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Nature's Candy

Timeless and Inventive Recipes for Creating and Baking with Candied Fruit

Author Camilla Wynne

Hardcover

$30.00 US

Appetite by Random House

7.78"W x 9.77"H x 0.82"D | 33 oz | 16 per carton

On sale Oct 22, 2024 | 224 Pages | 9780525612681

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The definitive cookbook for candying fruit, and baking with it, filled with delicious, beautiful, and surprisingly uncomplicated recipes from Master Preserver Camilla Wynne.

In Nature’s Candy, award-winning cookbook author Camilla Wynne welcomes you into the magical world of candying fruit—the classic tradition of imbuing fruit with sugar to preserve it as a glistening confection—and tempts curious bakers to work with this fascinating ingredient in a choose your own adventure–style masterclass. Will you candy the whole fruit (cherries, anyone?) or just pieces (hello, orange peel!)? And which of Camilla’s classic and contemporary baking recipes will you select to let it shine? Will it be the Stollen Pound Cake or maybe the Ginger Cashew Caramel Corn? Or perhaps the Banana Split Blondies?
As Camilla’s previous cookbook, Jam Bake, was for baking with jam, Nature’s Candy is a game-changing cookbook for baking with candied fruit, thanks to its:

Foundational Candying Methods: With nine streamlined techniques to candy your fruit—and a handy chart to guide you on which candied methods are best for each type of fruit—you will create artisanal, jewel-like confections in no time.

Decadent Recipes for Bakers of All Levels: Level up your baking and confection-making by using candied fruit (and its syrup) in accessible recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, and even more fruity desserts. Enjoy Red Currant Cupcakes, Fruitcake Cookies, Candied Fig & Walnut Baklava, and many more.

Helpful Tips, Simplifications & More: Thanks to Camilla’s FAQ section, tips, and substitutions, candying fruit is now as easy as baking cookies. And if you don’t feel like candying, don’t let that stop you baking—just follow Camilla’s helpful advice on using store-bought candied fruit instead.

With its inspired photography and design, this one-of-a-kind cookbook on how to make and put candied fruit to good use—plus the fascinating history and science behind it—will turn any baker into a candied fruit expert.

“Nature’s Candy is a playfully written, casually astonishing cookbook filled with recipes for candied fruit and show-stopping goods to make with it.”
—Baa Baazaar

“I am obsessed with Camilla’s magical, jewel-like fruit candies. In these pages, she generously shares all of her tricks. Her technique is spotless and her explanations are effortless. Anyone, novice to expert, can create gorgeous, candied fruit with Camilla’s sweet guidance.”
—ZOË FRANÇOIS, author of Zoë Bakes Cakes

“Nature’s Candy not only teaches you the how and why behind candying fruit, but also provides a comprehensive foundation for candying any fruit you encounter. The trouble with a book as well-written and accessible as this is that everypiece of fruit you find will have you asking, ‘I wonder how this will taste candied?’”
—MAURIZIO LEO, author of the James Beard Award–winning The Perfect Loaf

“Camilla is a master of fruit preservation and makes candying fruit a super approachable and delightful kitchen project in this gorgeous resource. She breaks down the process for all skill levels, then teaches us the amazing ways to use all of the beautiful candy we’ve made. Her oatmeal cookies have become a staple in my house, and who can resist tying lengths of candied lemon peel into dainty bows to decorate a cake?”
—YOSSY AREFI, author of Snacking Bakes and Snacking Cakes

“Few chefs can communicate with equal measures of expertise and open heartedness like Camilla Wynne, who has seemingly made it her life’s mission to share her love of fruit preservation with the world. And for that, we are so, so grateful. In the dazzling Nature’s Candy, she has set her sights on creating and baking with candied fruit, a topic that may seem esoteric and peculiar to some, but to Camilla is a vast, scrumptious world brimming with possibility and joy.”
—NATASHA PICKOWICZ, author of More Than Cake

“The only book you need for elevating seasonal fruits and vegetables into glistening jewels of ﬂavor. Camilla offers insight into time-honored preserving methods with her own creative genius as a concise but thorough guide.”
—SARAH OWENS, James Beard Award-winning author and baker

