectionery book - caramels, toffee, fudge, brittle, marshmallows, truffles, gummies, hard candy - where more than half the recipes hide one ingredient nobody would have chosen. White miso in the fudge. Balsamic in the caramels. Fish sauce in the chews. They are not jokes. They work, which is the annoying part.
The rest are simply good candy, made properly, with no surprises in them at all. You can hand those to your mother.
Three recipe chapters, running from things you would happily give a coworker to things you should probably warn them about first: Gourmet & Giftable, Sweet-Heat, and Cursed & Chaotic.
- Brown Butter Miso Fudge - salted caramel logic, taken one step past sensible
- Smoked Honey Lavender Caramel - the one people ask you to make again
- Cardamom Rose Turkish Delight - worth a box and a ribbon
- Gochujang Caramel Chews - sweet first, warm second
- Furikake Caramel Corn - sesame, seaweed, sugar, gone by evening
- Dill Pickle Taffy - exactly what it sounds like, and it works
- Mayo Caramel (Yes, Really) - the title is the warning label
Every recipe gives a yield, a time, and a weirdness level from 1 to 3, so you know before you start whether you are making a gift or a dare. It opens with The Candy-Maker's Toolkit and Candy-Making Basics - the temperature stages, the equipment that actually matters, and how not to burn yourself on molten sugar - because candy is the one kind of cooking where technique beats nerve.
118 pages. 100 recipes. A black-and-white line drawing for every one.
Make the quiet ones for your family. Make the Marmite Fudge for whoever has it coming.
