What’s better than receiving a special delivery full of homemade treats? Having those treats taste as fresh as the day they were made! With current shipping delays, your holiday care package may be in transit a little longer than usual. Don’t fret! We have the perfect solution for ensuring your famous confections stay fresh during their journey. Not only is this product natural, it’s vegan!
What is Lecithin?
Our liquid soy lecithin is a true powerhouse. The natural thick extract comes from soybeans and has super-charged emulsification abilities that produce perfectly blended gravies, dressings, and sauces. But, the magic lecithin adds to baked goods and candy is what has us excited. The ability to slow the oxidation of fat will keep your cookies and bars moist and buttery candies fresher longer. Even if you don’t plan to ship your treats, lecithin will extend the shelf-life, so you can start baking a little earlier!
How to Use Lecithin
Not only does lecithin extend shelf-life, just a touch homogenizes the ingredients in your favorite dough recipes, yielding smoother, more elastic dough, resulting in a lighter, chewier finished product. If you enjoy homemade bread or ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls at brunch, lecithin is a must! The usage for baked goods is just 1 tsp per cup of flour. Because lecithin loves fat, you will mix the lecithin into your fat or oil prior to adding to the batch. There is no need to adjust any of your other ingredients, cooking time or temperature. Since such a small amount is used, it won’t alter the flavor of your treats.
Easy Clean-up: If you spill a little lecithin, just sprinkle the spill with sugar and let sit for a minute. The lecithin will cling to the sugar, making it much easier to wipe up.
If caramel corn is part of your holiday repertoire, adding a little lecithin and oil at the very end will not only keep that creamy caramel tasting great, it will keep the popcorn from sticking to the pan as well as help to evenly coat the popcorn and prevent any clumping.
The ability to keep oils and fats from separating also makes lecithin ideal for making toffees and caramels. That emulsification magic keeps the candy from developing an oily residue on the outside, resulting in a smooth, professional result. Try out our unbelievably buttery, Banana Nut Toffee and see for yourself!
Banana Nut Toffee
Ingredients
2 cups (1 pound) butter, plus more for coating pan
1 1/4 cups walnuts
½ cup banana chips, finely chopped
¼ cup warm water
¼ tsp salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp lecithin
12 ounces dark chocolate for coating
½ tsp Black Walnut Super Strength flavor
Instructions
- Heavily butter 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
- Finely chop 3/4 cups of black walnuts and set aside. Coarsely chop the other ½ cup for cooking.
- Crush ½ cup banana chips into fine pieces.
- In a 5-quart heavy saucepan, bring the butter to a boil over medium heat, and add warm water. Continue cooking mixture on medium-high heat for 11 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When the pan returns to boil, add the salt and slowly stir in the sugar, and continue stirring. When the sugar dissolves, clip a candy thermometer to the side of pan making sure the stem isn’t touching the bottom of the pan. Add lecithin.
- When the temperature reaches 240-250°F, add coarsely chopped walnuts. When temperature reaches 285F, reduce to low heat, and cook to 310°F. Remove from heat.
- One boiling subsides, add Black Walnut Super Strength flavor, stirring to incorporate.
- Pour into prepared pan.
- While toffee is still warm, top with chocolate pieces and allow to melt.
- With offset spatula, smooth chocolate to create an even coat.
- Top melted chocolate with walnuts and banana chips, gently pressing into the chocolate.
- Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until the chocolate sets and the toffee has completely cooled.
- Remove candy from refrigerator and break into large pieces.
- Ship to your favorite people!
What an interesting article. Thank you for sharing that knowledge! The recipe at the end was a great example to show how you would use lecithin in candy.
I have one question. You said: “If caramel corn is part of your holiday repertoire, adding a little lecithin and oil at the very end…”. Do you mean that after I have brought my caramel to the desired temp, I should add the lecithin and an oil (like butter)? Stir it in and commence with adding it to popcorn? Or should I add it in with the ingredients like you did in the toffee recipe?
I make caramel popcorn for family holiday gatherings, and was thinking that it would be nice to make it ahead of time, if only it would keep.
Adding lecithin directly to the caramel after it boils will help extend the shelf-life. To keep the caramel popcorn from clumping, add it at the end when tossing the popcorn. Add the lecithin to a little bit of oil/melted butter, then mix it into the coated popcorn. Hope this helps!
For a 10 cup batch of popcorn, you could use 1 1/2 oz. of melted butter and 1/4 oz. lecithin.
Would I be able to use these in Macarons?
Lecithin is typically blended into fat before adding it to a recipe. Since the almond flour is where the fat comes from in macarons, I doubt this would work. The Preserve-It antioxidant might be a better option for you. https://www.lorannoils.com/products-search?qs=PRESERVE+IT
I have been using Lorann oil and flavoring for years and really wish that there was an outlet here in Ontario Canada so I don’t have to pay duty on your product.
Thank you Marian. We do have several businesses in Canada that sell/stock our products, such as Bulk Barn, McCall’s Bakers Warehouse and Michaels Crafts stores. Here is a link to a PDF of some international resellers: https://www.lorannoils.com/medias/International%20Retailers%20and%20Distributors.pdf
Would this help to extend the shelf life of hard candy? My butterscotch candies have butter in them but my cinnamon candies don’t appear to have any fat.
Hi – It would likely work for keeping the butter fresh in butterscotch candies, but not the cinnamon candy. To extend the life of fat-free hard candy and keep it from getting soft and sticky, making the candy with Hi-Sweet and using food-grade desiccant packs will help with that. https://www.lorannoils.com/hi-sweet-powdered-corn-syrup-6045-speciality
Hi, So if I’m making butterscotch brownies do I add the lecithin to the butter & sugar and beat until light and fluffy with electric mixer or should I add the lecithin after beating the butter & sugar?
We recommend beating the lecithin into the butter until it is fully blended, then add the sugar and cream.