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Chocolate Drops
Two and a half cups pulverized or granulated sugar (or maple sugar may be used), one-half cup cold water; boil four minutes, place the sauce-pan in cold water, and beat till cold enough to make into little balls; take half a cake of Baker's chocolate, shave off fine and set it in a bowl set in top of boiling tea-kettle to melt, and when balls are cool enough, roll in the chocolate with a fork. This makes eighty. Or while making into balls, mold an almond-meat into the center of each ball, roll in coarse sugar, and you have delicious "cream almonds." Or, mold the unbroken halves of walnutmeats into the soft sugar, and when cold, roll in the chocolate. When finished, take out and lay on buttered paper until cold.- Mrs. O. M. Scott.
This is a fondant recipe with a chocolate coat — the whole thing turns on how far the syrup is boiled and how cool it is before you beat it.
- Boil to temperature, not to the clock"Boil four minutes" depends entirely on the pan and the burner. Cook the sugar and water to the soft-ball stage, 238–240F on a candy thermometer; below that the centres stay sticky, above it they turn grainy and hard.
- Cool before beatingSetting the saucepan in cold water and beating is the standard fondant method, but beat too soon and the sugar crystallises coarse. Let the syrup drop to about 110–115F, undisturbed, then stir until it turns opaque and stiff. Kneading it smooth with the hands finishes the job.
- Baker's chocolate is unsweetenedThe "cake" of Baker's sold in this period was a plain, unsweetened chocolate cake, sold in cakes of varying weight (commonly half a pound), so half a cake is likely somewhere around 4 oz. Modern unsweetened baking chocolate is the direct descendant; the coating will be bitter against the sweet centre, which is the intended contrast. Semi-sweet or bittersweet gives a result closer to modern taste.
- The bowl over the kettleA bowl set on a boiling kettle is an improvised double boiler. Any gentle indirect heat works, but keep water and steam out of the chocolate or it will seize.
- No tempering hereMelted chocolate poured over centres without tempering sets soft and streaky and may bloom grey within days. It tastes the same. If you want snap and gloss, temper the chocolate or use a coating chocolate made for the purpose.
- Pulverized sugarIn this book pulverized sugar means finely ground granulated, not modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch. Ordinary granulated is the right substitute, as the recipe itself allows.
- Buttered paperParchment or a silicone mat replaces it, and needs no butter.
- Yield and keepingEighty drops from two and a half cups of sugar means small pieces, on the order of three-quarters of an inch. Stored airtight at cool room temperature they hold for about two weeks; refrigeration makes them sweat.
Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping (1877) came out of an Ohio-rooted, Minnesota-published tradition of compiled community recipes, many contributions signed, as this one is by Mrs. O. M. Scott. Its confectionery chapter reflects a moment when boiled-sugar candy was moving out of the professional confectioner's shop and into the home kitchen: granulated sugar had become cheap and reliable, and Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts had made unsweetened chocolate a familiar grocery item sold in stamped cakes, which is why the recipe names the brand as though it were a generic. What is described is a fondant — sugar boiled, cooled, and beaten until it recrystallises into a smooth white paste — with variations offered here: nuts pressed into the centre, a roll in coarse sugar, a coat of chocolate. The pieces sold in shops as chocolate creams were made by the same principle.