In case the beet color is desired for candies made upon other bases, it can be had very easily. The beets should be boiled until the water is colored red. Then this water may be subst.i.tuted for the water called for by other receipts in vegetable candy-making. The beet color will be given but the beet flavor will not be. The result is a pleasing color without the use of anything that is artificial.
=Frosted Beet Slice.=--Boil to two hundred and thirty-two degrees two cupsful of sugar, one tablespoonful of grated raw beet, one-third cupful of water, one teaspoonful of vinegar, and one teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter. Remove from the fire and stir in one-half cupful of broken walnut meats. When the ma.s.s begins to thicken, pour it between oiled candy bars on an oiled marble so that it will form a layer three-quarters of an inch thick. When cool, cover one-quarter of an inch thick with a frosting made of one cupful of sugar, one-quarter cupful of water, and one-eighth teaspoonful of cream of tartar, boiled without stirring to two hundred and thirty-four degrees and then flavored with a few drops of vanilla and lemon and beaten until creamy. When set,--a quick process--cut the ma.s.s into pieces about one-half inch wide and one and one-half inches long. If the confection is to be kept, crystallize at two hundred and twenty-five degrees. The looks are improved if the confection is then rolled in granulated sugar. Dry on a wire screen for twelve hours or so.
Note No. 10 in the frontispiece.
=Beet Puffs.=--Cut one medium sized beet into thin slices, cover with one-half cupful of cold water and cook in a double boiler until soft.
Drain, and to the liquid thus obtained add one pound of sugar; boil two or three minutes. To this mixture, add one-half cupful of the cooked beet cut into fine pieces. Cook this ma.s.s to two hundred and forty degrees. Have ready the whites of two eggs, salted and beaten to a stiff froth. Remove from the fire and after the steam has ceased to rise, beat the mixture into the whites of the two eggs. Using a pecan meat to push with, drop this mixture from a teaspoon in small puffs on waxed paper, leaving the pecan imbedded. This mixture is very foamy and adhesive, sets very quickly and must be handled rapidly. These directions will yield about five dozen puffs.
A few drops of rose water may be added if a more delicate flavor is desired.
=Beet Cubes with Variations.=--Beet cubes possess remarkable color value. To make them, boil to two hundred and thirty degrees two cupsful of granulated sugar, one tablespoonful grated raw beet, one-half cupful of water, one teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter and one cupful of shredded cocoanut.
Pour the ma.s.s between oiled candy bars upon greased marble so that it will form half an inch deep.
Four things may be done with this ma.s.s. It may be cut into cubes. If wanted for future use it may be dipped into a crystal syrup to hold the moisture. Children will like it poured into oiled cup-cake tins or any other mold. If molded, care should be taken that the finished confection is not more than half an inch thick. If the cubes are dipped into bon-bon cream they will be of unusual beauty because of the pink showing through the fondant casing.
=Crystallized Beets.=--Crystallized beets are fully as pretty as candied rose leaves. They are particularly valuable in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g boxes of candy--especially "all vegetable" boxes.
To crystallize beets, use the process described for parsnips in Chapter XII. After the last crystallization, however, the pieces should be separated, dusted with granulated sugar, and dried on a wire screen, instead of being left on the rack.
If it is desired to increase the illusion, add rose water to the syrup.
=Spiced Beets.=--Boil beets and cut them into cubes of about one inch.
Mix one cupful of sugar and one-third cupful of vinegar. Spice highly.
Cinnamon, cloves and allspice should be used, and whatever else the fancy of the candy-maker dictates. Boil the mixture until it syrups, add the beets and cook ten minutes. Remove the ma.s.s from the fire, cover and set away for two days. Drain the syrup from the beets, boil the syrup to two hundred and twenty degrees and pour it boiling over the beets. Cover the ma.s.s and set it aside. Repeat this process on several successive days.
=Spiced Beet Bon-bons.=--Take spiced beets and drain off the syrup. Cook the syrup to two hundred and thirty degrees. With a wooden paddle beat it at one side of the saucepan until it begins to look creamy.
