Substitutes for Christmas Candies
"What would Christmas be without Christmas candies!" Can't you hear that wail going up from children all over the land? And from many a grown-up, too.
A Christmas shorn of all its sweets isn't necessary at all. But with a little forethought and some substitutes in the way of fruit and nut sweetmeats, we can do much to lessen the pull on sugar at just this time.
A decrease in our annual Christmas candy consumption of, say, even one-tenth (and that isn't asking very much of the "home fighter"), when multiplied by 100,000,000 of us will provide much energy-giving food to our army boys and our needy allies.
And what more acceptable Christmas gift could we make to those "over there?" Remember this when you are planning for their Christmas and your own. It is splendid to make comfort kits and pack hampers of gifts for the soldier-boys, but saving the sugar used to make your Christmas candies and in your own home is not only making them a Christmas gift but is putting punch into the right arm of your country's defenders. And their right arm is of more importance just now than your sweet tooth.
There are all sorts of substitutes such as stuffed dates, candied ginger, fruit pastes and salted nuts. Not only dates, but prunes, stuffed, are delicious. Wash them thoroughly, take out the seed and slip in a big, fat, sweet almond, and see how eagerly the children eat it. It is a food as well as a sweetmeat. Dried fruits like dates, figs, prunes and raisins have not only sugar but are highly nourishing. Raisins with nuts will delight any child and if given with moderation will not prove indigestible.
A combination of dates, figs and English walnuts, run through a grinder, softened with lemon juice, and cut into cakes like caramels, makes both a wholesome and a toothsome substitute for candy.
Use more home salted nuts this Christmas than in previous years. Peanuts, pecans or almonds, if prepared in olive oil, will not go begging.
To candy orange or grape-fruit peel means the use of some sugar, it is true, but less than for its equivalent in candy, and you are using up what would otherwise be thrown away.
A wider use of maple sugar as a sweet this fall and winter will be a helpful conservation measure. Every one with even one maple tree in his yard should tap it and boil his own syrup. Every little bit helps.
Any of these substitutes, if arranged in fancy box or dainty basket, will serve the same purpose as candy for gifts; left on table or tabourette they will give the same festive Christmas air and fill the munching needs of a holiday gathering; and best of all, their use will insure more sugar and therefore more power to those fighting our war.