Part 3

This whole operation, after you set the cream over on the table to commence dipping, must be done very rapidly, and you will soon learn to drop these centers in, lift them out, lay them on the paper, and make designs, with almost =one continual motion=, which is very necessary, as the bon-bons harden in a few seconds after lifting them out of the cream, and must be dropped from the fork very quickly or they will stick. You must stir this cream with a spoon occasionally while dipping, and it is necessary each time you throw a center in, to break this crust with the dipping fork first. When your cream commences to thicken so that they do not drop readily from the fork, add a few drops of cold water and stir it in well, and continue the dipping. If you have had it off the stove for quite a while, it is better to set it back until the water under it boils again, then add a little cold water, take it off, and continue the dipping. In dropping these off the fork, press it down so that your bon-bon will touch the paper, when it will stick a little, and you can easily lift your fork up. On these pink bon-bons, a little of the finely chopped pistachio nuts sprinkled over them, and pressed down slightly so that it will stick, makes them look very pretty. This must be done immediately after lifting the fork as they will harden in a few seconds.

In coating the oblong centers, when you lift the fork, simply allow the cream that comes up with it to drop back on the bon-bon, then quickly lay on the half of an English walnut and press it down a very little. These bon-bons do not stick to this wax paper a particle and are =set= perfectly in a few moments after dipping them. They should be perfectly smooth all over, and very glossy, and will be like this if you have your bon-bon cream the right consistency when dipping them.

All bon-bons are coated in the same manner, and after you have tried it once or twice it will be very easy, and you will be able to dip a great many of them in a few moments, as you must necessarily work rapidly after your cream is once melted up. These are the swellest bon-bons made, and putting the chopped fruit and nuts in the center in this manner, and dipping them as directed, seals them up perfectly air-tight, and consequently they will keep for quite a while. You may use any combination of nuts or fruit that you wish in these centers, but always put in enough of either in order to have them taste sufficiently. We will now give a few ideas in regard to making other colored and flavored bon-bons, but if you have any ideas of your own you may adopt them.

Many candy makers make fine cream, but spoil it when melting the same because no matter how good the cream is, it can be spoiled when a little too much heat is applied. It is also a great mistake to reheat the cream more than once without getting it too watery and it will then dry out in a short time.

There is no dipping cream made that will keep the gloss for any length of time.

Do not attempt to make bon-bons at night, because it is difficult to get the colors the right shade. A color may look dainty at night, but be hideous in day time, especially yellow and lavender. Colors and flavors should be delicate as the taste of the candy seems to improve with its appearance. When adding colors always add a little at a time. More may be added but none can be taken out.

You will find from experience that it will always be necessary to melt more fondant than you will need to coat the centers you have made, because you must have a certain amount in the double boiler in order to dip them successfully. As you get to the bottom you will find it thickens very quickly and you will have to add more water. Do not get into the habit of adding too much water while dipping the bon-bons as it will spoil their looks; it is liable to dilute the coating so that it will not be hard enough.

If you have melted too much it is not wasted. Have some shelled nuts ready and coat them after you have finished with the centers, or flavor the remaining cream with either peppermint or wintergreen, as these flavors will kill any flavor that you have used. With a spoon, drop it on wax paper in wafers.

If, after you have centers for chocolate coating and do not wish to coat all that you have made, they may be dipped in melted fondant the same as any other center.

If bon-bons become soft when brought into a warm room, it indicates that too much water was used when dissolving the fondant, or it was not heated enough.

LEMON FIG BON-BONS.

Use chopped figs to mix with bon-bon cream for centers, and cut them oblong shape and coat with bon-bon cream, flavored with lemon and colored yellow. You will find Burnett’s Golden Yellow Paste makes a beautiful color. It is better to make this color in the daytime, as it is very difficult to get the desired shade at night. You must get your coating a pretty deep shade of yellow or it will not show up well on the bon-bons. Either an English walnut, or pecan, are very pretty on this bon-bon, and be sure to put it on just after you drop it from the fork, in order to have it stick.

