“Sugar clogs the system. It hinders the working of the living machine.”
Children are not naturally fond of sweets, but with few exceptions
their taste has been educated to them from the cradle. I have known
children who were so unaccustomed to candies that if they were given
them they would merely play with them, never thinking of putting them
into their mouths, and others who would say when a sweet dessert was
given them, “I don’t like that, it is too sweet.”
Much life-long suffering would be avoided if children were given
plenty of good ripe fruit, sweet and sour, instead of confections. If,
however, it seems best sometimes to make something in this line, select
the simplest and least harmful.
=Stuffed Dates=
Mix unsalted roasted nut butter with powdered sugar and a little
vanilla, form into pieces the size and shape of date stones and put
inside each date; roll in sugar or not, serve on grape or maple leaves.
Serve with wafers, or with rolls and cereal coffee, sometimes.
Almond or Brazil nut butter may be used instead of peanut butter, and
rose or other flavoring. Grated cocoanut may be mixed with the almond
butter. Fill the dates with marshmallow paste for Marshmallow Dates.
=Cream Stuffed Dates=
Make a roll the size of the stone of confection cream and insert in
date. The roll may be larger and allowed to show in the opening.
=Stuffed Figs=
Stuff pulled figs by removing the inside and mixing it with sweetened
and flavored nut butter or with coarse chopped English walnuts,
almonds and pecans, one or all, and replacing in the skin.
Pile in the center of a dessert plate and surround with sticks or
beaten biscuit. Serve with or without cereal coffee.
=Stuffed Prunes=
Soak and steam choice, plump California prunes until tender, cover
close until cool, remove stones and fill space with a paste made
by kneading together almond butter, white of egg and powdered or
confectioner’s sugar.
=Sweetmeats--Fruits and Nuts=
1 part each Brazil nuts, almonds and hickory nuts or filberts or
English walnuts, and 1 or 2 parts raisins, figs or dates. Grind fruit
through finest cutter of mill and mix with nut butter or meal or
chopped nuts. Form into caramel shape, small rolls or cones, or into
a large roll and slice. Two or more of the sweet fruits may be used,
sometimes a little citron. Or, 3 parts chopped hickory nut meats, 2
parts figs and other fruits.
=A Sweetmeat--Fruits=
1 lb. each of figs, from which the stems and hard part have been cut,
stoned dates and raisins; mix and grind through food cutter; sprinkle
board with confectioner’s sugar, knead mixture, roll to ½ in. thick,
cut into any desired shape and size and roll in sugar.
=Kisses=
Whites of 6 eggs, 1 cup powdered sugar. Beat the whites of eggs with
a little salt, adding the sugar gradually while whipping until the
mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape; add flavoring if desired and
drop by spoonfuls on to paraffine paper laid on boards of a size to
fit the oven, or on baking tins. Dry in warm oven for about an hour,
then brown slightly. If the oven is too warm, they may now be put into
the warming oven or on a shelf over the stove until thoroughly dried.
If the kisses stick to the paper, turn them over and moisten the paper
slightly and they will come off in a little while.
=Cocoanut Candy=
2 cups granulated sugar, ½ cup milk, 1 cup shredded cocoanut. Boil
sugar and milk together for 4 m., add cocoanut, flavor to taste and
cool in buttered tins.
=Candy Puffs=
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
whites 2 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts
flavoring
Boil sugar and water till they spin a heavy thread, then pour the
syrup over the stiffly-beaten whites of the eggs, stirring constantly.
When all the syrup is in, beat until the mass begins to harden; add
flavoring and nuts, mix thoroughly and place by teaspoonfuls on
buttered plates.
=Confection, or Bonbon Cream=
Beat the white of an egg to a stiff froth, add gradually 8 tablespns.
sifted powdered sugar, beat well together and flavor with vanilla or
any desired flavoring. Or, one half its bulk of water may be added to
the white of egg without beating, with enough confectioner’s sugar to
make stiff enough to mold into balls. Different colors and flavorings
may be used in cream.
