“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–? 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.