NECTAR BON-BONS.

Make same as others, using chopped pecans with bon-bon cream for the centers, and flavor slightly with nectar while kneading it. Roll it into small balls and coat with bon-bon cream colored pale green, and flavored with nectar.

VIOLET BON-BONS.

Use any kind of chopped nuts to mix with bon-bon cream for centers, flavor slightly with violet if you have it, if not you may use nectar or vanilla. Make them round and coat with violet colored and flavored bon-bon cream. You will find when you are using violet colored cream with which to dip them, that by adding a small amount of the Damask Rose coloring to the cream after you get it a good violet shade, it will make them much prettier, as the violet shade will be a little brighter, more on the lavender order.

PISTACHIO BON-BONS.

Use almond paste mixed with bon-bon cream for the centers, and do not use any flavoring, as the almond paste flavors it. Use about one-third as much paste as you do cream, in making the centers. It will be necessary to use more XXXX sugar in these than it is in the ones with nuts in, to enable you to get them stiff enough to retain their shape after cutting them in squares. Cut them in small squares as directed in first bon-bon recipe, and as soon as they dry a little, coat them in plain white bon-bon cream, flavored slightly with either pistachio or almond flavor, and put one-half of a pistachio nut or small piece of angelique on the top. Of course you may use any kind of nut on these if you have not the ones mentioned, but the green and white make a very pretty combination. These bon-bons are very fine and will keep for a long time. This same center, coated with bon-bon cream which has been colored a Mandarin Yellow (Burnett’s), makes a very pretty bon-bon.

COATED CHERRIES.

Take as large and as round candied cherries as possible, and coat them in the same manner as you do the other centers, using a rose colored and flavored bon-bon cream for the coating and sprinkle chopped pistachio nuts on top, or leave them plain if desired. These makes a delicious bon-bon, but will not keep as long as the others, as the coating becomes hard in a few days, whereas it does not on the ones with the chopped fruit or nut centers.

ORIENTAL JELLY OR FIG PASTE BON-BONS.

Buy some fig paste, or Oriental jelly, as it is similar, at any candy store, cut it in small pieces, and coat with any desired color or flavor of bon-bon cream you wish, or you may leave the pieces large and coat them, and when they are cool cut them in two with a sharp knife, and they make a very pretty bon-bon.

MARSHMALLOW BON-BONS.

Buy some marshmallows, as that is much cheaper and easier than making them, and coat with bon-bon cream same as other centers, and unless you are able to buy the very small marshmallows, it is best to cut them in pieces before coating them. You may color the coating in any manner you wish. Blanch a few almonds, split them open, and put a half of one on the top of each bon-bon as soon as dipped, putting the flat side of the nut up, or you may leave them perfectly plain if you prefer to.

MAPLE BON-BONS.

Mix chopped nuts with either maple or white bon-bon cream for the centers, cut in oblong pieces, and coat with maple bon-bon cream, putting either a half of a pecan or English walnut on top of each. In melting your cream for the coating, it requires no coloring or flavoring but simply use it just as it is, and this really makes the finest bon-bon there is made.

COCOANUT BON-BONS.

Mix fresh grated cocoanut with bon-bon cream for your centers, mould in balls, and coat same as others. Flavor and color coating as you wish, and as a great many prefer these and other cocoanut bon-bons coated with chocolate colored coating, you may do that by simply adding enough melted chocolate to your bon-bon cream after it is melted up to give it the desired color. These make a very nice bon-bon, but I will tell you later on how to make a cocoanut center which is far ahead of these, but a little more trouble.

NUT BON-BONS.

Take either English walnuts, pecans, or Brazil nuts, and coat them with bon-bon cream same as you do the other centers. You may use any flavor or color coating desired, but I think that the lemon flavored coating tastes the best on these nuts. Of course, if you use maple cream with which to coat nuts, they are much nicer.

