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Pop-Corn Sweets: Pop-Corn
MOLASSES POP-CORN BALLS Take one cupful of light brown sugar and one cupful of New Orleans molasses, half a cupful of water and boil to the hard ball stage, then add two tablespoonfuls of butter. Boil to the crack stage, then add a half teaspoonful of soda and pour over some freshly popped corn in a bowl. Stir until the syrup is evenly distributed over the corn, but be careful not to break the grains in doing so. Dip the hands in water, take a portion of the pop-corn up into the hands and press into nice even round balls.
CHOCOLATE POP-CORN BALLS Pop some corn and pick out only the large crisp, tender grains. Place in a saucepan two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of water and one-fourth teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Boil until it spins a thread or forms a hard ball when dropped in cold water ; then flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla. Pour part of this sugar syrup over the pop-corn, stirring until the syrup is evenly distributed through the pop-corn ; while doing this let the remainder stand on the back of the stove. Form into tiny pop-corn balls with the fingers, boil the remaining syrup to the crack stage, then dip each ball into this, and place on paraffine paper until cool. When cool dip into melted sweet chocolate.
SNOW POP-CORN BALLS Take two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of white corn syrup, one-half cupful of water and a pinch of cream of tartar. Boil to the soft ball stage, then flavor with a few drops of peppermint extract or a half teaspoonful of vanilla and pour over the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs. Beat up until light and it begins to harden, then stir in two cupfuls of crisp pop-corn grains. Dip the hands into corn-starch and mold while still warm into small balls. Roll each ball in cocoanut, and then wrap in paraffine paper to keep their shape until cold. Unwrap and heap on place. ICE POP-CORN BALLS Take two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of water and one-fourth teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Boil to the crack stage and pour over pop-corn in a bowl, stirring until the syrup is well mixed with the corn. Form into small balls with the hands. While still warm roll the balls in pulverized or finely chopped rock candy to simulate ice.
POP-CORN DAINTY Place in a saucepan two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one-half cupful of water and one-fourth teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Boil to firm ball. Just before removing from the fire stir into the syrup a pint of pop-corn that has been run through the food chopper. Pour over the stiffly beaten whites of two eggs, flavor with a teaspoonful of vanilla and beat up until light and foamy ; then pour into greased pans, and cut into squares, or drop from a spoon on paraffine paper, and press a whole pop-corn grain into the top of each. These are also nice if crystallized pop-corn in different colors is used for decoration.
CRYSTALLIZED POP-CORN Take two cupfuls of granulated sugar, two table-spoonfuls of white corn syrup and one-half cupful of cream and boil to the soft ball stage. Divide into four portions, pouring each portion on a buttered plate, and flavoring differently with strawberry, orange, maple and melted chocolate respectively. Beat the portion on each plate until creamy, coloring the portion that is flavored with strawberry pink, the orange flavored with yellow. One portion may be left white if liked, or the amount of syrup may be doubled and divided into more portions. Place each kind of the mixture in cups or bowls. Select very large, crisp kernels of corn and dip one by one into the different mixtures until all is used. Dry them on greased or waxed paper. One may use a hat pin to dip with. These grains may be used to decorate other sweets or may be served in little baskets or odd receptacles.
POP-CORN BARS Take two cups of sugar, one-half cupful of water and boil to the hard ball stage. Add vanilla flavoring or any desired flavoring. Crush some fresh pop-corn with a rolling pin, and stir into the syrup. When the corn has been perfectly mixed with the syrup press into a square or oblong buttered pan to the depth of about an inch, patting it smooth on top. When cool cut into bars with a very sharp knife.
MAPLE POP-CORN BARS Cook two cupfuls of maple sugar and one cupful of cream to the hard ball stage. Beat up until it begins to turn creamy, then stir in a pint of large, crisp kernels. See that the syrup is well mixed through the corn. Turn into a square or oblong pan that has been well buttered and press until flat on top, but not hard enough to crush the kernels. If liked it can be shaped into bars with the hands, and there will not be so much danger of crushing the kernels. If shaped in a pan cut into bars with a sharp knife. POP-CORN MACAROONS Run some freshly popped corn through the food chopper, or else chop up with a knife until fine. To a cupful of these add an equal quantity of blanched almonds that have been pounded to a paste. Put these together in a bowl. Beat up whites of three eggs until stiff, then add about one-half a cupful of sugar and beat up for about five minutes. Mix the pop-corn and paste into this slowly until thoroughly blended. Drop from a spoon on oiled or buttered paper in a pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes. The centers of these can be decorated with crystallized pop-corn.
