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Authors: Alice Bradley

The Candy Cookbook (8 page)

BOOK: The Candy Cookbook
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Candies that are to be pulled need to be boiled to 254°F (123.3°C) or up to 260°F (124.4°C). When removed from the fire they should be of the consistency required for the finished candy. A bit of paraffin keeps the candy from sticking to the teeth when being chewed, but it is not digestible, and its use in manufactured candies is forbidden in several States.

Molasses candies need to be stirred during the last part of the cooking to prevent burning.

A candy hook attached to the wall is convenient when much candy is to be pulled.

If, while being pulled, candy sticks to the hands, they may be rubbed with flour.

Molasses Candy

3 tbsp butter

⅔ cup sugar

2 cups Porto Rico molasses

1 tbsp vinegar

Melt butter in saucepan or iron kettle, add molasses and sugar, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Boil until mixture becomes brittle when tried in cold water, or to 256°F (124.4°C). During the last part of the cooking candy should be stirred constantly. Add vinegar just before taking from fire. Pour on buttered marble slab or agate tray, and when cool enough to handle, pull until porous and light colored, using tips of fingers and thumbs, not squeezing it in the hand. Cut in small pieces, using large scissors or a sharp knife. Wrap in wax paper.

Daddy’s Molasses Candy

1 cup molasses

½ cup sugar

1 tsp soda

Put molasses and sugar in saucepan or iron kettle. Stir until dissolved, and boil without stirring over a moderate fire, brushing inside edge of saucepan with butter to prevent boiling over. Cook to 256°F (124.4°C), or until mixture spins fine threads when dripped slowly from tip of spoon.

Put three tablespoons of candy into a buttered dish, and keep in a warm place for coloring. Add soda to remaining candy, stir, and turn into buttered pan or on to buttered slab. When cool enough to handle, pull as quickly and as long as possible. When very light, lay upon it the unpulled candy, and pull out together in one long strip. Cut in small pieces, and roll in confectioners’ sugar. If candy is not to be eaten at once, wrap each piece in waxed paper.

Stretched Molasses Candy

3 tbsp butter

⅓ cup butter

1⅓ cups sugar

⅔ cup molasses

1 cup water

Put butter in saucepan or iron kettle, and when melted add sugar, molasses, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved, and let boil without stirring until mixture will form a very soft ball that will just keep in shape when tried in cold water. Turn on a buttered marble slab or agate tray, and as mixture cools around sides fold toward center. When cool enough to handle, pull until porous and light colored with tips of fingers and thumbs, not squeezing it in the hand. Cut in small pieces with large scissors or a sharp knife, and arrange on slightly buttered plates, or wrap in wax paper. A few drops oil of peppermint, clove, or cinnamon may be added during the stretching.

Molasses Kisses

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp honey

¼ cup water

1 tbsp corn syrup

1 cup molasses

3 tbsp sugar

Put ingredients in saucepan or iron kettle, stir until butter melts and sugar dissolves, and boil until it forms a hard ball in cold water, or to 254°F (123.3°C) or 256°F (124.4°C). Pour gently on buttered marble slab or large tray. When cool enough to handle, pull until light colored. If using the hook, twist each time as it falls from the hook. Use flour on the hands if candy sticks. Roll, cut in pieces, and wrap in wax paper.

Molasses Candy Bars

Follow directions for Molasses Kisses, cooking to 256°F (124.4°C). Pull as long a time as possible, then cut in bars, and wrap in wax paper.

Velvet Molasses Kisses

½ cup molasses

1½ tbsp vinegar

1½ cups sugar

½ cup water

¼ tsp cream of tartar

4 tbsp butter

⅛ tsp soda

Put molasses, sugar, water, and vinegar in saucepan or iron kettle, stir until it boils, and add cream of tartar. Boil until mixture becomes brittle when tried in cold water, or to 256°F (124.4°C).

Stir constantly during last part of cooking. When nearly done,
add butter and soda. Pour on buttered marble slab or agate tray, and when cool pull until light colored. While pulling, flavor with one teaspoon vanilla, or half a teaspoon of lemon extract, or a few drops oil of peppermint or wintergreen. Cut in pieces with scissors, and wrap in wax paper.

Taffy

1½ tbsp butter

1 cup sugar

⅔ cup corn syrup

⅓ cup water

Melt the butter in saucepan, add sugar, corn syrup, and water, and stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 260°F (126.6°C), or until it forms a hard ball when tried in cold water. Pour on a marble slab or white agate tray which has been slightly moistened by being wiped over with a piece of damp cheesecloth. Fold edges over into the center before they have time to get hard; by doing this the candy will be kept soft, but in doing it the candy must be disturbed as little as possible, as any tendency toward stirring it may cause it to sugar, and then it cannot be pulled. As soon as candy is cool enough to handle, knead it until firm, add flavor, then pull it over a hook until it is white. Cut with scissors into bars, and wrap in waxed paper.