Dates, with the seeds removed and then rolled up together, coated in the same manner, are very nice, and if you take a sharp knife and cut them in two diagonally after coating them, they look very pretty.

CREAM WAFERS.

All kinds of cream wafers, such as peppermint, wintergreen, chocolate, and also maple, are made from bon-bon cream. Take the desired amount of fondant and put it in the double boiler, set it on the fire, keep stirring it, and when it has melted, flavor and color as you wish.

If you make peppermint wafers, leave it just a plain white. In wintergreen wafers, add a small amount of damask rose coloring, to make them a delicate pink.

If your cream is not thin enough to drop off the spoon readily, you may add a few drops of water, then drop out on wax paper in small patties about as large as a half dollar. In dropping them out, if you have no funnel, you may use the spoon with which you stirred the cream, and try to take just enough each time on the spoon to make one wafer, but in case you dip out too much, when the wafer is the desired size, quickly turn your spoon up, in order to stop its running, and continue dropping them until your cream is too stiff to drop, when you may add a few more drops of water, stir in well and continue as before.

If you use a funnel, heat it with hot water; push the stick down into the funnel until it fits the opening tightly, because the stick keeps the melted fondant from running through. Pour the heated cream into the funnel; hold the funnel over the wax paper and with one hand raise the stick a trifle; let enough cream run out to form a wafer; push the stick into the opening immediately and continue to drop the wafers in the same manner. You must work rapidly, for the cream gets chilled in a few seconds.

These wafers are very easily made as you see, and by always having your bon-bon cream made up as we directed you, it is only a few minutes work to make up quite a number of these wafers.

In making chocolate wafers, simply add enough finely chopped chocolate to give them a good color, and finish same as the others.

Always lay the wax paper on wood, to prevent white spots in the wafers.

COCOANUT CENTERS.

½ lb. sugar. ½ lb. glucose. ¾ lb. shredded cocoanut. ½ pint water. 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract.

Put sugar, glucose, and water in the kettle, set on the fire, stir until it boils, wash down the sides of the kettle with a damp cloth, put in the thermometer and cook to 238, then set off stove and stir in the cocoanut, and a small lump of butter about the size of a hickory nut, and the vanilla flavoring. If by pressing your hand down on the batch it does not stick much, it is about right, but if it should stick, simply work in a little more cocoanut. The idea is, that it is necessary to have this to the consistency where it may be moulded into balls; and of course if it is not thick enough, add cocoanut until it is. The amount of glucose you use in this prevents it from sugaring. As soon as you have mixed it thoroughly, scrape it out of the kettle and spread on slab or platter until it gets cold; then mould it into balls, lay them on wax paper, and allow to stand for a while until they dry off a little, then coat with either bon-bon cream the same as other bon-bons, or with pure chocolate the same as other chocolate dipping is done. If you do not get these centers too stiff, they sweat a great deal after being coated, and become very soft and sticky inside, and for anyone liking cocoanut, they make a fine piece of candy.

This center is not liable to turn to sugar for you, but if it should happen to grain a little, you will know that you have stirred it too much, when adding the cocoanut.

COCOANUT KISSES.

1½ lb. sugar. ½ pint water. 1 fresh grated cocoanut. ½ lb. bon-bon cream. 1 teaspoonful vanilla flavor.

Put the sugar and water on the fire, stir until it commences boiling, but just before it boils, wash down the sides of the kettle with a damp cloth and cold water, then add the grated cocoanut, and continue stirring until it has boiled a little while, when you test it by lifting the paddle out, and if by taking a little of the candy between your thumb and forefinger it is good and sticky, and strings out when you pull your fingers apart, it has cooked enough. This is about the only method of testing it, and you need have no fear of spoiling it, as it is a very easy candy to make as you will see.

