Part 23 (1/2)

Margaret did not wait till she reached the recipes for candy at the back of her book before she began to make it. She made it all the way along, whenever another little girl came to spend the afternoon, or it was such a rainy day that she could not go out. Nearly always she made mola.s.ses candy, because it was such fun to pull it, and she used the same rule her mother used when she was a little girl.

Mola.s.ses Candy

2 cups New Orleans mola.s.ses.

1 cup white sugar.

1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter.

1 tablespoonful vinegar.

1 small teaspoonful soda.

Boil hard twenty minutes, stirring all the time, and cool in shallow pans. If you double the rule you must boil the candy five minutes longer.

The best thing about this candy is that it does not stick to the fingers, if you let it get quite cool before touching it, and pull it in small quant.i.ties. Do not put any b.u.t.ter on your fingers, but work fast.

Maple Wax

Boil two cups of maple syrup till it hardens when dropped in cold water. Fill a large pan with fresh snow, pack well; keep the kettle on the back of the stove, where the syrup will be just warm, but will not cook, and fill a small pitcher with it, and pour on the snow, a little at a time. Take it off in small pieces with a fork. If there is no snow, use a cake of ice.

Peanut Brittle

Make the mola.s.ses candy given above, and stir in a large cup of sh.e.l.led peanuts just before taking it from the fire. Put in shallow, b.u.t.tered pans.

Peppermint Drops

1 cup sugar.

2 tablespoonfuls of water.

3 teaspoonfuls of peppermint essence.

Boil the sugar and water till when you drop a little in water it will make a firm ball in your fingers. Then take it off the fire and stir in the peppermint, and carefully drop four drops, one exactly on top of another, on a b.u.t.tered platter. Do not put these too near together.

Pop-corn b.a.l.l.s

Make half the rule for mola.s.ses candy. Pop a milk-can full of corn, and pour in a little candy while it is hot; take up all that sticks together and roll in a ball; then pour in more, and so on.

Maple Fudge

3 cups brown sugar.

2 cups maple syrup.

1 cup of milk.

1/2 cup of water.

b.u.t.ter the size of an egg.

1 cup English walnut meats, or hickory-nuts.

Boil the sugar and maple syrup till you can make it into a very soft ball when you drop it in water; only half as hard as you boil mola.s.ses candy. Then put in the milk, water, and b.u.t.ter, and boil till when you try in water it makes quite a firm ball in your fingers.