Salt Water Taffy

1½ cups brown sugar

½ cup water

½ cup corn syrup

3 tbsp butter

1½ tsp salt

½ tbsp glycerine

1½ tsp vanilla

Put brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and water in saucepan or iron kettle, and boil, stirring occasionally, to 256°F (124.4°C), or until it forms a hard ball when tried in cold water. Add salt and glycerine, pour on greased marble slab or agate tray, and when cool enough to handle, pull until light colored. Add vanilla while pulling. Pull out in round sticks the size of kisses, cut in small pieces with scissors, and wrap in waxed paper.

Atlantic City Salt Water Taffy

1 cup sugar

½ tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp butter

½ cup water

⅔ cup corn syrup

½ tsp salt

Flavoring

Mix sugar and cornstarch, put in saucepan, add corn syrup, butter, and water. Stir until boiling point is reached, and boil to 256°F (124.4°C), or until it forms a firm ball when tried in cold water. Add salt, pour on greased slab or agate tray, and when cool enough to handle, pull until light colored. Divide in separate portions, and color and flavor each portion as desired, while it is being pulled. Lemon, orange, peppermint, lime, strawberry, or pineapple flavors may be used, and pink, green, yellow, or orange color paste.

To make red striped kisses have one portion of candy colored bright red and kept warm near the oven. Lay the large piece of pulled
taffy on the slab; on the upper side lay two or three parallel strips of red taffy; turn the piece over and lay two or three red strips on that side. Pull out until one and one half inches wide and three fourths inch thick. Cut in pieces with scissors, and wrap in wax paper.

After Dinner Mints

2 cups sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar

⅔ cup boiling water

1 tsp vinegar

Few drops oil of peppermint

Put sugar, water, cream of tartar, and vinegar in a saucepan, and mix ingredients thoroughly.

Bring to the boiling point, and boil without stirring to 265°F (124.4°C), or until mixture will become brittle when tried in cold water. Pour on an oiled marble slab, or large white agate tray, and leave undisturbed until cool enough to handle easily. Lift candy, avoiding any movement that is like a stirring motion, as stirring may cause candy to sugar, and pull, doubling candy over evenly and pulling out as long as possible, keeping the grain all one way. Add flavoring during the pulling. When candy is too stiff to pull longer, stretch out into a long rope, half an inch in diameter, and cut with scissors into small pieces. Put immediately into a bowl of confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar), stir until well coated, and when dry put into a glass jar, cover, and let stand several days in a warm place, when candies should become tender and sugary.

Candy may be divided into several portions, and one portion colored pink and flavored with wintergreen; another portion may be colored green and flavored with almond and vanilla; another portion may be colored yellow and flavored with lemon or orange.

Peppermint Stick Candy

2 cups sugar

¼ cup corn syrup

½ cup water

Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 310°F (154.4°C), or until it begins to discolor on edge of saucepan.

Pour out on oiled marble slab or platter, cut off a small portion, color red, and keep in a warm place. Pull remaining candy as soon as it can be handled, flavoring with a few drops of oil of peppermint. Pull out into a long strip, and flatten it. Pull the red piece out to the same length, and lay on top. Pull quickly, holding over the stove, or in front of oven, into thin strips, and twist so the strip will be spiral. Keep rolling and twisting until cold, then cut with scissors, or break in short lengths.

Vinegar Candy

2 tbsp butter

2 cups sugar

½ cup vinegar

Put butter in iron kettle or saucepan; when melted, add sugar and vinegar. Stir until sugar is dissolved, wash down crystals from sides of saucepan with butter brush dipped in cold water; boil to 256°F (124.4°C), or until mixture will become brittle when tried in cold water. Turn on buttered platter or marble slab. When cool, pull until very white, and cut in small pieces with scissors or a sharp knife.

Brittle candies like butterscotch, barley sugar, peppermint sticks, brittles and nougats, are cooked to 290°F (143.3°C) or up to 330°F (165.5°C).

They should be thin and very brittle when finished.

Candies boiled to a high temperature and pulled must be handled with canvas gloves, in front of a warm oven or batch warmer. Much experience is required to successfully manipulate the syrup used in making Christmas and stick candies, and it will hardly pay the home candy maker to attempt them.

