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Chocolate Caramels (One cup of chocolate shaved)
One cup of chocolate shaved fine, one cup molasses, half cup milk, one cup sugar; when nearly done add a piece of butter size of a walnut. Stir until perfectly dissolved, but not after it begins to boil, as that will make it grain. It is done when it hardens and becomes brittle when dropped in cold water, but do not make too hard. Grease plates with butter, pour it on about half an inch thick, when nearly cool cut with a greased knife into small squares.
A molasses-based chocolate caramel from an era before candy thermometers, when the cold-water test was the only gauge. The instructions on stirring are the part that decides whether it works.
- Stop stirring at the boilThis is the hinge. Stir only until the sugar and chocolate are fully dissolved; once the syrup boils, agitation seeds crystals and the batch turns grainy. Wipe stray crystals from the pan sides with a wet brush instead of stirring them in.
- What "chocolate" means hereUnsweetened baking chocolate, sold in the 1870s as hard cakes meant to be shaved with a knife. One cup shaved fine is roughly 4 oz by weight. Do not substitute chocolate chips or a sweetened bar; the recipe already carries a cup of sugar and a cup of molasses.
- MolassesUse unsulphured light or dark molasses rather than blackstrap, which is bitter and can fight the chocolate.
- Temperature, not guesswork"Hardens and becomes brittle when dropped in cold water" points to the hard-crack stage, roughly 300F, which gives a candy you snap rather than chew. The added caution not to make it too hard suggests stopping lower: for a caramel you can cut and bite, somewhere around 248-250F (firm ball).
- Butter at the endA piece the size of a walnut is about 1 tablespoon. The recipe adds it "when nearly done", late in the boil, which keeps the fat from separating.
- ScorchingMilk, sugar and molasses together catch easily. Use a heavy-bottomed pan with room for the mixture to climb, and moderate the heat once it is boiling steadily.
- The pans"Greased plates" means any buttered flat surface; a buttered 8-inch square pan or a marble slab works, and half an inch thick is the depth the recipe gives. Cut into small squares with a greased knife when nearly cool, as directed.
- YieldRoughly a pound of candy, cut into small squares. Wrapping them individually in waxed paper will keep them from sticking to each other.
Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping (1877) appeared as chocolate was shifting from a drink to a confection in American kitchens. The chocolate called for here is the unsweetened cake sold by firms such as Baker's, bought in blocks and shaved as needed. Caramels were made and sold by small confectioners, and a home recipe like this one let a household imitate a shop product cheaply by leaning on molasses, which was far less expensive than refined sugar. The reliance on the cold-water test rather than a thermometer is typical of the book, and it is often said that cooks of the period learned the stages of sugar by eye and finger.