Supplies Every Candy Maker Should Have

Essential Candy Making Supplies

1. Baking Sheet – Also referred to as a cookie sheet, baking sheets make it possible to easily move batches of dipped candy items, bark, and clusters into or out of the refrigerator.

2. Non-stick Baking Mat – For those of you wanting to eliminate waste, investing in a non-stick baking mat is wonderful for both candy making and baking alike. They are sometimes a little pricey, but I use mine almost every time I use my oven or make candy.

3. Parchment Paper – Paper that has been infused with silicone to give it heat-resistant qualities makes a great working surface for dipped items or bark making. I particularly like parchment paper for making my own disposable piping bags because they won’t melt with the heat of the melted candy wafers, like wax paper would. See pages 24–25 for instructions.

4. Wax Paper – Used very frequently in candy making for lining cooking sheets or wrapping finished candies. Be aware that if you put hot melted candy on wax paper, the wax can transfer onto your product.

5. Deep Microwavable Bowl – When dipping food items into melted candy wafers, a deep bowl is absolutely necessary. Shallow bowls make it hard to submerge the food item and require a lot more candy.

6. Re-usable Piping Bags – If you create candies on a large scale, using a piping bag to drizzle melted candy is great. Make sure you use piping tips that have small holes – warm chocolate will want to come out fast!

7. Piping Tips – These metal (or plastic) tips control the stream of chocolate coming out of a piping bag. Please note: although the various shapes and sizes look fun and interesting, melted chocolate will not take shape when piped through these funky-shaped tips. Stick to round openings in small sizes.

8. Disposable Piping Bags – These have the same uses as the re-usable piping bags, but they are easy to clean up and you can control the size of the opening on the tip of the bag by cutting it exactly as you desire. (Disposable piping bags are sealed completely at the tip, so it will require snipping a tiny hole.)

9. Skewers and Toothpicks – These are used for dipping or for painting very fine details when molding. They are also great to unclog a piping tip or squeeze bottle tip.

10. Spring-Handled Scoops – Used for portioning out clusters and truffles. The good ones are labeled with a number on the inside of the scoop. The number represents how many of those scoops will fit into a quart; the larger the number the smaller the scoop. I use a #100 scoop for small clusters and a #50 scoop for large ones or when I’m portioning into candy cups.

11. Rubber Scraper – The best for melting candy wafers. I have a few sizes and use mine all the time. Note: these do absorb smells, so I use a few of mine strictly for candy making.