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Sugars Part 5: Powdered Glucose in Strawberry Balsamic Pâte de Fruit Recipe

Powdered glucose, also called dextrose, is a key tool in the chocolatier’s belt. It helps to prevent premature crystallization of ganaches, caramels and hydrocolloids such as pâte de fruits and marshmallows. While it is not used in everything, it is worth adding to recipes to see if it enhances the stability of your creations.

The one issue with powdered glucose is that it is not highly soluble, so you need to add it to hot liquids and stir vigourously to encourage it to dissolve. Once it is dissolved, however, it stays that way and helps your piece to stabilize with its environment by controlling the water balance.

Pâte de fruits is a perfect application for powdered glucose – you are already heating your liquids to a high temperature, creating the perfect environment for the glucose to dissolve.

Strawberry Balsamic Pâte de Fruits

Ingredients:

• Strawberry puree 1kg
• Sugar 1kg
• Powdered glucose 20g
• apple pectin 14g
• citric acid solution 4g (this is made by mixing citric acid with an equal part of hot water and stirring until dissolved.
• Balsamic vinegar 10g

Method:

1. Set up a silpat on a sheet pan, and put a metal frame on top of that. The frame will contain your pate de fruits as it sets.

1. Scale all of your ingredients – put the puree in a pot, and scale your sugar and pectin together in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Scale the acid and the vinegar together, and place it in your frame on the silpat. This is because you are going to stir in the acid right before you pour the fruit into the frame and this way you won’t forget it.

2. Bring the puree to a boil, then whisk in the powdered glucose. Once that looks dissolved, slowly add the sugar/pectin mixture – slow enough to maintain the boil. Cook to 108 degrees Celsius (226 Fahrenheit), then stir in the acid and pour into your frame. Use an offset spatula to level out the pate de fruit. Allow to cool completely.

3. Once cooled, sand the top and bottom of the pate de fruits with sugar, and cut as desired. Or, leave it unsanded and cover with a ganache layer for a layered bonbon.

To read the other posts in this series click on our Bean2Bonbon Blog overview page.

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Photography by Jessica Washburn, Bliss Chocolatier and Ecole Chocolat