The Candy Cook Book/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII
HARD CANDIES
Brittle candies like butterscotch, barley sugar, peppermint sticks, brittles and nougats, are cooked to 290° F. or up to 330° F.
They should be thin and very brittle when finished.
Candies boiled to a high temperature and pulled must be handled with canvas gloves, in front of a warm oven or batch warmer. Much experience is required to successfully manipulate the syrup used in making Christmas and stick candies, and it will hardly pay the home candy maker to attempt them.
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- Color paste
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- Flavoring extract
Put sugar and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, add coloring if desired, cover, and boil three minutes. Remove cover, add cream of tartar, and boil to 300° F., or until it just begins to change color. Add few drops of flavoring — peppermint, lemon, or orange extract — and drop at once on tin sheet from tip of spoon, in portions the size of a silver half dollar. Store in a tight glass jar.
Prepare candy as directed in Barley Sugar Drops. Pour on tin sheet in strips four inches long and three fourths inch wide. Take up one at a time, twist, and place in covered glass jars.
- 1⅓ cups brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vinegar
- ⅔ cup butter
- ⅔ cup hot water
- ½ tablespoon vanilla
Put sugar, vinegar, butter, and water in saucepan. Stir until ingredients are mixed, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 290° F., or until candy becomes brittle when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, remove from fire, pour into a buttered pan, cool slightly, and mark in squares.
- ½ cup corn syrup
- 1½ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup butter
- ⅔ cup cold water
- ½ tablespoon vanilla
Put ingredients, except vanilla, in saucepan, and boil to 288° F., or until it cracks when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, turn into buttered tin, cool slightly, and mark in squares.
Dip marshmallows (whole or cut in halves) in Butterscotch I or II, while it is still soft. Take up with two-tined fork, and put on buttered marble slab or tin sheet.
- 1⅔ cups light brown sugar
- ⅔ cup corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- 1½ tablespoons butter
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Oil of lemon
Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil to 280° F., or until it cracks in cold water.
Add butter and salt, and boil to 290° F., or until it reaches the hard crack when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, flavor with oil of lemon, and pour out between bars on slightly moistened slab, mark in squares, and break up when cold.
- 1⅔ cups sugar
- ⅓ cup corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- 1½ tablespoons butter
- ½ tablespoon dark molasses
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Few drops oil of lemon
Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil to 270° F., or until it is brittle when tried in cold water. Add butter and molasses, and cook to 280° F., or until it cracks in cold water, stirring to prevent burning. While stirring, move the spoon over every part of the bottom of the kettle. Be careful not to stir in just one spot, thus allowing the candy to burn on the other side of the saucepan. Remove from fire, add salt, flavor with oil of lemon, and drop from tip of spoon on oiled marble slab or tin sheet in wafers the size of a quarter of a dollar.
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup white corn syrup
- ⅓ cup butter
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
Put all the ingredients, except the flavoring, in a saucepan, stir until mixed, bring to boiling point, and boil until mixture is just stiff enough to keep its shape, when a little is dropped into cold water. If it can be lifted from the water and remain in a ball when shaped with the fingers, it is done. Remove from fire, add flavoring, pour into a buttered pan, and when cool shape into small balls, and roll in powdered sugar. The candy when removed from the fire may be dropped from the tip of a spoon on an oiled marble slab or tray, into wafers the size of a quarter of a dollar. These should be loosened with a thin-bladed knife before they have time to get hard.
Follow recipe for making Cream Butterscotch Balls. When candy is removed from fire, add half a cup of walnut or pecan nut meats cut in small pieces, and proceed as in Cream Butterscotch Balls.
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 4 teaspoons vinegar or the juice of one lemon
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup English walnut meats
Heat sugar, butter, and vinegar or lemon juice over a moderate fire, stir till the sugar dissolves, then boil without stirring to 270° F., or until syrup forms a hard ball when tried in cold water. Pour carefully around and over the nuts which have been arranged in rows in buttered or oiled pans. When cold, cut in squares, leaving one nut in the center of each square.
- ½ ounce dried horehound
- 1 cup water
- 1¾ cups sugar
- ½ cup corn syrup
Put water and horehound, which may be procured of a druggist in one-ounce packages, in a saucepan and simmer half an hour. Strain through double cheesecloth; there should be half a cup of liquid. To liquid add sugar and corn syrup, and stir until mixture boils. Wash down crystals from sides of saucepan with a butter brush dipped in cold water, and boil to 295° F., or until it is very brittle when tried in cold water. Remove at once from the fire, and pour into buttered pan one fourth inch thick, or pour between candy bars.
