For real success in candy-making the amateur needs a few small utensils similar to those that have long been used by confectioners. The advice which follows can be as well applied to old-fashioned candy making as to the new sort.

A copper bon-bon dipper, really nothing more than wire twisted so as to outline a spoon, will be found convenient for any sort of dipping likely to be attempted in the home kitchen. The wire dipper is a much more satisfactory tool than a silver fork, the implement usually recommended for this purpose.

Get fourteen inches of copper wire—preferably number eighteen—heavy enough to bear a few ounces of weight without bending, but soft enough to be shaped easily by the fingers. A quarter-pound spool should not cost over ten cents. Grasp the wire five inches from one end and bend it double at that point. The double strand—which makes the handle—will then be five inches long, and the single four. Out of this single strand, beginning half an inch from the end of the doubled strand, form a loop three-quarters of an inch long. Twisting the wire round the forefinger or a small empty spool will make the loop. Wind the two inches of wire left free about the two parallel strands, carrying it up as far as it will reach.

This skeleton spoon is excellent for dipping bon-bons, fruits or nuts. To hold objects of different sizes, the soft copper wire may be bent easily; and in this respect the home-made dippers are better than the nickeled ones on the market. For dipping creams into chocolate, this dipper is probably the best device which is available for the amateur.

Another help is the so-called rubber mat, useful for modeling wafers and centers. This is nothing more than a sheet of heavy rubber fabric, stamped so that molds are formed. Before using, place the mat in cold water, dry, and then pour the fondant into the depressions until they are entirely filled. When the fondant is dry enough to hold its form, the mat is turned upside down, and the wafers and centers easily freed. After being washed in cold water and carefully dried, the mat is ready for use again.

The advantage of the mat is that all the candies are of the same size and regular in shape, and that no material is wasted. For the girl who intends to get only one mat, the kind with round molds—"truncated cones," to be accurate—is the best to buy, because it may be used equally well for centers or wafers. See Fig. 1 above.

The candy-maker who is prepared to spend more for her equipment may well buy several mats, each with molds of different shapes. Then she should reserve one shape for each flavoring or mixture, so that she can easily distinguish by sight different kinds of creams after they are made. The mats are sold by weight, generally at the rate of a dollar and a half a pound. The one shown in Fig. 1 weighs eighteen ounces.

Either to fill molds or to drop masses upon slabs or waxed paper in the old way, the candy-maker will find a dropping funnel useful. This is a small tin cornucopia with a long handle. Whittle a clean stick so that one end of it will fit into the outlet of the funnel, and plug the hole from above. Fill the funnel with the mass to be dropped, and then raise the stick just long enough to allow enough of the mass to run out to fill the mold—or if the old plan is followed, to form a wafer or cream of proper size. See Fig. 2, on the preceding page.

Intelligent operation of the funnel makes the work more rapid and accurate, and the mass holds its heat longer, and is kept better mixed than if poured or spooned from a dish. Funnels especially made for this purpose cost from twenty-five cents to one dollar; but any tinsmith can easily make one out of an eight-inch piece of heavy tin, shaped so as to form a cornucopia, with the smaller opening not more than three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and attached to a handle at least twelve inches long.

For heating mixtures, white enamel dishes are preferable to tin or aluminum. For mixing, wooden spoons are better than metal ones, because the mass which is being stirred does not stick so readily. Wooden paddles are often better yet, for their flat surfaces do not retain masses so tenaciously.

Perhaps the most useful tool of all is a nameless instrument which does duty for both knife and spoon, and in addition has virtues all its own. It is particularly valuable for reaching the corners of pans. This tool is not on the general market, but can be made by most metal-workers—either tinsmiths or blacksmiths. A piece of spring steel, about ten inches long, rounded at the end, and curved as shown in Fig. 3, is riveted into a wooden handle. Heavy tin may be substituted for the steel, if desired.

A molasses-candy or taffy pull without a hook may be good fun, but it is hard on the candy as well as on the hands. A blacksmith can easily make the hook of round iron, about a half-inch in diameter and eighteen or twenty inches long. The rod should be bent until it forms roughly a letter J, with the tip about seven inches from the horizontal line. The top—the upper part of the horizontal line of the J—should be pounded flat, and two holes bored for screws.

