The Candy Cook Book/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II
UNCOOKED CANDIES
For inexperienced candy makers, and the children who want to make their own sweets, there are several varieties of uncooked candy that can hardly fail to come out successfully.
Confectioners' sugar, which is finer than powdered sugar, must be used where called for, or the candies will not harden properly. This sugar should be kept in a closely covered jar or pail and be sifted before using, to free it from lumps. If the lumps are very hard, a large sheet of clean paper should be spread on the table and the sugar rolled on it with a rolling pin until smooth, then sifted through a fine sieve.
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- Flavors
- Colors
Put cream and light-colored corn syrup in a bowl, add sifted sugar gradually, stirring until smooth, and add as much sugar as is necessary to make a stiff paste. Add flavoring or coloring as desired and use as a filling for dates, fruits, nuts, or as centers for bonbons or chocolates.
It may be warmed (but not made hot) over hot water, and nuts, cherries, grapes, sections of orange, and fondant centers be dipped in it. It will have to be kept over the hot water, stirred constantly, and frequently put for a few moments over the fire. See directions for dipping on page 94.
- White 1 egg
- 1/2 tablespoon cold water
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
Put egg white, water, and flavoring in a bowl, and beat until well blended. Sift sugar and add one spoonful at a time, stirring until well mixed, before each addition. Continue adding a spoonful at a time until mixture is very stiff, then take out on a board, and knead with the hands until perfectly smooth. Use as stuffing for dates, for nut creams, or for centers for chocolates and bonbons.
Fondant may be colored by the addition of pink, green, yellow, lavender, or orange color paste, and other flavors may be used instead of vanilla.
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- Almonds
- Fondant
- Plain or colored granulated sugar
Blanch almonds (see page 166), and place one on each side of a small ball of fondant, or cover almonds with fondant, shape like a very small egg, and roll in granulated sugar.
- Fondant
- Candied cherries
Take fondant, cooked or uncooked, of any color or flavor, roll out one eighth inch thick, shape with round cutter one and one half inches in diameter, and roll around cherry, leaving a small portion exposed. Place in paper cases. Vanilla, coffee, and pistachio fondant look particularly well with the cherries.
Select as many firm, smooth, candied cherries as are desired. Cut each cherry, starting at the open end, into four sections, and separate into petals. Make a tiny hole at the other end, and insert a strip of angelica one and one half inches long for a stem. Place a small ball of fondant between the petals, and arrange on a doily, or use on top of a box of bonbons.
Cut candied cherries almost in two; between the halves of each cherry place a flat ball of fondant, press together gently, and roll in coarse granulated sugar.
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- Lavender color paste
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- ½ teaspoon violet essence or vanilla
- 1 cup shredded cocoanut
Color the heavy cream a deep shade of lavender, add flavoring and cocoanut, and let stand ten minutes. Then add sifted sugar, heat over hot water until softened, and drop from the tip of a fork on wax paper, in rough balls the size of a chocolate cream. Leave until firm. Color paste may be omitted, or other colors may be used instead of lavender.
- 2 tablespoons ground coffee
- 4 tablespoons water
- 1½ cups confectioners' sugar
Put water and coffee in a saucepan, bring to the boiling point, boil two minutes, and strain through double cheesecloth. Add sufficient confectioners' sugar to stiffen, and knead until smooth. Use for walnut, pecan, or cherry creams, as centers for chocolates or bonbons, or roll out one fourth inch thick, cut with a small round cutter, and roll in granulated sugar.
- Dates
- Fondant
- Chopped nuts
Wash dates and remove stones. Fondant, either cooked or uncooked, may be used. Flavor and color fondant as desired, roll in small cylinders, put into the dates where the stone was removed, and roll in granulated sugar. Pile on a bonbon dish, or pack in layers in a candy box with waxed paper between each layer. Chopped nuts may be mixed with the fondant, or the edge of the fondant projecting from the date may be dipped in chopped nuts.
- 7 ounces sweet coating chocolate
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup English walnut meats
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
Melt chocolate over hot water, add butter, sugar, yolks of eggs beaten until thick and lemon colored, whites of eggs beaten stiff, walnuts cut in pieces, and vanilla. Spread in buttered pan, and when firm cut in squares. This fudge is always soft and creamy.
- 2 tablespoons ginger syrup
- Confectioners' sugar
- 4 tablespoons chopped preserved ginger
Mix syrup from a jar of preserved ginger with two tablespoons of the chopped ginger, and add sifted confectioners' sugar until stiff enough to knead. Knead until smooth, shape in small balls, and decorate with small pieces of preserved ginger.