As soon as it cools a little, loosen it from the pan, and mark in small squares. Go over the marks with a knife until candy is cold, then break with the hands.
Pack in air-tight jar, and keep in a cool place, or wrap in wax paper.
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup blanched almonds
Put two cups of sugar and half a cup of water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, bring to boiling point, put in the blanched almonds, and stir and boil to 300° F., or until there is a cracking sound, and candy begins to discolor.
Remove almonds from syrup to a buttered cake cooler. Put the remaining cup of sugar and half a cup of water in a clean saucepan, stir, and bring to boiling point; add the almonds, and stir and boil until almonds are well coated with sugar. Again drain on cake cooler, and if coating is not sufficiently thick, repeat the process again.
- ½ pound confectioners' sugar
- ¼ pound almonds, blanched and finely chopped
Put sugar in an iron frying pan, place on range, and stir constantly until melted; add almonds, and pour on an oiled marble slab. Fold mixture with a broad-bladed knife as it spreads, keeping it constantly in motion. Divide in four parts, and as soon as cool enough to handle, shape in long rolls about one third inch in diameter, keeping rolls in motion until almost cold. When cold, snap in pieces one and one half inches long. This is done by holding roll at point to be snapped over the sharp edge of a broad-bladed knife and snapping.
These pieces may be dipped in melted confectioners' chocolate. Melt chocolate over hot water, beat with a fork until light and smooth, and when slightly cooled dip pieces in chocolate, and with a two-tined fork or a bonbon dipper remove from chocolate to oiled paper, drawing dipper through top of each the entire length, thus leaving a ridge.
Drop Almond Nougat mixture from the tip of a spoon on an oiled marble slab as soon as taken from fire. These drops have a rough surface. When cold, dip in melted confectioners' chocolate, if desired.
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 quart peanuts
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Shell, remove skins, and finely chop peanuts. Sprinkle with one fourth teaspoon salt. Put sugar in hot iron frying pan, place on range, and stir constantly with wooden spoon until melted to a syrup, taking care to keep sugar from sides of pan. Add nut meats, pour at once into a warm buttered tin, or on marble slab, and mark in small squares. If sugar is not removed from range as soon as melted, it will quickly burn.
Cover the bottom of a buttered shallow pan with one and one third cups nut meats (castaneas, English walnuts, or almonds) cut in quarters. Pour over two cups sugar, melted as for Peanut Nougat. Mark in bars.
- 1½ cups shelled nuts
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- 1½ tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
Use peanuts or any other nuts desired, sprinkle with salt, and place in oven to become hot. Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until it begins to boil, wash down sides of saucepan with a wet butter brush, and cook to 295° F., or until mixture is very brittle when tried in cold water. Add butter, extract, and nuts, and turn into a buttered pan or tray. As soon as it can be handled, turn the mass over, and pull and stretch it out as thin as possible. Break in irregular pieces. In damp weather keep in covered jar that it may not become sticky.
Nut Brittle may be poured out so that it will be three fourths of an inch thick, and the top smoothed with a rolling pin. Before it cools it must be cut in pieces one inch long and three eighths of an inch wide, with a sharp knife. If it gets too cold before it is all cut, the candy may be warmed slightly by holding it over the stove.
- 1½ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup corn syrup
- ⅔ cup cold water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1½ cups shelled raw Spanish peanuts
- ½ tablespoon vanilla
- ¾ tablespoon soda
- ½ tablespoon cold water
Put sugar, corn syrup, and two thirds cup cold water in iron kettle, stir until mixture boils, cover, and boil three minutes. Remove cover, and boil to 275° F. Add butter and peanuts, and stir constantly about ten minutes, or until peanuts are cooked. Add vanilla and soda dissolved in half a tablespoon cold water. Stir until thoroughly mixed, and turn on slightly buttered marble slab or agate tray. Spread as thinly as possible, and lift constantly while cooling, using a spatula, and pull to distribute nuts evenly. Flatten with palm of hand, and break in pieces.
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1½ cups sugar
- ½ cup corn syrup
- ½ cup molasses
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup shelled peanuts
- ¼ teaspoon soda
Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, corn syrup, molasses, and water, and boil until brittle when tried in cold water. Add peanuts and soda, mix thoroughly, pour into buttered pan, and crease in squares.
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup water
- Grated rind one fourth orange
- Few grains cream of tartar
- 2 cups chopped cocoanut
- Few grains salt
Put sugar, water, and orange rind in saucepan. Stir until boiling point is reached, then add cream of tartar, and boil without stirring to 290° F., or until it will snap when tried in cold water. Add cocoanut and salt. Mix thoroughly, shape in small cones, and place on wax paper to dry.