cupfuls of powdered sugar and a pint of rich cream into which you
have stirred a bit of baking-soda the size of a pea. Put over the fire
in a double boiler and make it scalding hot, but remove before the
boiling point is reached. Now set the inner saucepan in a pan of ice,
and churn until cold and light. Turn into the freezer and grind. Peel
and cut into small bits three peaches, an apple, an orange, a banana,
two dozen cherries (crystallized, if you can not get the fresh), and
cut into small pieces a half cupful of red raspberries. Mix all these
fruits thoroughly together. When the cream is frozen, but not very
stiff, carefully wipe off the top of the freezer, remove the cover, and
take out the dasher. Turn the mixed fruits into the cream, and with
a long-handled spoon stir them in. Press all down hard, replace the
cover, and pack the freezer down in ice and salt for three hours longer.
Cherry ice
Stem and stone a quart of cherries, crush and cover them with two
cupfuls of sugar. At the end of an hour squeeze the cherries through a
vegetable press and extract all the juice. To this add the juice of a
lemon, a pint of water and the unbeaten whites of three eggs. Turn all
into a freezer and grind until you have a firm, light ice. Pack the
freezer in ice and salt for an hour after the dasher is removed.
Whole banana ice cream
Wash and wipe twelve large ripe _red_ bananas, cut the skins down
carefully all the length on one side, and as carefully extract the pulp
without breaking the skins. Remove the pulp, scrape out the fibrous
portion from the skins and put the latter in the ice-chest until the
cream is ready. Mash the pulp of the bananas, mix with it two cupfuls
of sugar and one quart of cream, and add two teaspoonfuls of lemon
juice. Rub through your colander to get rid of fibrous parts, and
freeze in the usual way. When almost hard, fill the banana skins with
the cream, packing it in well, tie with soft thread and return to the
cleaned and chilled freezer. Freeze for another hour (without turning).
Have ready a dozen narrow green ribbons. Remove the threads, tie the
bananas up with the ribbons; lay back in a freezer when you have wiped
it dry, and leave in ice and rock salt until served.
Plum Bavarian cream
Soak half a box of gelatin in half a pint of cold water. Press through
a sieve one pint of canned, or freshly stewed and sweetened plums. Stir
the gelatin over boiling water until dissolved; stir the plums into
this and mix well; pour into a bowl set in ice, and stir constantly
until it begins to thicken; then add one pint of whipped cream; stir
lightly until well-mixed. Turn into a mold and stand in a cool place.
Serve with whipped cream.
Cider ice
Dissolve one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar in one quart of
cider. Add one cupful of orange juice and one-fourth cupful of lemon
juice. Mix the ingredients well together and freeze in the usual manner.
Raspberry and currant cream
Mash one quart of black raspberries and one pint of red currants with
two and a half cupfuls of sugar. Let them stand several hours, strain
off the juice and turn into the freezer. When partly frozen, add one
cupful of sweet cream, sweetened, flavored and whipped.
Candied citron ice cream
Cut peeled and cored citron into strips. To each pound of these strips
allow a pound of granulated sugar. Make a syrup of the sugar and water,
allowing a cup of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the citron strips
in this until clear and tender, adding enough ginger-root to flavor.
Take out the citron and lay on platters to cool, and boil the syrup
until very thick. Add a little lemon juice, return the citron to the
syrup and stir until candied. Lay on a platter to cool and dry. When
you wish to use it cut into tiny shreds and beat into plain vanilla ice
cream when half-frozen. Close the freezer and turn until the contents
are firm.
HOME-MADE CANDIES
There has of late years been so much criminal adulteration of candy
that the cautious parent is tempted to condemn all bonbons as unfit for
human stomachs. In our wholesale condemnation we are prone to forget
that the longing for sweets is a natural craving of the system, and
that pure sugar, taken in moderation and at the proper time, is not
injurious, but rather aids in the process of digestion.
A moderate amount of good candy eaten directly after a hearty meal
should not prove injurious to any healthy person.
Appreciation of this hygienic law has led to the introduction of the
bonbonnière upon the luncheon and the dinner table. The sweet morsels
are nibbled because it is fashionable to partake of them, but the good
results are the same as if intelligent comprehension of need and supply
were the motive power.
Maple candy
Break a pound of maple sugar into bits and then crush it fine with a
rolling-pin. Stir it into two cupfuls of hot milk; put over the fire,
and stir until the sugar is melted. Now boil hard, stirring all the
time, until the syrup is brittle when dropped into cold water; beat in
a lump of butter the size of a small hen’s egg, and as soon as this
melts, pour the candy into greased pans. Cut into large squares before
it hardens.