CHEROKEE CRISP Take two cupfuls of light brown sugar, one-fourth cupful of New Orleans molasses, and one-half cupful of water. Melt over the fire until all the sugar is dissolved, add two tablespoonfuls of butter. Sprinkle some salt over a quart of freshly popped corn in a bowl. Flavor the syrup with a teaspoonful of vanilla after it has reached the hard crack stage and pour over the corn. Turn out on a large platter or marble slab and work until a very thin sheet. When cold break into pieces.
POP-CORN ALMOND NOUGAT Take two cupfuls of white sugar, one-fourth cupful of water and one-fourth cupful of corn syrup. Melt over the fire until the sugar is dissolved, then stir in one cupful of chopped pop-corn and one-half cupful of chopped almonds. Boil to the hard crack stage, flavor with a little almond extract, and pour over buttered pans in thin sheets. When cold break into pieces or cut into squares with a sharp knife.
POP-CORN BRITTLE Take a cupful of granulated sugar, one cupful of brown sugar, one-half cupful of golden corn syrup and one-fourth cupful of water. Melt to a syrup, then boil to the hard ball stage, add one-fourth cupful of butter and boil until it begins to turn color or to the hard crack stage. Place in a bowl two quarts of freshly popped corn and one cupful chopped peanuts. Pour the syrup over the corn and stir until all the kernels and nuts are covered with it. If not to be so thick with pop-corn and nuts use only a quart of pop-corn. POP-CORN FUDGE Take two cupfuls of white sugar, one cupful of milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter and a pinch of salt. Boil to the soft ball stage. Flavor with a half teaspoonful of almond extract, then stir in one cupful of chopped pop-corn and one-half cupful of chopped peanuts or any nuts desired. Stir until creamy and pour out on buttered pans, and when cool cut into squares.
A dozen variations on one idea: sugar syrup cooked to a stage, then bound with popped corn. Everything depends on reading the syrup correctly, so a candy thermometer replaces the cold-water test that the original assumes you already know.
- The syrup stages in degreesSoft ball is 235-240F, firm ball 245-250F, hard ball 250-265F, soft crack 270-290F and hard crack 300-310F. The book uses "crack" and "hard crack" as separate terms, so where it says only "crack" the lower soft-crack range is the likelier reading. A thread that spins is around 230F, well below the hard ball named in the same sentence of the chocolate balls; the two tests do not agree, and the hard ball is the safer choice for balls that must hold together.
- How much cornMost of these give no quantity for the popped corn. Roughly two tablespoons of kernels pop up to about a quart, and a batch built on two cups of sugar will coat two or three quarts generously, or more if spread thin. The number of balls depends entirely on how large you make them.
- New Orleans molassesUnsulphured cane molasses of the ordinary dark grade, not blackstrap and not sorghum. Blackstrap is far more bitter and mineral and will dominate the corn.
- The soda in the molasses ballsThe half teaspoon of soda foams the syrup and lightens the set, the same trick used in honeycomb toffee. Add it away from the flame, stir once, and pour immediately; the mixture will foam up considerably in the pan.
- Paraffine paper and greased pansParaffine paper is waxed paper. Parchment or a silicone mat works better for hard-crack work, since wax will soften and stick under a 300F syrup.
- Food chopperA hand-cranked grinder. A food processor pulsed in short bursts gives the same coarse crumb; run it too long and the corn becomes powder, which turns the macaroons and the Dainty pasty.
- Sweet chocolateAt this period this meant a sweetened dark eating chocolate, closer to today's 45-55 percent bar than to unsweetened baking chocolate. Temper it or use couverture wafers if you want the dipped balls to set glossy rather than streaked.
- Raw whites in the Snow Balls and the DaintySyrup at soft ball poured slowly into beating whites cooks them only partly, as in divinity. Use pasteurized whites if serving anyone very young, elderly or pregnant, and beat the syrup in as a thin steady stream down the side of the bowl or it will scramble.
- Moderate ovenFor the pop-corn macaroons, 350F for about twenty minutes. They should be dry and pale gold at the edges; the ground almonds keep the centre soft.
- Working hot sugarHard-crack syrup is around 300F and clings to skin. Dipping the hands in water, as several of these recipes direct, is only safe once the mixture has stopped steaming; for anything hotter use buttered gloves or two spoons.
Popcorn balls belong to the American nineteenth century, when molasses was the cheap sweetener and popping corn over a kitchen fire was a household amusement as much as a cookery task. What dates this particular chapter is the corn syrup: commercial glucose syrup, sold under brand names from the early 1900s, gave home candy makers a reliable way to stop sugar from graining, and it appears here beside the older cream of tartar doing the same job. The result is a set of recipes that treat popped corn not as a snack but as a confectioner's material, chopped, crystallized, folded into nougat and fudge, coloured and dipped one kernel at a time on a hat pin. "Cherokee Crisp" carries no evident connection to the Cherokee Nation; such names were a common commercial and domestic flourish of the period.