Editing Candy (section)

{{short description|Sweet confection}}
{{About|the type of confection generally|other uses|Candy (disambiguation)|and|Candies (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Sweets|other uses|Sweets (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Lollies|the type of hard candy on a stick|Lollipop}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox food
|name = Candy
|image = Candy in Damascus.jpg
|image_size = 250px
|caption = Candy at a [[bazaar]] in [[Damascus]], [[Syria]]
|alternate_name = Sweets, lollies
|course =
|type = [[Sugar confectionery]]
|served =
|main_ingredient = [[Sugar]] or [[honey]]
}}
'''Candy''', alternatively called '''sweets''' or '''lollies''',{{efn|"Candy" is used chiefly in Canada and the US, "sweets" in the UK and Ireland, and "lollies" in Australia and New Zealand.<ref name="Chandrasekaran2015">{{cite book|author=Muthusamy Chandrasekaran|title=Enzymes in Food and Beverage Processing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ne9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA206|date=23 October 2015|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-4822-2130-5|page=206|access-date=2 March 2019|archive-date=8 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308165159/https://books.google.com/books?id=3ne9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA206|url-status=live}}</ref>}} is a [[Confectionery|confection]] that features [[sugar]] as a principal ingredient. The category, also called ''[[sugar confectionery]]'', encompasses any sweet confection, including [[chocolate]], [[chewing gum]], and [[sugar candy]]. [[Vegetable]]s, [[fruit]], or [[Nut (fruit)|nuts]] which have been [[glaze (cooking technique)|glaze]]d and coated with sugar are said to be ''[[Candied fruit|candied]]''.

Physically, candy is characterized by the use of a significant amount of sugar or [[sugar substitutes]]. Unlike a cake or loaf of bread that would be shared among many people, candies are usually made in smaller pieces. However, the definition of candy also depends upon how people treat the food. Unlike sweet pastries served for a [[dessert]] course at the end of a meal, candies are normally eaten casually, often with the fingers, as a snack between meals. Each culture has its own ideas of what constitutes candy rather than dessert. The same food may be a candy in one culture and a dessert in another.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Richardson |first=Tim H. |title=Sweets: A History of Candy |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |year=2002 |isbn=1-58234-229-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sweets00timr/page/53 53–54] |url=https://archive.org/details/sweets00timr/page/53 }}</ref>