Maple caramels
Break two pounds of maple sugar into a quart of milk—half cream, if
you have it—and boil steadily, until a little dropped into cold water,
hardens. Pour into greased pans, and as it cools, mark into squares.
Maple fudge
Break a pound of maple sugar into small pieces and put it over the fire
with a cupful of milk. Bring to a boil, add a tablespoonful of butter
and cook until a little dropped into cold water becomes brittle. Take
from the fire, stir until it begins to granulate a little about the
sides of the pot, and then pour into a greased pan. Mark into squares
with a knife.
Sugar candy
Wet two heaping cupfuls of granulated sugar with a half pint of cold
water and put over the fire in a porcelain-lined saucepan. When the
sugar is dissolved, stir in a bit of cream of tartar (as large as a
Lima bean) dissolved in a spoonful of cold water. Boil the candy until
a bit hardens when dropped into cold water; remove from the fire, stir
in a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into greased pans, mark into squares
and set aside to harden. Or, as the candy cools, pull it with buttered
finger-tips into long white ropes. Let it get very cold and brittle
before eating.
Chocolate fudge (No. 1)
Boil together a cupful of sugar, one cupful of grated chocolate,
one-half cupful of milk, one-quarter of a cupful of molasses. Boil,
stirring often, until a little hardens in cold water. Remove from the
fire, beat in a teaspoonful of vanilla, stir for a minute and turn into
a buttered pan.
Chocolate fudge (No. 2)
Three pounds of light brown sugar, one-half pound of chocolate,
one-half cupful of cream, one-quarter pound of butter, three
tablespoonfuls of vanilla extract.
Put all into a porcelain kettle, or smooth iron pot, excepting
the vanilla extract. Set on the back of the stove and let it melt
slowly—two hours are none too long, if you value smooth, rich fudge.
Then pull forward to boil about ten minutes. Try, at the end of seven
or eight minutes, in ice-cold water, and if it “balls” in the fingers,
take off and beat, adding the vanilla. Turn out into buttered tins, and
score when cool enough.
Penotchie
Put over the fire in a saucepan three cupfuls of light brown sugar—not
coffee sugar—with a cupful of milk and boil to the stage when dropped
into cold water it makes a soft but firm ball in the fingers. Add,
then, a teaspoonful of butter; take from the fire, flavor with a
teaspoonful of vanilla and stir in a cupful of kernels of English
walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans, broken into pieces. Turn out upon a
well-buttered shallow pan and mark into squares with a buttered knife.
This is sometimes known as “Penuchie,” sometimes as “Mexican Kisses.”
Molasses candy (No. 1)
Stir together three cupfuls of New Orleans molasses and a cupful of
brown sugar. Add a gill of vinegar and put all over the fire in a
porcelain-lined saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil and stir the syrup
often as it cooks. Test the candy, from time to time, by dropping
a bit into iced water. As soon as this bit hardens stir into the
boiling syrup a heaping teaspoonful of butter; when this melts, add
a teaspoonful of baking-soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling
water, and remove immediately from the fire. Pour into buttered tins
and cut into diamond-shaped candies, or pull into ropes.
This is the good old-fashioned molasses candy of “candy pulls”—the
frolics dear to our mothers’ girlish days. In my opinion it is sweeter
to taste and to memory than chocolate creams or any other modern bonbon.
Molasses candy (No. 2)
Boil together a cupful of molasses, one of brown sugar, a tablespoonful
of butter and a tablespoonful of vinegar. When a drop hardens in
cold water remove from the fire, beat in a small teaspoonful of
baking-soda, stir hard, and turn into buttered pans. As it hardens, cut
into squares, or when hard break into bits.
Molasses “velvets”
One cupful of molasses, three cupfuls of sugar, one cupful of boiling
water, three tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one-half teaspoonful of cream
of tartar, one-half cupful of melted butter, one-fourth teaspoonful
of soda. Pour the first four ingredients into a kettle placed over
the front of the range. As soon as the boiling point is reached add
cream of tartar. Boil until, when tried in cold water, the mixture
will harden and crisp. Stir constantly during the last half hour of
cooking. When nearly done add the butter and soda. Pour into a buttered
pan and pull as you would plain molasses candy. Before pulling add one
teaspoonful of vanilla, one-half teaspoonful of lemon extract, or any
essence you may prefer.
