Black licorice

Look for liquorice extract in the ingredients. Aniseed flavour is common in liquorice sweets, but an aniseed-flavoured sweet without liquorice extract is not the same thing.

Keep them in an airtight container in a cool, dry cupboard. This helps stop them drying out or becoming sticky; keep different sweets separate if you don’t want their flavours to mingle.

Yes. Chop it finely and warm it gently in cream for about 5–10 minutes, stirring, until it softens; strain the cream before using it in chocolate ganache or a pudding.

Pontefract cakes are small, round liquorice sweets traditionally associated with Pontefract in Yorkshire, often stamped with a design. They are one form of black liquorice, rather than a mixed sweet like liquorice allsorts.

Black liquorice is a type of sweet; liquorice allsorts are a mixture of sweets, including pieces layered or coated with things such as fondant and coconut. Allsorts contain 352 kcal per 100 g, compared with 307 kcal per 100 g for black liquorice.

For a similar aromatic note, try crushed aniseed or fennel seed, but they won’t add the sweetness or chewy texture of liquorice sweets. Add sugar separately if the recipe relies on the sweets for sweetness.