200.—Burnt Almonds.
1 lb. of almonds, 2 lbs. of sugar. Take 2 lbs. of clarified sugar and boil it to the “ball;” put 1 lb. of Jordan or Valencia almonds, blanched and dried, into the pan with the sugar; stir them from the fire, and let them absorb as much sugar as possible. If you want them well saturated with sugar repeat this until the sweetening is completed. Flavour with orange-flower water.
201.—Cast Sugar Drops.
Select the best refined sugar with a good grain, pound it and pass through a coarse hair sieve; sift again in a lawn sieve, to take out the finest part, as the sugar, when it is too fine, makes the drops heavy and compact and destroys their brilliancy and shining appearance. Now put the sugar into a pan and moisten it with any aromatic spirit you intend to use, using a little water to make it of such a consistence as to allow of its dropping off the spoon without sticking to it. Rose water is the best; it should be poured in slowly, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Colour the sugar with prepared cochineal or any other colour, ground fine and moistened with a little water; the tint should be light and delicate. Then take a small pan, made with a lip on the right side, so that when it is held in the left hand the drops may be detached from the right. Put in the paste and place the pan in the stove on a ring that just fits it. Take a small spatula and stir the sugar until it dissolves and makes a slight noise, but do not let it boil, but remove it from the fire when it is near the boiling point, then stir it well with the small spatula until of such a consistence that when dropped it will not spread too much, but retain a round form. Should it, however, be too thin add a little of the coarse powdered sugar, which should be reserved for the purpose, and make it of the thickness required. Take a smooth tin or copper plate and let the paste drop on it from the lip of the pan at regular intervals. You hold the pan in the left hand and with a piece of straight wire in the right hand you separate the drop of sugar from the lip of the pan, letting it fall on the tin. In the course of an hour and a half or two hours the drops may be removed with a thin knife. If no copper plates are at hand a piece of stout cartridge paper will do. Damp the back of the paper with a sponge when you wish to remove the drops.
202.—Rose Drops.
These are made as in the preceding case. Flavour with essence of rose and colour with cochineal.
203.—Orange-flower Drops.
Flavour with orange-flower water or a little of the essence of neroli.
204.—Chocolate Drops.
2 ozs. of chocolate, 2 lbs. of sugar. The chocolate must be scraped to a powder and then made into a paste with cold water, finishing as for cast sugar drops.