Be sure to attach the hook to the wall firmly, and about level with the shoulders. Hooks may be purchased for about fifty cents apiece, but those made by the blacksmith will do as well. Even with the hook, it is well to wear canvas gloves, so that the mass can be handled hotter, and in a more hygienic fashion than with bare hands. Canvas gloves are easily laundered—something which cannot be said of the expensive buckskin gloves recommended for this purpose.

For use in "cutting in" fondant and other small masses it is well to buy a four inch wall paper knife—a tool which can be bought for from ten to twenty-five cents. Fondant should never be beaten, but instead it should be "cut in." This process is scraping up the whole mass, folding it over and cutting through with the knife. This motion is repeated, from each side of the pan, until the fondant becomes a ball which can be kneaded by the hand.

Procure smooth iron bars, two fifteen inches long and two eighteen inches long, all three-eighths of an inch thick and two inches wide. Any blacksmith shop can furnish them at slight expense, or they may be purchased more cheaply from the confectioner's supply stores. The bars are to be placed—set on edge—in the form of a rectangle on a marble slab. Be sure that the bars are carefully smoothed, for otherwise they will be untidy and soon rust. By lapping the edges and moving the bars back and forth, a receptacle of any size desired can be made. After buttering slab and bars, pour the candy into the enclosure. When it has cooled, remove the bars, and with one sharp incision cut the candy clear across. Use a sharp knife of uniform thickness and width, preferably with a thin blade.

It is also convenient to have two bars six inches long. They are useful in dividing a batch when different flavors or colors are used. The partitions will be useful for dividing the filling from the outside layers when a three-storied candy is to be made.

The need for these bars comes from the fact that one should never cut candy in a pan. The attempt to do so will always result in pieces with crumbling edges, as the knife has to be dragged through the candy instead of cutting down sharply, and as the sides of the pan allow no room for the expansion which the width of the knife will cause. Moreover, there is always waste in the corners and at the sides.

The candy-maker should appreciate the palette knife. The flexibility of the blade is such that it can be put to many uses for which the ordinary knife is unfitted. For instance, with a palette knife it is possible to coax refractory substances from the corners and edges of pans. Because of this flexibility, it is particularly useful in lifting modeled forms from a flat surface, as is explained in Chapter VIII.

To the confectioner, one of the most useful tools is a modeling stick. This small tool is of great value to the candy-maker. It can be grasped easily and its shape allows of its use at many angles that would be inconvenient or impossible for a less adaptable tool. The roundness of the blunt end serves many purposes; the straighter side is particularly useful for smoothing off work, and the inside curves lend themselves to a great number of processes.

Wire screens, often known as "wire baking forms," are very useful for drying candies that have been sugared or for draining confections that need to be exposed to the air. Those that are oblong in shape are much more convenient than the round ones. The wires forming the screens cross at distances of about one-sixteenth of an inch, making really a coarse sieve. The sides extend up about one-half inch. The screens make excellently ventilated trays, but for candies that come from an ordinary crystal the mesh is too fine to allow proper draining. Should the crystal be very thin, however, the screen can be used for draining, provided the pieces are well separated and placed only one layer deep.

Wire racks for the drying of candy are among the necessary equipment of the candy-maker. These may be had in varying degrees of fineness, the wires forming squares of from three-eighths to three-quarters of an inch. Squares of one-half inch and under give the best support for confections, however, and allow ample room for draining. If the candies are small or soft the large squares give insufficient support. The racks are without sides, the edges being formed either by a heavy wire or a metal binding. The supports are made by wires bent down at the ends and at the center. These racks are the same as the "cake coolers" of ordinary cookery.

Another method of drying particularly useful for models and cream centers is a bed of corn starch. Do not use this plan with any confection the surface of which is wet from the application of pastes.

As the basis for this process buy two or three packages of a cheap grade of corn starch. The corn starch can be kept ready for use by occasionally drying it out and sifting it.

Spread the corn starch in a large shallow pan or tray thick enough to hold the weight of your candy. This gives a non-resisting surface which keeps the models in form and when dry the corn starch will easily brush off.

By all odds the most valuable tool for the confectioner, amateur or professional, is the candy thermometer. Its use is so important that the following chapter is devoted to a discussion of it.