CHAPTER XLI.
HOME-MADE CANDY.
WE have noticed that in none of the books we have seen, which were written especially for the amusement and entertainment of girls, has there been any directions or recipes for making candy. Knowing by experience that most girls consider candy-making one of their prime winter enjoyments, we consider the omission to be quite an important one, and we will in this chapter endeavor to supply the much-wished-for information.
Though cooking in general may not be regarded with much favor by the average school-girl, she is always anxious to learn how to make candy, and hails a new recipe as a boon.
The following recipes for peanut-candy, butter-scotch, and molasses-candy were obtained from a friend who makes the best home-made candy it has ever been our good-fortune to taste, and as she recommends them, we may rely upon their being excellent. We give them, with her comments, just as she wrote them.
Delicious Peanut-Candy.
Shell your peanuts and chop them fine; measure them in a cup, and take just the same quantity of granulated sugar as you have peanuts. Put the sugar in a skillet, or spider, on the fire, and keep moving the skillet around until the sugar is dissolved; then put in the peanuts and pour into buttered tins.
This is delicious, and so quickly made.
Butter-Scotch.
- 2 cups of brown sugar.
- ½ cup of butter.
- 4 tablespoonfuls of molasses.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of water.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar.
Boil until it hardens when dropped into cold water, then pour into buttered tins.
Molasses-Candy.
- 2 cups of brown sugar.
- ½ cup of New Orleans molasses.
- ⅔ cup of vinegar and water mixed.
- A piece of butter half the size of an egg.
When the candy hardens in cold water, pour into shallow buttered tins, and as soon as it is cool enough to handle, pull it until it is of a straw-color. Splendid!
Here are two recipes which another friend has kindly sent us:
Chocolate-Creams.
To the white of 1 egg add an equal quantity of cold water. Stir in 1 pound of confectioner’s sugar. Flavor with vanilla. Stir until fine and smooth; then mould into balls and drop into melted chocolate.
To melt the chocolate, scrape and put it in a tin-cup or small sauce-pan over a kettle where it will steam. Let the chocolate be melting while the cream is being prepared.
Walnut-Creams.
Make the cream as for chocolate-drops and mould into larger balls. Place the half of an English walnut on either side and press them into the cream.
The cream prepared in this way, we have found, can be used for various kinds of candy.
Small pieces of fruit of any kind and nuts can be enclosed in the cream, making a great variety. Chocolate may be mixed with it; and if strong, clear coffee is used in place of the water, the candy will have the coffee flavor and color which some people like.
Walnut and Fruit Glacé.
Put 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup of water in a sauce-pan and stir until the sugar is all dissolved; then place it over the fire and let it boil until it hardens and is quite crisp when dropped in cold water. Do not stir it after it is put on the fire.
When cooked sufficiently, dip out a spoonful at a time and drop in buttered tins, leaving a space of an inch or so between each spoonful. Place on each piece of candy the half of a walnut, or the fruit which has previously been prepared, and pour over them enough candy to cover them, always keeping each piece separate.
Any kind of fruit can be made into glacé. When using oranges, quarter them and remove the seeds. Strawberries, in their season, and peaches also make delicious glacé.
The remainder of our recipes have been taken from family recipe-books, and although we have not tested them ourselves, we think it may be safely said that they are good ones.
Marsh-mallow Paste.
Dissolve 1 pound of clean white gum-arabic in one quart of water; strain, add 1 pound of refined sugar, and place over the fire. Stir continually until the syrup is dissolved and the mixture has become of the consistency of honey. Next add gradually the beaten whites of 8 eggs; stir the mixture all the time until it loses its thickness and does not adhere to the finger. Flavor with vanilla or rose. Pour into a tin slightly dusted with powdered starch, and when cool divide into squares with a sharp knife.
Toasted Marsh-mallows.
Tie a string on the end of a cane or stick, fasten a bent pin on the end of the string, and stick the pin into a marsh-mallow-drop. Hold the marsh-mallow suspended over an open fire and let it gradually toast. When it begins to melt and run down it is done.
For a small party toasting marsh-mallows will be found quite a merry pastime, and a great many persons consider the candy much better for being thus cooked the second time.
Molasses Peanut-Candy.
- 2 cups of molasses.
- 1 cup of brown sugar.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- 1 tablespoonful of vinegar.
While the candy is boiling remove the shells and brown skins from the peanuts, lay the nuts in buttered pans, and when the candy is done pour it over them. While it is still warm cut in blocks.
Chocolate-Caramels.
- 2 cups of sugar.
- 1 cup of molasses.
- 1 cup of milk.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- 1 tablespoonful of flour.
- ½ pound of Baker’s chocolate.
Grease your pot, put in sugar, molasses, and milk; boil fifteen minutes, and add butter and flour stirred to a cream. Let it boil five minutes, then add the chocolate, grated, and boil until quite thick. Grease shallow pans and pour in the candy half an inch thick, marking it in squares before it becomes hard.
Pop-Corn Balls.
- 6 quarts of popped corn.
- 1 pint of molasses.
Boil the molasses about fifteen minutes; then put the corn into a large pan, pour the molasses over it, and stir briskly until thoroughly mixed. Then, with clean hands, make into balls of the desired size.