squishy
Gummy candies are having a moment in the US. National grocery chains are stocking (Swedish) Bubs and (British) Squashies, and Swedish pick-and-mix candy shops are sprouting up in towns across the country. As Americans encounter more and more of these diversely shaped and flavored soft chewy candies, it seems a good moment to consider some of the other squishy and gummy sweets that humans have invented. We have been enjoying them, after all, for millennia, all over the world.
How many ways can you make a delicious squishy sweet? The variations are many. Sugar is a star player (as you might imagine): it enhances intensity of flavor, and when cooked just right it provides a syrupy elasticity. The oldest squishy candies came from sugaring things slowly, soaking entire fruits over many days’ time. Some candies are made quickly: from cooking sugar together with one or more other ingredients (milk, butter, rice flour, wheat starch, fruit). Many modern candies gain their elastic quality from other special ingredients – gelatin, agar agar. The candies here forgo such conveniences; opting instead to cook their ingredients just so, with precision and care.
in this box...
Candied fruit is the OG gummy sweet. Honey-soaked fruits appear in the ancient Roman cookbook Apicus. In China, candied fruit dates back to the Sung period (960-1279 CE). 13th century Arabic recipes offer the earliest recipes for fruit candying as we know it today. In medieval times, the practice migrated into Europe. Confiserie Leonard Parli has been making whole candied clementines since their founding in 1874. Its candying requires soaking over time. When the process is complete, the entire clementine is saturated with sweetness: firm on the outside, lusciously soft on the inside.
CEZERYE WITH PISTACHIOS (Gaziantep, Turkey)
Cezerye’s recipe is centuries old. It originated in the Mediterranean province of Mersin, where it was often made at home. In recent years, it has spread in popularity and places of making; this cezerye comes to you from Antepsan Keyifçe, a nut distributor and confectionery based in Gaziantep, which is a couple provinces to Mersin’s east. The magic of this coconut-dusted flat bar is in its carrot-transformation: from hard, raw vegetable into a richly-flavored, chewy treat.
HURREM FITIL LOKUM WITH PISTACHIOS (Gaziantep, Turkey)
Lokum (often called “Turkish Delight” in the Anglophone world) is a relatively new sweet, as Turkish confections go, having been invented in the 18th century. It gets its wonderful squish from very methodically beating a cooking mixture of sugar and wheat starch for no less than two hours. There are many flavors of lokum. It is often cut into small cubes. This one has a different, long (wick-like, or “fitil”) shape: the size and shape change the experience of eating lokum in a pleasant way, making its elastic texture more noticeable. Like the cezerye, this is made by Antepsan Keyifçe.
BANANINHA PARAIBUÑA (São Paulo, Brazil)
The banana was introduced to Brazil in the 16th century, through the establishment of banana plantations by Portugese colonizers. Since then, bananas have become an essential part of Brazilian cuisine. There are many versions of banana sweets in Brazil, among them the banananda, a small bar of cooked bananas and sugar. Family-owned Bananinha Paraibuña has been making banananda candies since 1975. They have grown from a one-person operation to employing just under 100 workers; from local to international distribution.
PEACH MOCHI (Maryland, United States)
Mochi can have many varieties and ingredients (such as agar agar, ice cream, bracken fern starch, potato starch), with different versions connected to different places and events. Regardless of ingredients, mochi are soft and chewy in texture. Issei’s delicately fruity peach mochi are made from rice flour. The company’s founder Mika Shino named Issei after the term for first-generation Japanese immigrants in the US, in recognition of her heritage and the way in which Issei offers a contemporary interpretation of traditional Japanese mochi sweets.
CARAMELS (Oregon, United States)
Wildwood is a small, award-winning chocolatier based in Portland Oregon. They source ingredients thoughtfully and draw inspiration from the natural environments of the Pacific Northwest. Achieving optimal caramel texture is a matter of cooking the sugar just so; Wildwood brings the expert precision needed to get the sugar to squish just right, and they craft unique flavors that complement caramel’s toasty butteriness in surprising ways. Four lovely flavors here: salted caramel, fennel pollen, cardamom, and rosemary.