Mastic - what is it? Mastic preparation. How to make mastic at home

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Buying a birthday cake or a set of cakes in the store, we have repeatedly admired the amazingly beautiful appearance of these sweets. Air creams whimsically form lush flower beds or intricate patterns. Chocolate icing is covered with silvery dew, and beckoning to try the delicacy. But mastic jewelry is of particular delight. What is not fashioned from it! And medieval castles, and noble frigates, and figurines of fabulous creatures. Let's see how this magnificence is done.

Product Introduction

First, let's get it straight. So, mastic. What is this substance anyway? The word has several meanings. Firstly, this is the name of a special paste, which smears small openings, holes. In construction, this putty is used to seal seams, etc. What else is mastic? This is the resin of trees of special species called pistachios. Thirdly, in Bulgaria this is the name for strong vodka, which is prepared on an anise basis (an analogue of the Russian famous "Anisovka"). And, finally, fourthly, there is a culinaryterm: confectionery mastic. We already know what this product is: a kind of sweet cream that decorates desserts and sweets. Flavorings, dyes are added to it to get the material of the desired color and smell. The consistency resembles plasticine, so anything can be molded from fresh mastic. True, in finished form in the air the cream quickly hardens. Therefore, the workpiece should be stored for future use in a tightly closed plastic bag.

Main ingredients

It takes some skill and experience to get the “correct” mastic for a novice hostess. What is correct? As practice suggests, no matter how accurate the recipes are, a lot is still determined “by eye” and depends on the quality of the products used, their consistency, etc. A mandatory component of any mastic is powdered sugar. Egg white, condensed and powdered milk, gelatin, marzipans, starch, marshmallow can act as auxiliary.

About some products

Surely you have never come across some names before. For example, marzipan is a mixture of almonds crushed into flour with sugar syrup or powder. With the right quality of products and respect for the proportions, an excellent “dough” is obtained. And marshmallows are sweets that resemble marshmallows or marshmallows. Naturally, do not forget about such a component as dyes for mastic. They are taken either artificial food or natural (fruit and berry juice, "fried" sugar syrup, etc.).

Tips you can't do without

To ensure that your first and subsequent “pancakes” do not turn out lumpy when preparing delicacies, heed the advice of experienced confectioners. They will help you out in a force majeure situation.

• Remember that any mastic preparation requires the finest powdered sugar. Slightly larger grains will simply tear the mastic “dough” when it has to be rolled out. Often, much more powder is required than specified in the recipe - when the mastic is too molded to the hands, it needs to be kneaded and kneaded, adding grated sugar.
• If you made a mastic for a cake, you can’t decorate it if the top cake or sides are covered with sour cream, soaked in syrup. In contact with moisture, "confectionery putty" immediately begins to melt and dissolve. To prevent this from happening, either put it on a dry cake, or on a thick cookie crumb, a layer of marzipan or hardened buttercream.
• As already mentioned, any mastic dries very quickly in the air. This property can be used if you make any figures: just prepare them in advance. And if you need to connect several separate objects, slightly moisten and glue the places of the “joints”. To prevent the mastic from melting at room temperature, and the products to settle and lose their shape, keep the sweets in the refrigerator until the last.

Marshmallow Candy Recipe

Consider the first option on how to make mastic at home. Buy a pack of Marshmallow Soufflés (sold insupermarkets). In general, the name can be anything - the main thing is that it should be a soufflé. Next, take a pack of powdered sugar - for one serving of the product you will need a glass and a half. And a tablespoon of lemon juice (can be orange, apple and others - with sourness) or water. Since the candies come in different colors, divide them into small saucepans. Add liquids (juice or water) to plain ones and send them to the microwave for 10 seconds. You can also use a water bath: when heated, the candy mass should increase in volume. Then take out, put the dye (if necessary) and mix thoroughly.

Now, in order to get a good elastic mastic, the recipe (with photo) of which we offer you, pour powdered sugar in small portions. It must first be reseeded to remove stuck together lumps. When the mass becomes dense enough, "throw" it on the table, sprinkled with powder, and knead. Mastic is considered ready if it is tight to the touch and does not stick to the hands. Carefully pack the product in cellophane (so that there is no air), put it in the refrigerator for half an hour. Take some starch, sprinkle a worktop or cutting board and thinly roll out the mastic taken out of the refrigerator. From the resulting layer, already sculpt products or simply cover the surface of the cake with it.

Creamy mastic

For this recipe, buy 100 grams of sweets and 250 to 350 grams of powder. Take a little food coloring and butter - a tablespoon. Technologycooking is already familiar to you. Add the butter to the sweets and heat them until softened. Then mix, adding powdered sugar, and prepare the “mastic” dough of the desired consistency (plasticine). If you want to sculpt products of different colors, divide the mass into parts, add dyes to each separately. Then prepare the products, give them a day to dry. And you can decorate desserts.

Chocolate mastic: ingredients

The proposed version of the delicacy among confectioners is considered almost a win-win, since such mastic is easy to prepare. And the appearance of products made at home is in no way inferior to the factory ones. Ingredients: a small 100-gram bar of dark chocolate, marshmallows already familiar to us (about the same amount or 90 grams), 40 g of heavy cream (at least 30%), one and a half tablespoons of butter, the same amount of cognac or liquor / brandy. And powdered sugar - on demand, but not less than 100 g. Let's start cooking. Break the chocolate into pieces, put in a saucepan, melt. Add the soufflés and continue heating, stirring constantly. When the sweets melt well, add butter and pour in brandy with cream. Cook until you have a thick homogeneous mass. Then remove the saucepan from the heat, pour in portions of powdered sugar, knead the “dough” and process it until it becomes elastic, smooth, not sticky to the fingers to the touch. Roll the finished mastic into a ball, let it “brew” for 10 minutes, then proceed to dressing the figures. You can store the workpiece infridge, bag. Warm up a little before processing.

Milky mastic

And here is another recipe, very simple and affordable. Take a jar of condensed milk and a glass of powdered milk and powdered sugar. Thoroughly mix the products so that you get a mass that resembles softened plasticine. The amount of powder may turn out to be different than what we wrote, depending on whether boiled condensed milk or raw. The color of the mastic in the latter case will be white. Use either food coloring or some cocoa powder to add color.