Molasses taffy
Boil a pint of molasses for twenty minutes, then stir in two
saltspoonfuls of baking-soda and boil for fifteen minutes more, or
until a little dropped into cold water is brittle. You must stir the
taffy constantly while boiling, or it will scorch. When it is done add
a teaspoonful of vinegar and pour into buttered pans, or pull to a
light brown.
Molasses walnut candy
Boil a quart of molasses for half an hour, then add a saltspoonful of
baking-soda and boil until a little dropped into cold water becomes
brittle. Stir in shelled and halved walnuts, and pour into a greased
pan.
Molasses stick candy
Boil together a pint of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of butter, a pound
of brown sugar and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. When a little hardens
in iced water remove from the fire, and, as it cools, pull into long
light strips with floured finger-tips. Lay on waxed paper to harden.
Chocolate caramels (No. 1)
Heat together over a slow fire two cupfuls of brown sugar, half a
cupful of molasses, half a cupful of cream, four tablespoonfuls of
butter, and half a cake of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, grated.
Cool until it is brittle when dropped into cold water; flavor with a
teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a greased pan, and when cool cut into
squares with a knife.
Chocolate caramels (No. 2)
Boil together two pounds of granulated sugar, a quarter of a pound of
grated chocolate, a half pint of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter.
Cook until a bit hardens when dropped into cold water, flavor with
vanilla, pour into greased tins and mark into squares.
Opera caramels
Stir into two cupfuls of granulated sugar just enough milk to dissolve
it, add a quarter teaspoonful of cream of tartar and put over a slow
fire. Stir constantly while boiling until a little dropped into cold
water has the consistency of putty. Pour into a shallow pan and set
aside to cool until so stiff that your finger pressed on it leaves a
dent. Now beat until you have a soft, dough-like mass. Knead this, put
upon a pastry board sprinkled with powdered sugar, and roll into a
sheet a half inch thick. Cut into squares. If you wish to make vanilla
caramels of these stir in the vanilla just before taking the mixture
from the fire.
Chocolate creams
Beat the white of an egg light with a teaspoonful of sugar, add a
teaspoonful of vanilla and enough confectioner’s sugar to make a
mixture stiff enough to be rolled into balls. Beat very smooth, then
form into balls the size of a small marble, and spread in a pan to get
stiff and firm. Cover with a chocolate coating.
Chocolate coating for creams
Melt sweetened chocolate in a double boiler. Run a thick skewer into
each cream ball and dip in the melted chocolate until thoroughly
coated. Spread on buttered tins to dry; or, spread upon waxed paper.
Chocolate marshmallows
Buy two ounces of finely powdered white gum arabic and let it stand,
covered with eight tablespoonfuls of cold water, for an hour. Put it
then into a double boiler, and let it heat slowly until the gum is
dissolved. Strain through a cheese-cloth, wash out the double boiler
and return the gum arabic to this with seven ounces of powdered sugar
and two tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate. Stir over the fire for
about three-quarters of an hour. At the end of this time the mixture
should be stiff. Take from the fire, beat rapidly for two minutes, put
in a teaspoonful of vanilla, and pour into a pan which has been well
dusted with corn-starch. When cold cut into squares.
Fondant for cream candies
To one pound of granulated sugar put into a granite saucepan, add
a gill and a half of boiling water, and stir until the sugar is
dissolved—no longer. Let the syrup boil about six minutes, and dip a
fork into it. Try this, holding up the fork and watching the syrup on
the point, until this has reached a stage where it spins a thread. Test
it still further by dropping a little of the boiling sugar into iced
water. When it can be made into a very soft ball with the fingers, turn
it out on a large platter, which has been lightly buttered. Be careful
not to stir the sugar when boiling, and do not scrape off the sugar
that adheres to the side of the saucepan. As soon as the syrup in the
dish is blood-warm, stir it with a wooden spoon, or paddle, until it
begins to crumble. It should be a smooth white mass, and when it has
come to this stage should be kneaded in the hands like dough. Pack it
into a bowl, cover it with a thin cloth, slightly moistened, and set it
away until needed.
Chop nuts and roll in this fondant, or roll in it whole. Citron cut
into strips may be coated with it.
Cream dates
Stone dates, opening at one side only, fill with fondant, close gently
into the original shape and sprinkle with sugar.
Butterscotch
Wet a pound of brown sugar with a cupful of water, into which two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar have been stirred. Put into an agate
saucepan. Cook for ten minutes, add four tablespoonfuls of butter and
boil until a drop hardens in cold water. Pour into large buttered tins,
and as it cools, mark off into squares.