Barley Sugar Drops

2 cups sugar

Color paste

1 cup water

¼ tsp cream of tartar

Flavoring extract

Put sugar and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, add coloring if desired, cover, and boil 3 minutes. Remove cover, add cream of tartar, and boil to 300°F (148.9°C), or until it just begins to change color. Add few drops of flavoring – peppermint, lemon, or orange extract – and drop at once on tin sheet from tip of spoon, in portions the size of a silver half dollar. Store in a tight glass jar.

Barley Sugar Sticks

Prepare candy as directed in Barley Sugar Drops. Pour on tin sheet in strips four inches long and three fourths inch wide. Take up one at a time, twist, and place in covered glass jars.

Butterscotch I

1⅓ cups brown sugar

⅔ cup butter

2 tsp vinegar

⅔ cup hot water

½ tbsp vanilla

Put sugar, vinegar, butter, and water in saucepan. Stir until ingredients are mixed, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 290°F (143.3°C), or until candy becomes brittle when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, remove from fire, pour into a buttered pan, cool slightly, and mark in squares.

Butterscotch II

½ cup corn syrup

½ cup butter

1⅓ cups sugar

⅔ cup cold water

⅔ cup light brown sugar

½ tbsp vanilla

Put ingredients, except vanilla, in saucepan, and boil to 288°F (142.2°C), or until it cracks when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, turn into buttered tin, cool slightly, and mark in squares.

Scotch Mallows

Dip marshmallows (whole or cut in halves) in Butterscotch I or II, while it is still soft. Take up with two-tined fork, and put on buttered marble slab or tin sheet.

Butterscotch Squares

1⅔ cups light brown sugar

⅔ cup corn syrup

½ cup water

1½ tbsp butter

¼ tsp salt

Oil of lemon

Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil to 280°F (137.8°C), or until it cracks in cold water.

Add butter and salt, and boil to 290°F (143.3°C), or until it reaches the hard crack when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, flavor with oil of lemon, and pour out between bars on slightly moistened slab, mark in squares, and break up when cold.

Butterscotch Wafers

1⅔ cups sugar

⅓ cup corn syrup

½ cup water

1½ tbsp butter

½ tbsp dark molasses

¼ tsp salt

Few drops oil of lemon

Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil to 270°F (126.6°C), or until it is brittle when tried in cold water. Add butter and molasses, and cook to 280°F (137.7°C), or until it cracks in cold water, stirring to prevent burning. While stirring, move the spoon over every part of the bottom of the kettle. Be careful not to stir in just one spot, thus allowing the candy to burn on the other side of the saucepan. Remove from fire, add salt, flavor with oil of lemon, and drop from tip of spoon on oiled marble slab or tin sheet in wafers the size of a quarter of a dollar.

Cream Butterscotch Balls

1 cup white sugar

⅓ cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup heavy cream

⅓ cup white corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla or lemon extract

Put all the ingredients, except the flavoring, in a saucepan, stir until mixed, bring to boiling point, and boil until mixture is just stiff enough to keep its shape when a little is dropped into cold water. If it can be lifted from the water and remain in a ball when shaped with the fingers, it is done. Remove from fire, add flavoring, pour into a buttered pan, and when cool, shape into small balls, and roll in confectioners’ sugar. The candy when removed from the fire may be dropped from the tip of a spoon on an oiled marble slab or tray, into wafers the size of a quarter of a dollar. These should be loosened with a thin-bladed knife before they have time to get hard.

Cream Butterscotch with Nuts

Follow recipe for making Cream Butterscotch Balls. When candy is removed from fire, add half a cup of walnut or pecan nut meats cut in small pieces, and proceed as in Cream Butterscotch Balls.

Toffee

2 cups light brown sugar

½ cup butter

4 tsp vinegar or the juice of one lemon

½ cup English walnut meats

Heat sugar, butter, and vinegar or lemon juice over a moderate fire, stir till the sugar dissolves, then boil without stirring to 270°F (126.6°C), or until syrup forms a hard ball when tried in cold water. Pour carefully around and over the nuts which have been arranged in rows in buttered or oiled pans. When cold, cut in squares, leaving one nut in the center of each square.

Horehound Candy

½ oz dried horehound

1¾ cups sugar

1 cup water

½ cup corn syrup

Put water and horehound, which may be procured of a druggist in one-ounce packages, in a saucepan and simmer half an hour. Strain through double cheesecloth; there should be half a cup of liquid. To liquid add sugar and corn syrup, and stir until mixture boils. Wash down crystals from sides of saucepan with a butter brush dipped in cold water, and boil to 295°F (126.6°C), or until it is very brittle when tried in cold water. Remove at once from the fire, and pour into buttered pan one fourth inch thick, or pour between candy bars.

As soon as it cools a little, loosen it from the pan, and mark in small squares. Go over the marks with a knife until candy is cold, then break with the hands.