When it is cooked to the right consistency, set off the fire and add the bon-bon cream, and stir this through the batch thoroughly until it is dissolved, and the batch becomes creamy looking and commences to stiffen up. In case it does not get stiff enough to dip out as directed later on, it is because it was not cooked quite enough, and you may overcome this by simply adding a little more bon-bon cream. Add the vanilla extract when creaming it. Now take an ordinary table fork, and commence at the edge and take up a small quantity of the candy on the fork, and lay it on wax paper, and as you lift the fork up from it, the same as bon-bons, the cocoanut will string up to some extent and make them rough looking, which improves their looks. As to the amount to take out on the fork each time, will say that you should take enough to make the kisses about the size of your thumb, as they will be oblong in shape, when dipping them out with an ordinary fork in this manner. They should retain their shape when dropped on the wax paper, but if they do not do so, simply work in a little more bon-bon cream. Always dip it from around the edge, as it gets harder there first. After dropping out about one-third of the batch in this manner, color the remainder a pink, and flavor with strawberry, but work it in well with the paddle, and in case the batch is a little too thick by this time, you may add a very little cold water to thin it. Now dip them out the same as before, until you have about half of it remaining, then into this remainder pour some melted chocolate, which you must have ready, add a little more vanilla, work it in well, and dip out the same as before. You now see you have three different colored and flavored kisses from the same batch, and these different flavors do not interfere with each other by putting them in as directed, as the strawberry kills the vanilla, and in the last instance the chocolate kills the strawberry. You may, if you prefer, make the whole batch one flavor, but you have more of a variety if you make them in this manner. You may use the ordinary desiccated cocoanut, which comes put up in packages if you wish, but if you use fresh grated cocoanut, you will find they are much nicer and will keep longer. While it is not necessary, it improves them greatly, by adding the well beaten whites of two eggs to the batch when you put in the bon-bon cream, and working it in at the same time. This has a tendency to make them a little lighter, smoother, and more fluffy.

If your batch gets too hard to drop out nicely before you have finished, it indicates that you either have cooked it too long, or you did not work fast enough after you had mixed in the bon-bon cream. But the chances are that you did not work fast enough.

VANILLA FUDGE.

2½ lbs. sugar. ½ lb. glucose. 1 quart cream or fresh milk. 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Put the sugar, glucose, cream (or milk) and the butter in a kettle large enough to allow for its boiling up, set on the fire and stir constantly, and when it comes to a good boil put in the thermometer, see that the bulb is covered all the time, and cook to 236 or 238, being careful to slide the thermometer around the kettle occasionally, and stir where it stood or it will stick. Then set off the fire, and cream (or rub) it with a spoon against the sides of your kettle, until you see it just commences to grain a little; add the vanilla, and it is then ready to pour out, and it does not hurt this any to scrape the kettle when pouring.

Most people pour their fudge into a buttered platter, but the best way is to take a shallow square pan, or make a square place on your slab with the iron bars, and lay into it or into the pan, some old wax paper that has been used several times for dropping purposes, and pour the candy directly on it, and as soon as your fudge has set you can very easily lift the paper out with the fudge, and it may be peeled off without any trouble; in fact you may use any kind of a heavy paper with a gloss on it, in place of the wax paper, and you will find that this fudge will not stick to it at all. After you pour the fudge out, it should be set in fifteen or twenty minutes at the most, and then if you will take a knife and mark it into squares any size desired, it will readily break wherever marked, which is easier than cutting it up. If you use a glossy paper instead of a wax paper upon which to pour it, it is best not to allow it to stand very long after it sets, before removing the paper; but in using wax paper you will have no trouble at all with it sticking. A shallow pan, about nine by fifteen inches, will hold a batch this size, and make it about the right thickness.

If the fudge gets sticky instead of creamy and is soft, cook it two degrees higher the next time. You may dilute condensed milk with one-half water, which may also be used instead of cream, but in using sweet cream you get a nice rich fudge, and there is not as much danger of its curdling.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE.