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Few drops lemon extract
- Sifted confectioners' sugar
- Yellow color paste
Mix lemon juice and extract, and add sugar slowly until stiff enough to knead, adding color paste to make a delicate yellow. Knead with the hands until smooth, roll one fourth inch thick, and cut out with a small round cutter.
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 6 tablespoons chopped nuts
Put maple syrup in a small bowl, add sifted confectioners' sugar a tablespoon at a time, stirring until smooth, and adding sufficient sugar to make candy stiff. Knead until smooth. Shape in small balls, and roll in nut meats.
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons boiling water
- Confectioners' sugar
- Few drops maraschino or vanilla
- Nuts
Put corn syrup, boiling water, and one fourth cup sifted confectioners' sugar in a saucepan or bowl, and stir until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Then add another quarter cup of sugar, and beat vigorously until thick and smooth. Continue adding sugar, one fourth cup at a time, and beating between each addition of sugar, until about two cups of sugar have been used. Flavor with maraschino cordial or vanilla. This frosting should be kept at an even, lukewarm temperature while it is being made, and the saucepan or bowl should be frequently placed in a larger bowl of hot water. The beating of this frosting should continue for about twenty minutes.
Dip walnuts, filberts, Brazil nuts, or hickory nuts, one at a time, into the frosting, and remove with a fork or candy dipper to an oiled marble slab or to waxed paper.
- Grated rind ½ orange
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Yolk 1 egg
- 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
Before cutting the orange, wipe carefully, and grate the yellow part only from the skin; then cut the orange in two and extract the juice.
Mix rind and fruit juice, let stand ten minutes, and strain. Add slowly to the egg yolk, and when well mixed add sugar gradually until stiff enough to knead. Knead until smooth, and use for date, nut, prune, or cherry creams, or for centers of chocolates or bonbons.
- Large prunes
- Orange juice
- Orange fondant or orange cream
- Granulated sugar
Wash prunes, soak until plump in orange juice to cover, then steam until soft. Drain, remove stones, fill prunes with fondant rolled into balls a little larger than a prune stone, close the prunes, and roll in granulated sugar.
- White 1 egg
- ½ tablespoon cold water
- 2 drops oil of peppermint
- Confectioners' sugar
Put white of egg, cold water, and peppermint in a bowl, beat until very light, and add sugar a tablespoon at a time, beating between each addition, until mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape. Reserve one third of the mixture, and add sugar slowly to the remainder until it is stiff enough to knead. Work it with the hands until smooth, put on a board, roll out one eighth inch thick, and cut with a small round cutter. Decorate with the remaining mixture, colored pink, blue, lavender, yellow, or green, forced through paper tubes, making tiny roses, forget-me-nots, violets, or sweet peas, with stems and leaves on each mint, as described in Chapter XV.
Children will amuse themselves for hours making original designs with different colored frostings, and will exhibit their results with the greatest pride at the close of the happy afternoon. Half a dozen paper cones may be provided as described on page 194, and filled with different colored frostings. If color pastes are not at hand, a bit of melted chocolate may be used in one portion, the yolk of an egg in another; a color tablet from a box of gelatine, dissolved in a few drops of water, will answer very well to color a third portion.
- 1 medium sized potato
- 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
- 2 cups shredded cocoanut
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Chocolate
Cook potato in boiling water until soft, and force through a coarse sieve or a potato ricer. There should be half a cup of potato. To this add sugar, cocoanut, and vanilla, working together until well mixed. Press one inch thick into small bread pan, and spread top with a thin layer of melted bitter chocolate or sweet chocolate. When chocolate is firm, cut in small squares.
This can be varied by using nuts or fruits instead of cocoanut.
- ½ cup strawberries
- Sifted confectioners' sugar
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
Wash and hull strawberries, sprinkle with half a cup of confectioners' sugar, and let stand half an hour. Mash, rub through a fine sieve, add lemon juice, and stir in, a tablespoon at a time, enough more confectioners' sugar to make mixture stiff enough to shape. Make into small balls, and roll in granulated sugar, or roll out in a sheet one fourth inch thick, cut with small round cutter, and roll in sugar, or dip in melted coating chocolate.
Other fruit, or syrup from a well-flavored jar of fruit, may be used instead of strawberries.
- Fondant
- English walnut meats
Use any of the recipes for cooked or uncooked fondant, color and flavor as desired, shape in small balls, using one tablespoon of fondant for each ball. Press half of a walnut meat firmly on each side, and roll edges in granulated sugar, either plain or colored.
Maple, vanilla, or coffee flavor are good, or raspberry flavor and pink color paste may be used.
Follow recipe for Walnut Creams, using pecan nut meats in place of walnuts.