Pack in airtight jar, and keep in a cool place, or wrap in wax paper.

Burnt Almonds

3 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 cup blanched almonds

Put two cups of sugar and half a cup of water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, bring to boiling point, put in the blanched almonds, and stir and boil to 300°F (148.9°C), or until there is a cracking sound, and candy begins to discolor.

Remove almonds from syrup to a buttered cake cooler. Put the remaining cup of sugar and half a cup of water in a clean saucepan, stir, and bring to boiling point; add the almonds, and stir and boil until almonds are well coated with sugar. Again drain on cake cooler, and if coating is not sufficiently thick, repeat the process again.

Almond Nougat

½ lb confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar)

¼ lb almonds, blanched and finely chopped

Put sugar in an iron frying pan, place on range, and stir constantly until melted; add almonds, and pour on an oiled marble slab. Fold mixture with a broad-bladed knife as it spreads, keeping it constantly in motion. Divide in four parts, and as soon as cool enough to handle, shape in long rolls about one third inch in diameter, keeping rolls in motion until almost cold. When cold, snap in pieces one and one half inches long. This is done by holding roll at point to be snapped over the sharp edge of a broad-bladed knife and snapping.

These pieces may be dipped in melted confectioners’ chocolate.

Nougat Drops

Drop Almond Nougat mixture from the tip of a spoon on an oiled marble slab as soon as taken from fire. These drops have a rough surface. When cold, dip in melted confectioners’ chocolate, if desired.

Peanut Nougat

2 cups sugar

1 quart peanuts

¼ tsp salt

Shell, remove skins, and finely chop peanuts. Sprinkle with one fourth teaspoon salt. Put sugar in hot iron frying pan, place on range, and stir constantly with wooden spoon until melted to a syrup, taking care to keep sugar from sides of pan. Add nut meats, pour at once into a warm buttered tin, or on marble slab, and mark in small squares. If sugar is not removed from range as soon as melted, it will quickly burn.

Nut Bar

Cover the bottom of a buttered shallow pan with one and one third cups nut meats (sweet chestnut, English walnuts, or almonds) cut in quarters. Pour over two cups sugar, melted as for Peanut Nougat. Mark in bars.

Nut Brittle

1½ cups shelled nuts

1 cup corn syrup

½ cup water

1 cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

1½ tbsp butter

½ tsp lemon extract

Use peanuts or any other nuts desired, sprinkle with salt, and place in oven to become hot. Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until it begins to boil, wash down sides of saucepan with a wet butter brush, and cook to 295°F (146.1°C), or until mixture is very brittle when tried in cold water. Add butter, extract, and nuts, and turn into a buttered pan or tray. As soon as it can be handled, turn the mass over, and pull and stretch it out as thin as possible. Break in irregular pieces. In damp weather keep in covered jar that it may not become sticky.

Nougat

Nut Brittle may be poured out so that it will be three fourths of an inch thick, and the top smoothed with a rolling pin. Before it cools it must be cut in pieces one inch long and three eighths of an inch wide, with a sharp knife. If it gets too cold before it is all cut, the candy may be warmed slightly by holding it over the stove.

Peanut Brittle I

1½ cups sugar

⅔ cup corn syrup

1 cup cold water

1½ cups shelled raw Spanish peanuts

2 tbsp butter

½ tbsp vanilla

¾ tbsp soda

½ tbsp cold water

Put sugar, corn syrup, and two thirds cup cold water in iron kettle, stir until mixture boils, cover, and boil 3 minutes. Remove cover, and boil to 275°F (135°C). Add butter and peanuts, and stir constantly about 10 minutes, or until peanuts are cooked. Add vanilla and soda dissolved in half a tablespoon cold water. Stir until thoroughly mixed, and turn on slightly buttered marble slab or agate tray. Spread as thinly as possible, and lift constantly while cooling, using a spatula, and pull to distribute nuts evenly. Flatten and break in pieces.

Peanut Brittle II

2 tbsp butter

½ cup molasses

1½ cups sugar

½ cup water

½ cup corn syrup

1 cup shelled peanuts

¼ tsp soda

Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, corn syrup, molasses, and water, and boil until brittle when tried in cold water. Add peanuts and soda, mix thoroughly, pour into buttered pan, and crease in squares.

Coconut Cones

2 cups sugar

½ cup water

Grated rind one fourth orange

Few grains cream of tartar

2 cups chopped coconut

Few grains salt

Put sugar, water, and orange rind in saucepan. Stir until boiling point is reached, then add cream of tartar, and boil without stirring to 290°F (143.3°C), or until it will snap when tried in cold water. Add coconut and salt. Mix thoroughly, shape in small cones, and place on wax paper to dry.

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