For making candy you will need an enamel or earthenware saucepan; a long wooden spoon; one or two old soup-plates or dishes; a bowl, if there is any mixing to be done; a cup of cold water for testing; a silver knife; and, if you are not cooking in the kitchen, a piece of oil-cloth or several thicknesses of brown paper to lay on the table.

General Directions

Butter the dish into which the candy is to be poured before you begin to cook. To do this put a little piece of butter on a piece of clean soft paper and rub it all over the dish.

Always stir round the edge as well as the middle of the saucepan. Stir slowly but continually, for candy burns very quickly if left alone.

The flavoring should be added just before taking the saucepan off the fire.

To find out if your taffy or candy has boiled long enough, drop a little in the cup of cold water. If it at once becomes crisp and hard, it is done.

Before your candy is quite cold, mark it with a silver knife into squares. This will make it break up more easily and neatly when cold.

Barley Sugar

• 1 lb. powdered sugar.
• The white of an egg.
• 1/2 a pint of water.
• 1/2 a lemon.

Dissolve the sugar in the water, and add the well-beaten white of an egg (this must be done before the mixture is heated). Then put on the fire in a strong saucepan. Remove all scum as it rises, and when the syrup begins to look clear, take off the fire and strain through muslin. Put the syrup back into the saucepan and let it boil quickly until you find by testing it that it is done. Then add the juice of the lemon and pour on to a buttered dish. Before the mixture sets cut it into strips and twist.

Chocolate Caramels

• 1 tea-cup golden syrup.
• 1 tea-cup brown sugar.
• 1 tea-cup milk.
• 2 oz. butter.
• 4 oz. powdered chocolate.
• A pinch of salt.
• 16 drops vanilla.

Boil all together for half an hour, stirring continually.

Cocoanut caramels are made in the same way, except that 1 oz. of grated or desiccated cocoanut is used instead of the chocolate.

Cocoanut Cream

• 1-1/2 lb. granulated sugar.
• 4 oz. grated cocoanut.

Melt the sugar with as little water as possible. Continue to let it boil gently until the syrup begins to return to sugar again. Directly this happens put in the cocoanut and mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture into a flat dish or tin.

Cocoanut Cream (another way)

• 1 cocoanut, grated.
• 1 lb. granulated sugar.
• 1/2 a cup of cocoanut-milk.
• 1 oz. butter.

Put the sugar, cocoanut-milk, and butter into a saucepan. When they boil, add the cocoanut gradually. Boil for ten minutes, stirring all the time. Pour the mixture into a basin and beat till nearly cold, then turn out into a dish.

Cocoanut Drops

• 1/2 lb. cocoanut, grated.
• 1/2 lb. white sugar.
• The whites of 2 eggs, well beaten.

Mix well together and bake in drops on buttered paper for fifteen minutes.

Cream Caramels

• 1 tin NestlÉ's milk.
• 1 lb. soft white sugar.
• 2 oz. butter.
• Vanilla.

Melt the sugar with a very little water, and when boiling add the butter and NestlÉ's milk. Stir continually, as the mixture burns very easily, for fifteen minutes. Try in water to see if it will set. Add the vanilla, pour into a dish, and beat until nearly cold.

One ounce of cocoanut or 2 of grated chocolate can be used instead of vanilla to flavor the above.

Fruit Cream

• 1 cocoanut, grated.
• 1-1/2 lb. granulated sugar, moistened with a little cocoanut-milk.

Put the sugar in a saucepan and let it heat slowly. Then boil rapidly five minutes; add grated cocoanut, and boil ten minutes. Stir constantly. Put a little on a cold plate, and if it makes a firm paste, take from fire. Pour part of it into a large tin lined with greased paper; and add to what remains in the saucepan, chopped blanched almonds, candied cherries, nuts, etc. Pour this over the other cream, and cut in bars.