Lemon butter
Boil together half a pound of brown sugar, a tablespoonful of vinegar
and a gill of water for ten minutes, and add a heaping tablespoonful
of butter. Boil until the candy becomes brittle when dropped into cold
water, and take from the fire. Add to it the juice of a lemon and pour
into a shallow, well-greased pan.
Hoarhound candy (made from fresh leaves)
Make a strong solution of hoarhound leaves; strain this, and put a
quarter of a cupful of it over the fire with a pound of brown sugar
and a very little water. Cook until a little dropped in cold water is
brittle. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar, boil up once and turn into
greased tins.
Hoarhound candy (made from dried leaves)
Steep a heaping tablespoonful of dried hoarhound leaves in half a
cupful of boiling water for one hour, then strain and squeeze. Add the
liquid to two cupfuls of brown sugar, put over the fire in a saucepan,
and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put in a tablespoonful of
vinegar and boil until the candy breaks when dropped into cold water.
Drop from the point of the spoon upon buttered paper, or pour into a
pan and cut into squares.
Wintergreen candy
Made as directed in last recipes, substituting wintergreen for
hoarhound.
Walnut creams
Beat the whites of an egg very light with enough XXX sugar to make it
very stiff. Now add cream, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is
of the consistency of putty, working it with the hands until it is soft
and smooth. Flavor with vanilla, or with lemon juice and the grated
rind. Roll into small balls, flatten these, and press a half walnut on
each side of every ball.
French cream almonds
Four cupfuls of granulated sugar; one cupful of boiling water; two
tablespoonfuls of glucose.
Stir until mixed and dissolved, then cover, and boil until the syrup
strings. Pour into a crock and allow it to stand undisturbed until cool
enough for you to hold your finger in it. Stir with a wooden spoon
until thick; pour upon a marble slab and knead all lumps out. Work in
flavoring and coloring if desired. Mold into balls and press a blanched
almond on the top of each ball.
Creamed English walnuts
For this use the large English walnuts, cracking them carefully so as
not to break the kernels. Remove each half in one piece and free it
from all bits of shell.
Heat over boiling water half a pound of fondant like that for which
directions have been given in the recipe for chocolate creams. Flavor
it with a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, stir it until it becomes
creamy and dip into it with a pair of small sugar tongs the half of the
walnut. Lift it out carefully and lay it on waxed paper until it is
dry.
Or you may make a fondant of another kind by mixing the white of an
egg with an equal quantity of cold water and stirring into it enough
confectioner’s sugar of the variety known as “XXX” to make a dough-like
paste that can be handled with the fingers. This may be flavored to
taste with vanilla or bitter almond, or any other extract, and formed
with the fingers into small balls. To each side of this may be pressed
the flat surface of an English walnut kernel. They may then be laid on
waxed paper in a box.
Peanut candy
Boil together two and one-half cupfuls of sugar and a gill of water,
without stirring, until a little, when dropped into cold water, can
be worked into a soft ball. Now add a tablespoonful of butter and
boil until the candy hardens when dropped into cold water. Stir in a
cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned peanuts, turn the mixture into a
buttered pan and cut into squares.
Peanut molasses candy
Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a
tablespoonful of vinegar and two of butter. When a little, dropped into
cold water, is brittle, add a cupful of shelled, roasted and skinned
peanuts, remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful (scant) of
baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.
Nougat
Boil together a pound of sugar and a half cupful of cold water until
it becomes brittle if dropped into cold water. Cover the bottom of a
well-buttered shallow tin with nut kernels—hickory, walnut and pecans,
blanched almonds, strips of cocoanut, bits of figs, dates and the like.
Add a tablespoonful of lemon juice to the candy when it is done, and
pour it over the fruit and nuts in the pan. Let it get cold and mark
into squares and strips.
Creamed burnt almonds
Put two cupfuls of granulated sugar into a saucepan with two
tablespoonfuls of water, set over the fire and stir continually with
a wooden spoon. As soon as it is well melted, move it to one side of
the fire, drop in the blanched almonds, and take them out at once with
a perforated spoon, or candy dipper. Lay them on buttered dishes to
harden.
Creamed grapes
Make a syrup of a pound of sugar and a gill of water. Boil without
stirring until a drop put into iced water becomes brittle. Remove from
the fire, set in an outer pan of boiling water, and add to the syrup
a dessertspoonful of lemon juice. Run a stiff wire or the prong of a
pickle fork through each grape, and dip them, one by one, in the hot
syrup, then lay on waxed paper to dry.
