Craving candy? Unwrap new cookbook by pastry enthusiast

Working on a candy cookbook understandably has its highs. You get to eat a lot of chocolate, as does your boyfriend, your friends and other test subjects. In their eyes, you are a sugar-pulling, chocolate-tempering rock star.

But Anita Chu, author of the new Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable (Quirk Books, $15.95), says she even hit a few lows.

“At a certain point, I said I don’t need to eat any more Turkish Delight,” says Chu.

Chu, that poor girl, got roped into writing the candy book by her publisher after completing the Field Guide to Cookies, released last year.

A graduate of the pastry program at Tante Marie’s Cooking School in San Francisco, Chu churned out the candy book in eight months.

Despite its petite size — it’s squatter than a jumbo box of Hot Tamales  — the book covers a ton of ground in succinct fashion, with more than 100 recipes for candies ranging from crunchy and nutty to sticky and sour.

Included with each recipe are historical tidbits and helpful storage and technique notes.

Chu’s research involved digging through library archives for candy history, techniques and recipes and buying and tasting mass market candies, then recreating them in her own kitchen.

Her versions of trick-or-treat favorites Almond Joy, 3 Musketeers and York Peppermint Patties are in the book, as are sweets of a bygone era (Martha Washington candy, horehounds), favorites in other cultures (almond burfi, daifuku mochi), classic Peeps and Chicago’s own Frangos.

“This has given me a bigger appreciation of candy,” says Chu, who writes the blog, Dessert First. “A lot of the old cookbooks from the ’30s and ’40s read like a home ec class. People were very used to making [candy] at home. It’s kind of a lost art.”

One would think Chu might be craving a more savory assignment next. Not quite — she wants to do a book on Asian-inspired desserts.