“Camilla is a natural teacher, unmatched in her knowledge of preserving. She has an extraordinary talent for updating classical techniques for the modern kitchen. In Nature’s Candy she has created an absolutely gorgeous, precious jewel-box of a book that will certainly pave the way for a truly triumphant renaissance of candied fruit everywhere. Yippee!”
—NICOLA LAMB, author of Sift and creator of Kitchen Projects

“There is no better guide to the sweet, glistening, endlessly fascinating adventure that is candying fruit than Camilla Wynne. Her recipes are smart, instructive, and beyond fun, offering both an introduction to and deep dive in the ever colorful, transformative world of candied fruit. Nature’s Candy is already a permanent staple on my shelves.”
— REBEKAH PEPPLER, author of le SUD: Recipes from Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Apéritif, and À Table

“I’ve always found the idea of candying intimidating, but Camilla makes the process feel so straightforward and achievable. Nature’s Candy will be one of the most used books in my kitchen and the bakery will be ﬁlled with candied fruits every season. Glorious, fruity heaven!”
—ANNA HIGHAM, author of The Last Bite

CAMILLA WYNNE is a writer, recipe developer, and cooking teacher specializing in preserving and pastry. She has been a culinary professional for over 20 years and is one of Canada’s only Master Food Preservers. She is the author of Jam Bake, a Taste Canada Awards gold winner, also named one of the best cookbooks of 2021 by Food52. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Cherry Bombe, Los Angeles Times, Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and on Kitchen Projects and Saveur.com, among others. She lives in Toronto with her family and plays in the art rock band Sunset Rubdown. View titles by Camilla Wynne

Excerpt from the Introduction

I’ve dabbled in candying my own fruit ever since pastry school, feeling quite all-powerful and armed with the skills to make my own orangettes, which I previously had to shell out money for at pastry shops. I’m mostly of British heritage, so making my own candied fruit for family classics like fruitcake and hot cross buns was a revelation that resulted in a much better baked good. I once even painstakingly candied a whole Victorian pineapple for a friend’s birthday after being inspired by À la Mère de Famille, the cookbook by Julien Merceron. The pineapple still resides on her mantelpiece, like a specimen in formaldehyde, though of course its preservative is sugar.

It wasn’t until I started teaching candied fruit techniques online during the pandemic that I really, really, really got into candied fruit. To be honest, I was shocked by the immense popularity of the workshop. Turns out I’m not the only one bewitched by glistening fruity jewels.

So allow me to be your Virgil. As in my workshop, I begin with a short history of fruit being turned into candy across the globe, followed by a look at the science behind sugar-preserved fruit. It may look like magic, but it’s not! I then share some methods that I’ve tested and tested to make candying as easy as possible—because I am a lazy Taurus who would rather read novels than measure syrup concentrations all day. It might take a little practice to figure out when a batch is perfectly candied, but so does almost everything worth doing. From there, you sample your candied fruit or glaze it, dip it in chocolate, or sugar it. Then bake with it!

The second section contains delicious recipes illustrating some of the myriad ways you can incorporate candied fruit into your baking and confectionary. That said, nearly every recipe can stand on its own two feet even if you don’t have time to candy your own fruit! Of course, the recipes herein are informed by my prejudices and preferences, as in any cookbook. For instance, I don’t like candied melon; melon, in my opinion, is just simply best consumed fresh. But if you want to make homemade callisons, this book will still teach you how to candy the melon. In fact, with this book you will be able to candy everything! Except limes. I still haven’t figured those out.

So welcome to the sweet, fascinating world of candied fruit, one of the most ancient and gorgeous preservation methods in the universe.

Photos

About

Foundational Candying Methods: With nine streamlined techniques to candy your fruit—and a handy chart to guide you on which candied methods are best for each type of fruit—you will create artisanal, jewel-like confections in no time.

Decadent Recipes for Bakers of All Levels: Level up your baking and confection-making by using candied fruit (and its syrup) in accessible recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, and even more fruity desserts. Enjoy Red Currant Cupcakes, Fruitcake Cookies, Candied Fig & Walnut Baklava, and many more.

Helpful Tips, Simplifications & More: Thanks to Camilla’s FAQ section, tips, and substitutions, candying fruit is now as easy as baking cookies. And if you don’t feel like candying, don’t let that stop you baking—just follow Camilla’s helpful advice on using store-bought candied fruit instead.