Pop-Corn

The corn has to be "popped" over a clear fire in a little iron basket with a long handle. The corn is put in the basket and shaken continually, and in time each grain pops suddenly and becomes a little irregular white ball. These can be eaten with salt, or rolled in a sweet syrup (colored and flavored as you like it best) made of 1/2 lb. of white sugar boiled for ten minutes with a very little water.

The Plainest Toffee

• 3 oz. butter.
• 1 lb. brown sugar.

Stir until done.

Another Toffee

• 1 lb. raw sugar.
• 1/2 lb. butter.
• 2 small tablespoonfuls of syrup.
• The juice of half a lemon.
• Half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and then add the sugar, syrup, and ginger. Stir continually, adding a little lemon juice every now and then. Boil for ten minutes, and then test in cold water.

Two ounces of blanched and split almonds can be added to the above. The almonds should either be mixed with the toffee just before taking it off the fire, or else a well-buttered dish should be lined with them and the toffee poured over.

To blanch almonds, put them in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Put a saucer over the bowl to keep the steam in, and leave for about three minutes. Then take out the almonds one by one and rub off their brown skins between your fingers.

Everton Toffee

• 1 lb. brown sugar.
• 1 small cup of water.
• 1/2 lb. of butter.

Boil the water and sugar together very gently until the sugar is melted. Then add the butter and boil all together for half an hour.

Molasses Candy

• 1/2 lb. molasses.
• 1/2 lb. brown sugar.
• 2 oz. butter.

Boil all together for half an hour.

Nut Candy

• 1 pint of chopped nuts.
• 1/2 lb. brown sugar.
• 3 oz. butter.
• Juice of one lemon.
• Tablespoonful of water.

Boil everything, except the nuts, for twenty minutes, stirring all the time. Test, and if done, add the nuts. Stir them in thoroughly and pour off into a dish.

Nut Candy (another way)

• 1 lb. brown sugar.
• 6 oz. butter.
• 3 oz. chopped nuts.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the sugar. Boil from ten to fifteen minutes and then add the nuts. Walnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds, or peanuts (which have been baked) may be used.

Peppermint Candy

• 1 lb. syrup.
• 2 oz. butter.
• 1 small teaspoonful of essence of peppermint.

Boil the butter and syrup very gently until the mixture hardens when tested in water. Add the peppermint and pour into well-buttered dishes.

Stuffed Dates, etc.

Very dainty and good sweets can be made without cooking at all. All that is necessary is to have a certain amount of cream with which to stuff or surround stoned dates, cherries, and French plums, or walnuts and almonds.

The cream is made in this way. Put the white of an egg and one tablespoonful of water into a bowl, and into this stir gradually 1 lb. of confectioner's sugar (confectioner's sugar or "icing" is the only kind that will do), working it very smooth with a spoon. This will make a stiff paste, which can be moulded into whatever shape you please. The cream can then be divided into different portions, and each portion flavored as you like best. A few drops of vanilla or lemon juice, a little grated cocoanut or chocolate, or some pounded almonds, make excellent flavorings. Part of it can be colored pink with cochineal, or green with spinach-coloring. When this is done, stone some dates, French plums, or raisins, or blanch some almonds and slit them in two, or have ready a number of the dried walnuts which can be bought at any grocer's. Only the perfect halves must be used. Form some of the cream into little balls and put it between two walnut halves or two almond halves, or stuff the other fruit with it. Trim all the sweets very neatly with a knife and roll them in granulated sugar. This is prettier when it has been colored pink or green, but there is no necessity to do so.

To color the sugar, mix about 1 oz. with a few drops of green or pink coloring; dry it thoroughly, and, if the grains are not quite free, put the sugar between some paper and roll it, or crush with an iron.

Another richer mixture for filling dates, etc., can be made as follows:—Mix 1/2 lb. of ground almonds with 1 oz. of ground pistachios. Beat the whites of 3 eggs to a stiff froth and add the almonds and 1/2 lb. of confectioner's sugar. Color with green. Almonds can be bought already ground.

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