Melcocha Chiapaneca de Piloncillo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 3-quart saucepan
• •Candy thermometer
• •Greased marble slab, metal tray, or enamel tray
• •Sturdy candy hook or wall hook
• •Greased kitchen scissors

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the station

   Grease a marble slab, metal tray, or enamel tray lightly with oil or melted manteca. Grease a sturdy wall hook or candy hook if you have one. Set a bowl of cold water nearby and keep long sleeves out of the way. Hot sugar burns badly. Respect the pot before you touch the candy.

2. 2

   Dissolve the piloncillo

   Put the chopped piloncillo, water, lime juice, and salt in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring only until the piloncillo dissolves. Once it is liquid, stop stirring. Stirring after this point can make crystals form, and grainy melcocha is a failure of attention.

3. 3

   Cook the syrup

   Raise the heat to medium and boil the syrup until it reaches 255F to 260F on a candy thermometer. The bubbles will go from loose and watery to thick, heavy, and slow. The color will deepen to dark mahogany and the smell will be cooked cane, not burned sugar. If you do not have a thermometer, drop a little syrup into cold water. It should form a firm ball that holds its shape but still bends between your fingers.

   Do not scrape sugar crystals from the sides of the pan back into the syrup. Brush the sides with a wet pastry brush if needed. Crystals teach the whole pot to turn sandy.
4. 4

   Cool until workable

   Pour the syrup onto the greased tray. Do not touch it yet. Let it sit until the edges thicken and the center is still glossy, about 5 to 7 minutes. With greased hands or a greased bench scraper, fold the edges toward the center. If it runs like water, wait. If it cracks, you waited too long. The candy should gather into a soft, hot mass.

5. 5

   Pull the candy

   Loop the warm candy over the greased hook. Pull it down, fold it back over itself, and pull again. Work steadily. The dark syrup will turn from mahogany to amber, then to a pale café con leche color as air enters the sugar. That color change is the point. Pull for 8 to 12 minutes, until the candy is glossy, thick, and chewy.

6. 6

   Shape the melcocha

   If using cacahuates, knead them in quickly once the candy has paled but is still flexible. Stretch the melcocha into ropes about 1 inch thick. Cut with greased scissors into short pieces, or twist into small batons the way they sell them at the fair. Work fast. Once the sugar cools, it will stop listening to you.

7. 7

   Set and wrap

   Let the pieces cool completely on the greased tray or on banana leaf. Wrap each piece in waxed paper or clean pieces of banana leaf for serving. Store airtight. Chiapas humidity will soften sugar candy overnight if you leave it uncovered. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy piloncillo that smells like cane and smoke, not like plain brown sugar. At the mercado, ask for piloncillo oscuro. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. They know which cones melt cleanly.
• •The lime juice is not for flavor first. It helps control crystallization so the candy pulls smooth instead of sandy. Use fresh Mexican lime, not bottled juice.
• •A candy thermometer is not an insult to tradition. It is discipline. The señoras who make melcocha by eye have burned their fingers for years learning the point. You can respect the technique and still use the tool.
• •Do not make this with children helping at the stove. Let them watch from a distance and eat the candy after it cools. Hot piloncillo sticks to skin.

Advance Preparation

• •Melcocha is best the day it is made, but it keeps for 5 days wrapped tightly in waxed paper and stored in an airtight tin.
• •Do not refrigerate it. The moisture makes the sugar sweat and lose its pull.
• •The piloncillo can be chopped a day ahead and kept covered in a dry bowl.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 23g)