Pate de Fruits (水果沙軟唐)

Today, we finally got to start the first week in the art of candy making. We will be responsible for making 4-5 candies a day. They vary from caramels(焦糖奶糖) to French nougats(法國牛軋糖), Pate de fruits(水果沙軟唐) to lollipops(棒棒糖) and marshmallows(棉花糖). It is going to be an exciting week with Chef Della.


In Taiwan, 水果沙軟唐 is very popular and they come in an assortment of flavors and colors. Today, one of the candies we made was a 'Passionfruit & Apricot pate de fruit' which in translation is "百香果&杏桃水果沙軟唐". We used the passion fruit puree and apricot puree from a brand called "Capfruit", as they are one of the many sponsors of the French Pastry School.

Although the main focus flavor was passion fruit, apricot puree was added to balance out the sourness of the passion fruit puree. When it comes to making candy, balance in flavor is very important, too sweet or too sour is not pleasant.


The school is fortunate to have all the right equipments to work with candy. We got to use guitar cutters to cut our pate de fruit into prefect little squares. It would be very difficult to achieve the prefect shape if you were to use a knife to cut the sticky candy. Believe me, I've tried and I almost wanted to kill myself because it was sticking to my knife and the shapes were not prefect squares. This just goes to show, having the right tools for the right job is a forward step toward perfection.