Creamed popcorn
Make a syrup as for creamed grapes in the recipe given above, but omit
the lemon juice. Drop into the syrup enough crisp popcorn to make it
thick; take out this, after stirring for half a minute, by the great
spoonful and lay on greased paper. As the mass hardens roll a spoonful
of it into a ball, then roll this over and over in freshly popped and
sugared corn, until the white kernels adhere to the sticky ball.
Popcorn balls
Make an old-fashioned molasses candy, and just before removing from the
fire, stir in enough popcorn to thicken it. Take the mixture out by the
spoonful and roll, as soon as it can be handled, into balls, then roll
these over and over in kernels of popcorn until no more will adhere to
the balls.
Sugared peanuts
Prepare as you would salted nuts, but substitute butter for oil, and
fine sugar for salt, after you have rolled the nuts in the white of an
egg, beaten light. Spread out upon white paper to dry in the sun, or in
a moderate oven.
Orange straws
Select thick-skinned oranges, and cut the peel in strips a quarter
inch wide. Have a pan of boiling water on the stove, and place as
many pieces of the peel in the water as you can easily handle. Let it
boil five minutes, drain, cover again with boiling water, boil five
minutes more, drain again, once more cover with boiling water and
boil five minutes, making fifteen in all. Drain thoroughly, then make
a syrup of one teacupful of sugar to three tablespoonfuls of water;
when this boils add the peel, and cook until this is absorbed (about
twenty minutes); remove from the pan, and, while hot, roll each straw
in granulated sugar which you have placed previously upon clean paper.
Then put each straw on paper in a pan until the bottom of the pan is
covered, and place in a warm oven until all are dry. Have the sugar
to roll the straws in and all ingredients ready before beginning the
cooking, as the straws must be handled very rapidly. They will keep for
weeks and not become sticky. One cup of sugar will do for five oranges.
Candied orange peel
When peeling the orange cut the rind into quarters, then cut into long
strips. Put into a pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and
drain. To six oranges allow one and a half cupfuls of granulated sugar
and a cupful of water; put these into a granite saucepan and bring to a
hard boil. Add the orange peel and boil down quickly, taking care not
to burn. When the liquid is almost cooked away take the saucepan off
the stove and stir in a cupful of sugar. Stir until almost cold, pick
apart with the fingers, and lay on a plate.
Candied pineapple
Peel, slice and weigh the pineapple, and allow a pound and a half of
granulated sugar to each pound of fruit. Put the fruit and sugar
together in a granite kettle and add just enough water to cover the
fruit. Boil until the fruit is tender, remove and spread on a dish
to cool while you boil the syrup until very thick. Now lay in the
pineapple; cook and stir for five minutes more, and then spread the
sliced fruit on platters until dry and “candied.”
Candied citron
Peel and core the citron and cut into strips. Weigh the fruit, and
allow a pound of sugar to each pound of the citron strips. Make a
syrup, allowing a cupful of water to each pound of sugar. Cook the
citron in this until it is tender; remove and spread on dishes. Boil in
the syrup enough ginger to give a slight flavor, and when the syrup is
very thick stir in a little lemon juice. Now lay the strips of citron
back in the syrup, and stir until candied and coated with sugar. Lay on
a platter to cool and dry.
Marshmallows
Soak four ounces of pulverized gum arabic in a teacupful of cold water
for two hours. Put into a double boiler with cold water in the outer
vessel and bring gradually to the scalding point. When the gum is
dissolved, strain through coarse muslin, return to the double boiler
with a heaping cupful of powdered sugar, and stir steadily until the
mixture is white and stiff. Remove from the fire, beat very hard for
a minute and flavor with vanilla; beat a minute longer, and pour into
tins, the insides of which have been rubbed with corn-starch. When the
paste is cool cut it into squares of uniform size and turn each of
these over and over in a mixture made of three parts corn-starch and
one part powdered sugar. Keep packed in a tin box until wanted, as they
soon dry if exposed to the air.
Peanut brittle
Boil together a cupful, each, of molasses and brown sugar, a
tablespoonful of vinegar and two tablespoonfuls of butter. When a
little dropped into cold water is brittle, add a cupful of blanched
peanuts; remove at once from the fire, add a teaspoonful of
baking-soda, beat hard, and pour into buttered pans.
Hickory nut candy