=Nut Creams=
Halve English walnut or pecan meats and put confection cream between
the halves; press together and set away to harden.
=★ Confection Potatoes=
Add a little cocoanut to second confection cream, and form into small
potato shapes, making dents for eyes; roll in fine powdered coriander
or anise seed, or in brown sugar with a little anise mixed with it.
=Marshmallows=
4 oz. gum arabic
1 cup water
1¼ cup powdered sugar
whites of 3 eggs
2 teaspns. orange flower water or 1 of vanilla
corn starch
confectioner’s sugar
Another recipe gives 2 cups powdered sugar and the white of 1 egg only,
with the other ingredients.
Soak the gum arabic in the water until soft, strain into inner cup of
double boiler, add sugar and cook, stirring until thick and white. Try
in ice water and when it will form a firm, not hard, ball, remove from
the fire and chop and beat in the stiffly-whipped whites of the eggs
with the flavoring. Turn the paste into a shallow pan covered thick
with corn starch, leaving it 1 inch in thickness. When cool or in about
12 hours, cut into inch cubes, dust with confectioner’s sugar and pack
in boxes. Marshmallows are better to be made as soft as they can be
handled.
=Old Fashioned Molasses Candy=
2 cups molasses, 2 cups granulated sugar, 1 tablespn. butter. Boil
over not too hot fire until a little will harden as soon as it drops
into cold water. Pour into buttered tins and pull when cool enough to
handle. Candy may have hickory nut or black walnut meats pressed into
it when partly cooled, without pulling.
The most important thing for the candy is to get a good flavored
molasses. The real Porto Rico is best. Do not be induced to add soda to
the syrup. It spoils the rich golden color which belongs to molasses
candy, besides making it more unwholesome. Brush the kettle with butter
before putting ingredients in.
=Everton Taffy=
1 large cup New Orleans molasses
1½ cup lightest brown sugar
½ cup butter
1 teaspn. vanilla
Boil until a little dropped in water will make fine, brittle threads;
pour into buttered pans ¼-⅓ in. thick and cut in squares.
=Lemon Taffy--to pull=
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespns. lemon juice
2 or 3 drops lemon extract
Boil sugar and water until nearly done; add lemon juice and cook until
a little will harden in cold water; flavor and turn on to buttered
plate. Fold the edges toward the center as they cool and pull as soon
as cool enough to handle.
=Penosia=
3 cups light brown sugar
1 cup milk or cream
1 tablespn. butter
1 lb. English walnuts (1½ cup chopped)
1 teaspn. vanilla
Shell, blanch and chop the walnuts; boil sugar and milk until syrup
will harden when dropped into water but will not become brittle; just
before it is done, add the butter and vanilla; then the chopped nuts,
stirring them in well; pour into buttered pans and with sharp knife
mark off the squares. Cool.
Another recipe says dark brown sugar and ½ cup only of cream.
=Lozenges--Wintergreen or Peppermint=
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup water
4-6 drops true oil of wintergreen, or 3 drops oil of peppermint
Boil sugar and water rapidly for 5 m. after they begin to boil, add
the flavoring and remove from the fire. Stir briskly until the mixture
begins to thicken and to have a whitish appearance, then drop on to a
cold tin dish, oiled paper or a marble slab as fast as possible, in as
large or small lozenges as desired. If the mixture hardens too rapidly,
set the dish in a pan of hot water. Do not place the lozenges so close
that they will run together. The wintergreen drops may be tinted pink
with fruit color.
=Maple Candy Cream=
3 cups grated maple sugar
1 cup cream
1 teaspn. butter
Boil all together for 12 m., pour into another dish, stir until mixture
thickens, pour into buttered tins and cut in squares.
=Hoarhound Candy=
3 cups water, 2 oz. dried hoarhound, 3 lbs. (2¼ qts.) brown sugar.
Steep the dried herb in the water for a half hour; strain, add the
sugar and boil until a little will harden when dropped in cold water;
pour on to buttered tins and when sufficiently cool cut into sticks
with oiled knife.