FRENCH CANDY AT HOME.
THIS chapter I shall have to make one of recipes chiefly, for it treats
of a branch of cooking not usually found in cookery books, or at least
there is seldom anything on the art of confectionery beyond molasses or
cream taffy and nougat. These, therefore, I shall not touch upon, but
rather show you how to make the expensive French candies.
The great art of making these exquisite candies is in boiling the sugar,
and it is an art easily acquired with patience.
Put into a marbleized saucepan (by long experience in sugar-boiling I
find them less likely to burn even than brass, and I keep one for the
purpose) one pound of sugar and half a pint of water; when it has boiled
ten minutes begin to try it; have a bowl of water with a piece of ice
near you, and drop it from the end of a spoon. When it falls to the
bottom, and you can take it up and make it into a softish ball (not at
all sticky) between your thumb and finger, it is at the right point;
remove it from the fire to a cold place; when cool, if perfectly right,
a thin jelly-like film will be over the surface, _not a sugary one_; if
it is sugary, and you want your candy very creamy, you must add a few
spoonfuls of water, return to the fire and boil again, going through
the same process of trying it. You must be careful that there is not the
least inclination to be brittle in the ball of candy you take from the
water; if so, it is boiled a degree too high; put a little water to
bring it back again, and try once more. A speck of cream of tartar is
useful in checking a tendency in the syrup to go to sugar. When you have
your sugar boiled just right set it to cool, and when you can bear your
finger in it, begin to beat it with a spoon; in ten minutes it will be a
white paste resembling lard, which you will find you can work like bread
dough. This, then, is your foundation, called by French confectioners
_fondant_; with your _fondant_ you can work marvels. But to begin with
the simplest French candies.
Take a piece of _fondant_, flavor part of it with vanilla, part of it
with lemon, color yellow (see coloring candies), and another part with
raspberry, color pink; make these into balls, grooved cones, or anything
that strikes your fancy, let them stand till they harden, they are then
ready for use.
Take another part of your _fondant_, have some English walnuts chopped,
flavor with vanilla and color pink; work the walnuts into the paste as
you would fruit into a loaf cake; when mixed, make a paper case an inch
wide and deep, and three or four inches long; oil it; press the paste
into it, and when firm turn it out and cut into cubes. Or, instead of
walnuts, use chopped almonds, flavor with vanilla, and leave the
_fondant_ white. This makes VANILLA ALMOND CREAM.
TUTTI FRUTTI CANDY.--Chop some almonds, citron, a _few_ currants, and
seedless raisins; work into some _fondant_, flavor with rum and lemon,
thus making Roman punch, or with vanilla or raspberry; press into the
paper forms as you did the walnut cream. You see how you can ring the
changes on these bars, varying the flavoring, inventing new
combinations, etc.
FONDANT PANACHÉ.--Take your _fondant_, divide it in three equal parts,
color one pink and flavor as you choose, leave the other white and
flavor also as you please; but it must agree with the pink, and both
must agree with the next, which is chocolate. Melt a little unsweetened
chocolate by setting it in a saucer over the boiling kettle, then take
enough of it to make your third piece of _fondant_ a fine brown; now
divide the white into two parts; make each an inch and a half wide, and
as long as it will; do the same with the chocolate _fondant_; then take
the pink, make it the same width and length, but of course, not being
divided, it will be twice as thick; now butter slightly the back of a
plate, or, better still, get a few sheets of waxed paper from the
confectioner's; lay one strip of the chocolate on it, then a strip of
white on that, then the pink, the other white, and lastly the chocolate
again; then lightly press them to make them adhere, but not to squeeze
them out of shape. You have now an oblong brick of parti-colored candy;
leave it for a few hours to harden, then trim it neatly with a knife and
cut it crosswise into slices half an inch think, lay on waxed paper to
dry, turning once in a while, and pack away in boxes.
If your _fondant_ gets very hard while you work, stand it over hot water
a few minutes.
Creamed candies are very fashionable just now, and, your _fondant_ once
ready, are very easy to make.
CREAM WALNUTS.--Make ready some almonds, some walnuts in halves, some
hazelnuts, or anything of the sort you fancy; let them be very dry. Take
_fondant_ made from a pound of sugar, set it in a bowl in a saucepan of
boiling water, stirring it till it is like cream. Then having flavored
it with vanilla or lemon, drop in your nuts one by one, taking them out
with the other hand on the end of a fork, resting it on the edge of your
bowl to drain for a second, then drop the nut on to a waxed or buttered
paper neatly. If the nut shows through the cream it is too hot; take it
out of the boiling water and beat till it is just thick enough to mask
the nut entirely, then return it to the boiling water, as it cools very
rapidly and becomes unmanageable, when it has to be warmed over again.
VERY FINE CHOCOLATE CREAMS are made as follows: Boil half a pound of
sugar with three tablespoonfuls of thick cream till it makes a _soft_
ball in water, then let it cool. When cool beat it till it is very
white, flavor with a few drops of vanilla and make it into balls the
size of a large pea; then take some unsweetened chocolate warmed, mix it
with a piece of _fondant_ melted--there should be more chocolate than
sugar--and when quite smooth and thick enough to mask the cream, drop
them in from the end of a fork, take them out, and drop on to wax paper.
Another very fine candy to be made without heat, and therefore
convenient for hot weather, is made as follows:
PUNCH DROPS.--Sift some powdered sugar. Have ready some fine white
gum-arabic, put a tablespoonful with the sugar (say half a pound of
sugar), and make it into a firm paste; if too wet, add more sugar,
flavor with lemon and a tiny speck of tartaric acid or a very little
lemon juice. Make the paste into small balls, then take more sugar and
make it into icing with a spoonful of Santa Cruz rum and half the white
of an egg. Try if it hardens, if not, beat in more sugar and color it a
bright pink, then dip each ball in the pink icing and harden on wax
paper. These are very novel, beautiful to look at, and the flavors may
vary to taste.
TO MAKE COCHINEAL COLORING WHICH IS QUITE HARMLESS.--Take one ounce of
powdered cochineal, one ounce of cream of tartar, two drachms of alum,
half a pint of water; boil the cochineal, water, and cream of tartar
till reduced to one half, then add the alum, and put up in small bottles
for use. Yellow is obtained by the infusion of Spanish saffron in a
little water, or a still better one from the grated rind of a ripe
orange put into muslin, and a little of the juice squeezed through it.
Be careful in boiling the sugar for _fondant_, not to stir it after it
is dissolved; stirring causes it to become rough instead of creamy.