Use the recipe for Vanilla fudge, and make it in the same manner, but do not add your chocolate until you take it from the stove and commence creaming it. Then add enough finely grated or chopped chocolate to give it a good chocolate color, also add the tablespoon of vanilla to it, and you will find that you have a much finer chocolate fudge than you would have by cooking the chocolate in it, as most people do, and also, they generally put too much chocolate in their fudge; so only put enough in it to give it a good color. As this is very hot when you put the chocolate in, it will readily melt, and work through the batch while creaming it.

BLACK WALNUT FUDGE.

Make a batch of vanilla fudge, and when it is creamed and just about to be poured out of the kettle, add a large handful of black walnut meats, stir them through, then finish just the same as the vanilla fudge.

You may also use any kind of nuts or candied fruit you have, in the same manner, but black walnuts are considered the best by the majority of persons.

MAPLE FUDGE.

1¾ pounds white sugar. ¾ pound maple sugar. ½ pound glucose. 1 quart cream or fresh milk. 1 tablespoonful butter.

Put all this in a kettle and follow the directions for making vanilla fudge, except be sure to cook this to 238. This makes a fine eating piece of candy, if you add a handful of pecans or English walnuts, just before you pour it out. If you use maple syrup, as in making maple bon-bon cream, take out a piece of glucose about the size of a whole English walnut, (not more), before you start to cook.

OPERA FUDGE.

3½ pounds sugar. 1 quart cream. ⅜ teaspoonful cream of tartar.

Put sugar and cream in kettle, set on hot fire, stir until it commences to boil, then add the cream of tartar, and put in the thermometer, and stir constantly but very gently until it is cooked to 238, being sure to move the thermometer very often with paddle, and stir underneath it, to prevent it from sticking; then pour on slab, moistened a little previously, but do not scrape out the kettle, and allow it to stand until it is perfectly cold, then cream or turn it exactly as directed for bon-bon cream, and when it works up into a hard ball, cover with a damp cloth for about thirty to forty minutes, when you will see that it has sweat enough so that it may be taken in the hands and moulded up in any way desired, or may be sliced down with the knife, cut into squares, and eaten at once if you wish. If you wish you may add a good teaspoonful of vanilla while creaming it, and thus have a vanilla fudge. If you wish to make a chocolate fudge out of this, as soon as you remove the damp cloth, take part or all of it, and work into it, with your hands, by kneading it, enough melted chocolate to color it well, then pat it out into a thin cake and put it into a small box cover previously lined with wax paper, smoothing it out to about three-fourths of an inch thick, then set it away for several hours to harden a little. To remove it, simply turn the lid over, letting it fall out, and then peel the wax paper from it, and cut it up in small squares. Take the remainder, after making part of it chocolate, and into it work sufficient chopped nuts or chopped cherries and citron to show up well, and if desired, color it pink and flavor with rose, and mould up in the same manner as directed for chocolate fudge. As you see, you may make this fudge any color or flavor you desire; but the ones we have mentioned you will find about the best. You have probably noticed that this fudge is made about the same as bon-bon cream, only with this you do not cover and steam it, and also must stir it constantly but gently, or it will sugar for you. You will also notice that it takes longer to cream up than it does bon-bon cream, and is very stiff when you commence turning it, but do not notice that, nor get discouraged, because if you cooked it to the required degree, it will not fail to come out all right for you. You will find that fudge will keep fresh for quite a while, if you put it in a can or jar with a tight cover, and keep it in a cool dry place.

If the fudge sugars for you, you will know that you have either stirred it too much, started to cream it when too warm, or disturbed it while cooling; try adding a pinch more of the cream of tartar in your next batch.

Don’t forget to make the correct allowance, in case your thermometer does not register 212 in boiling water.

If it should sugar and not cream up into a hard ball, it must not be used for this fudge again, but add a little cream to it, also a small amount of glucose, and make the plain fudge out of it.

Don’t have the slab too wet when pouring out this fudge, but just moist, as it is liable to throw your batch back a few degrees.

BROWNIES.