Thereupon, add the beets, stir the whole ma.s.s briskly and turn it onto a sieve. Dry the cubes on a rack, roll each in fondant, dry for two hours and dip in bon-bon cream.
XVI
TOMATO
=Tomato Marshmallow.=--Very often marshmallows--even the sort sold in candy stores of the better cla.s.s--contain gums and glucose which the amateur would find difficult to handle even if she felt no scruple in their use. Tomato marshmallows, however, are pleasing in consistency and more attractive in flavor than the old-fashioned kind. Moreover, they are easy to make, although it is necessary to give more detailed directions than would be required in the description of the process with which the home candy-maker is more familiar.
Dissolve three tablespoonsful of granulated gelatine in one cupful of hot water. Cook and strain ripe tomatoes; to one-half cupful of the strained tomato add one cupful of sugar and cook the mixture to two hundred and thirty degrees. Have ready in a deep saucepan, three cupsful of sugar, moistened with one-quarter of a cupful of water. Upon it strain the tomato syrup, stir well, thin with a cupful of water, and cook to two hundred and forty degrees. Set the ma.s.s off the fire, add the gelatine water previously prepared, mix thoroughly and strain into a fresh bowl. Have ready the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth.
With a French egg whip or a common wooden paddle, beat the cooked ma.s.s hard until it is white and does not separate. When it becomes foamy and spongy, gradually add the beaten egg whites and keep beating until the whole ma.s.s is very stringy and will almost set on the paddle. Sift upon the ma.s.s one tablespoonful of corn starch; stir well. Pour the candy between candy bars on a marble well dusted with x.x.xX sugar. Leave ten or twelve hours, cut into squares, roll well in x.x.xX sugar, spread the other side up and dry off. Instead of pouring the marshmallows between candy bars, they may be molded in corn starch. Store in a tight box.
The receipt sounds more laborious than is the process. The repeated boilings are necessary to perfect the product. The acid of the tomato destroys the granularity of the sugar. Straining the mixture eliminates the particles of tomato which, not having blended thoroughly into the syrup, would cause trouble by sticking to the bottom of the saucepan in the later higher cooking.
=Chocolate Marshmallow.=--Marshmallows, made as directed above, are the basis for them. Dip them in coating chocolate; the method of treatment is the same as with ordinary chocolate marshmallows.
=Vegetable Nougatine.=--Mix two cupsful of sugar, one-third of a cupful of corn syrup, one-third of a cupful of strained honey, and one-third of a cupful of strained cooked tomato; boil the mixture to two hundred and sixty degrees. Beat three egg whites very stiff, and remove the mixture from the fire. Until about one-half of a cupful has been so used, dip a spoonful at a time on the eggs, beating the ma.s.s continuously. From this point on, use an asbestos mat under the pan. Return the remainder to the stove. This time cook the ma.s.s to two hundred and ninety degrees. Pour it over the eggs, again beating continuously. Thereupon, set the mixture on the stove once more. The ma.s.s should cook slowly until, when tried in water, a sample of it has the consistency that is desired in the finished candy. Some people like the vegetable nougatine soft, others like it "chewy," and still others want it to be hard. Stir in one-half of a cupful of almonds, blanched and cut into small pieces, and one-half of a cupful of garden "ginger" also cut into small pieces.
Line a shallow straight-sided pan with wafer paper. Pour in the candy, and press a sheet of wafer paper onto the top. Let the mixture stand over night. The next morning remove the candy, paper and all, from the pan and place it on a marble slab, slightly oiled. With a long, thin knife, cut it into strips one and one-half inches long, and three-eighths of an inch thick and deep. Do not attempt to cut directly through the candy, but use a sawing motion. Immediately wrap the pieces in parchment paper.
Wafer paper, be it noted, is made from rice. It is easily soluble in water and may be eaten with impunity.
