CANDIES AND CREAM DROPS
CREAM CANDY
To make cream candy take two pounds of light brown sugar, one teacup of water, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one of vinegar, and two of flavoring extract. Dissolve the sugar in the water, but do not stir it. Set it on to boil, let it boil briskly for twenty minutes, then try it by dropping a spoonful in a glass of cold water. If cooked enough to pull, butter some dishes and pour it into them; when cool enough to handle, pull it until it becomes as white as cream.
ANOTHER CREAM CANDY
Three cups of sugar, half a cup of vinegar, and one-third of a cup of water. Boil together until it is thick and will harden when dropped into a cup of water. Butter some dishes, and just before filling them, add to the candy some flavoring essence; if you put this in earlier it will boil out. Pour the candy on the buttered dishes, and when a little cool prepare to pull it until it is white and light, which it will be if made by these directions.
POP-CORN CANDY
Take a cup of molasses, one and a half cups of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar and a lump of butter the size of an egg. Boil until thick. Chop two cups of popped corn rather fine, put it into the boiling candy, and pour it all on the buttered plates. Cut in squares to be eaten without pulling.
CHOCOLATE PASTE FOR CAKE
Boil one-half a cup of chocolate in one-half cup of milk, add a cup of sugar, and boil, until it is a thick paste.
LOUISIANA ORANGE FLOWER MACAROONS
Take a coffee cup of the freshly gathered petals of the orange, cut them with a pair of scissors into two pounds of dry, sifted white sugar; this keeps their color fresh. Beat the whites of seven eggs to a stiff froth, and add to the orange flowers and sugar. Drop this mixture on white paper in small cakes, and bake in a slow oven; do not let them brown.
MOLASSES CANDY
Take two quarts of molasses and one pound of brown sugar, and the juice of two lemons. Let the molasses and sugar boil moderately, without stirring it, for two hours; if not thick enough to pull then, let it boil a little longer; then put in your extract, for if this is put in earlier the flavor will boil away. When the candy is cool enough to handle, put into the pot a pint of parched pinders, or pecan meats, or almonds cut up. Butter two large dishes and pour out the candy.
MOLASSES CANDY OF OUR GRANDFATHERS’ TIME
One quart of molasses, and butter the size of an egg. Stew over a brisk fire till it will harden on being dropped into cold water. A teaspoonful of essence of wintergreen should be added when it is almost done. Pull it while warm, with buttered hands, and cut in sticks.
SUGAR CANDY
Six cups of sugar, one of vinegar, one of water, one spoonful of butter, and one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Boil all together without stirring, for half an hour. Flavor with lemon or vanilla. This is very good when “pulled” like the old-fashioned molasses candy, or it may be cooled on a buttered plate.
TO BLANCH ALMONDS
Pour boiling water on them and let them remain in it a few minutes. Remove the skins, throw the almonds into cold water, drain them from the water, but do not wipe them.
EVERTON TOFFY
In a shallow vessel, melt together one pound of brown sugar and one-quarter of a pound of butter. Stir well together for fifteen minutes, or until the mixture becomes brittle when dropped in water. Lemon or vanilla flavoring should be added before the cooking is complete. Butter a flat plate, pour the toffy on it to cool, and when partly cold, mark it off in squares with a knife; it can then be easily broken.
LEMON DROPS
Upon half a pound of finely powdered sugar pour just enough lemon juice to dissolve it, and boil to the consistency of thick syrup. Drop this in plates, and put in a warm place to harden. Or pour four ounces of lemon juice on one pound of loaf sugar, with four ounces of rose water. Boil to a syrup, add grated lemon peel and proceed as in the first recipe. By adding raspberry syrup, instead of lemon juice, you have raspberry drops.
POP-CORN BALLS
To six quarts of pop corn boil one pint of molasses about fifteen minutes; then put the corn into a large pan, pour the boiled molasses over it, and stir it briskly until thoroughly mixed. Then with clean hands make into balls of the desired size.
COCOANUT CANDY
Four cups of water, two and a half cups fine white sugar, four spoonfuls of vinegar, and a piece of butter as large as an egg; boil till thick, or about three quarters of an hour. Just before removing, stir in one cup of desiccated cocoanut, and lay in small, flat cakes on buttered plates, to cool and harden.
MARSH-MALLOW PASTE
Dissolve one-half pound of gum arabic in one pint of water; strain it, add half a pound of fine sugar and place over the fire, stirring constantly till the sugar is dissolved and all is the consistency of honey, then add gradually the whites of four eggs, well beaten; stir the mixture till it becomes somewhat thin and does not adhere to the finger; pour all into a pan slightly dusted with powdered starch, and when cool divide into small squares. Flavor to the taste, just before pouring out to cool.
CHOCOLATE CREAM DROPS
Mix one-half a cup of cream with two of white sugar, boil and stir fully five minutes; set the dish into another of cold water, and stir until it becomes hard; then make into small balls about the size of marbles, and with a fork roll each one separately in the chocolate, which has in the meantime been put in a bowl over the boiling teakettle and melted. Put on brown paper to cool. Flavor with vanilla, if desired. This amount makes about fifty drops.
CHOCOLATE CARAMELS
Two cups of sugar, one of molasses, one of milk, one spoonful of butter, one of flour, and half a pound of bakers’ chocolate. Butter your saucepan, put in the sugar, molasses and milk, boil fifteen minutes; add butter and flour, stirred to a cream, and boil five minutes longer; then add the chocolate grated, and boil until quite thick. Butter tin flat pans, and pour in the mixture half an inch thick, and mark it in squares before it gets hard.
CHOCOLATE CARAMELS
One pint of new milk, quarter of a pound of grated chocolate, and one cup and a half of white sugar. Boil all these together until it will pull like candy; try a little, and if stiff enough to pull, pour it on a buttered dish, and mark it off in squares with a knife as it cools. It will break easily when cold.
CHOCOLATE KISSES
One-half pound of sugar, one ounce of finely-powdered chocolate. Mix the sugar and chocolate together, and then mix it with the whites of four eggs well beaten. Drop on buttered paper, and bake.
BOSTON CARAMELS
One pint bowl of bakers’ chocolate grated, two bowls of yellow sugar, one bowl of New Orleans molasses, one half a cup of milk, a piece of butter the size of a small egg and vanilla flavoring; boil about twenty-five minutes. It should not be so brittle as other candies. Pour in buttered tins, and mark deeply with a knife.
KISSES, OR SUGAR DROPS
Rub to a cream half a cup of butter, with one cup of sugar. Add three well-beaten eggs, half a pound of sifted flour, and half a grated nutmeg. Drop this mixture on buttered tins, by the spoonful; let them be two or three inches apart; sprinkle sugar over them and bake quickly.
SUGAR KISSES
Beat the whites of three eggs to a froth, then stir in powdered white sugar, a little at a time, till you have formed a very thick batter. Add two or three drops of essence of lemon. Wet a sheet of white paper, lay it on a tin and drop this mixture upon it in lumps about the size and shape of a walnut. Set them in a cool oven, and as soon as their surface is hardened, take them out and remove them from the paper with a broad-bladed knife. Let the oven cool still more, then place these little cakes, laying the flat part of two together, on a sieve and return them to the oven, where they must remain for fifteen minutes before they are done.