=Chocolate Nougatines.=--If the nougatines are desired for chocolate coating, the process is very simple. Instead of pouring the ma.s.s into the pan, lined with wafer paper, it should be poured onto a greased marble, between greased candy bars, so placed that the mixture will completely fill the rectangle formed by the bars. As before, cover with wafer paper. Over the paper place a board, kept in place with a heavy weight, in order to make the mixture more solid. As before, cut into small pieces. The process of coating is the ordinary one.
=Nut Burs.=--Cook one-half of a cupful of strained tomato and one cupful of granulated sugar to two hundred and thirty degrees; add two cupsful of sugar, one-half of a cupful of water, and two teaspoonsful of b.u.t.ter.
Let this mixture boil up once only; then strain. Place it in a three quart saucepan, return it to the fire, and cook to two hundred and forty-two degrees.
Take one-quarter of a cupful each of preserved garden "ginger" and spiced beet, drain the syrup off and cut very fine; spread upon a wet marble.
Over beet and "ginger" pour the cooked mixture, and "cut in." Form the ma.s.s into b.a.l.l.s, flatten them slightly, roll in confectioner"s sugar, and let dry.
With a sharp knife, cut on a board blanched almonds, pecan, and pistachio nut meats into small, pointed pieces.
This is the method of using the nuts: Have the nuts spread thinly upon a plate. Melt coating chocolate, and let it stand until cool. The principles laid down in Chapter VI, "Chocolate Coating," should be followed. Into the chocolate dip the dried b.a.l.l.s and roll them over the nuts. Make sure that the nuts adhere to all parts. Dry upon racks.
The brown, green and cream of the almonds, pecans and pistachios against the dark chocolate background make a very attractive color scheme. The nuts may be used alone, however, or different combinations may be subst.i.tuted. Other nuts may be drafted into effective service. If peanuts are used, be it noted, they must not be combined with any other nuts; the peanut flavor is overwhelming.
See the dish at the right of the ill.u.s.tration facing page 118, and No.
21 of the frontispiece.
XVII
CORNLETTES
Green corn has great possibilities for the maker of vegetable candy. If fresh corn can be obtained, boil the ears in salted water until the kernels are tender. While they are still hot, with a thin, sharp knife cut down the center of each row. Press with the back of the knife down the cob thus freeing the pulp but leaving the skin upon the cob. To make certain that the pulp is free from skins, and of a uniform consistency, force it through a coa.r.s.e sieve. Note that the corn is not to be made into a paste as was the potato. If canned corn is used, force it through a sieve.
Boil together, until the mixture is very thick, one-half cupful of corn, so prepared, one-half cupful of granulated sugar and one-half cupful of coffee A sugar. The thermometer reading will be about two hundred and thirty degrees. Add one-half cupful of bon-bon cream. Pour the mixture into a rubber mold, or, if preferred, drop like cream wafers upon waxed paper. If the ma.s.s is too thick to pour easily, add a few drops of hot water. The quant.i.ties here given will fill a mold of four-dozen size--the sort ill.u.s.trated on page 10. After the drops have dried for five or six hours, dip them singly into a syrup cooked to two hundred and twenty-five degrees. On the next day they will be ready for packing.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorative and Edible]
=Nut Cornlettes.=--Cornlettes are a little richer both in consistency and in flavor than the many creams to which candy eaters are accustomed.
By the addition of a nut to each piece, however, cornlettes may be made still richer and still more distinctive candy.
There are three methods of adding nuts. The first method is to push the nut into each piece soon after it has been poured into the mold. The great advantage of this method is its ease and quickness. The confection is ready for the serving dish as soon as it is cool enough to leave the mold. A clearer and better finished appearance may be obtained by the use of the second method. By it, the cornlette, when molded, is dipped into a crystal syrup. A drop of the hot crystal is placed upon the back of the nut meat to serve as glue, and corn and nut are pressed together.
When cool, the whole is dipped into the crystal. The third process is a compromise. The drop may be dipped into the crystal as soon as it comes from the mold, and the nut, either plain or dipped, may then be placed upon it. When the crystal sets, the union will be firm.
XVIII
ONION COLD TABLETS