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Chocolate Cocoanut Cakes
2/3 a cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 a cup (scant measure) of water, One cup, less one tablespoonful, of pure corn syrup, 1/2 a pound of dessicated cocoanut, 1/2 a pound of Baker's "Dot" Chocolate.
Heat the sugar, water and pure corn syrup to the boiling point, add the cocoanut and stir constantly while cooking to the soft ball degree, or until a little of the candy dropped on a cold marble may be rolled into a ball. Drop, by small teaspoonfuls, onto a marble or waxed paper, to make small, thick, rather uneven rounds. When cold coat with "Dot" Chocolate melted over hot water and cooled properly. These cakes are very easily coated. BAKER'S CHOCOLATE "DIVINITY" 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, 1 cup of maple syrup, 1/2 a cup of pure corn syrup, 1/3 a cup of water, 1/4 a teaspoonful of salt, The whites of 2 eggs, 1 cup of nut meats, chopped fine, 2 squares of Baker's Premium No. 1 Chocolate, broken in pieces.
Let the sugar, syrup, pure corn syrup and water stand on the back of the range, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is melted, then cover and let boil five minutes. Remove the cover and let boil to soft crack, 287 degree F., or, until when tested in water a ball that rattles in the cup will be formed. Add the salt and chocolate and beat over the fire, until the chocolate is melted, then pour in a fine stream onto the whites of eggs, beaten dry, beating constantly meanwhile; add the nuts and pour into a pan lined with waxed paper. In about fifteen minutes lift the candy from the pan (by the ends of the paper left for the purpose) and cut it into small oblongs or squares. The candy must be stirred constantly during the last of the cooking. In cooking without a thermometer one is liable to remove the candy from the fire too soon--if this happens, return, egg whites and all, to the saucepan, set this into a dish of boiling water and stir constantly until the mixture thickens, then pour into the pan lined with paper. On no account let even a few drops of water boil into the candy.
Two candies from Walter Baker's promotional booklet: a coconut center dipped in chocolate, and a chocolate divinity. Both are sugar work, so a candy thermometer removes most of the guesswork the original text spends paragraphs compensating for.
- The hinge: tempering"Melted over hot water and cooled properly" is instruction to temper. Melt the coating chocolate to about 115F, cool it to 88-90F for dark while stirring, then dip. Skip this and the coating will bloom grey and stay soft rather than snapping. Baker's "Dot" Chocolate: a discontinued Baker's sweet chocolate sold for coating work. A good dark couverture at 55-65% cacao is the nearest substitute; the recipe's 1/2 pound is enough to coat the batch of centres with some left in the bowl.
- Premium No. 1, in squaresBaker's Premium No. 1 was unsweetened chocolate, and a square meant one ounce. Two squares is 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate — not semisweet, which would throw the sugar balance of the divinity.
- Desiccated cocoanutThis means dry, finely shredded, unsweetened coconut. Modern sweetened flake coconut is moist and heavily sugared; using it will make the syrup loose and the centers cloying.
- Soft ball and soft crackSoft ball is 235-240F. The divinity's "soft crack, 287 degrees F." is unusually high for divinity and produces a firm, sliceable candy rather than a fluffy one — trust the number, and pull the pan promptly, as sugar climbs fast above 270F.
- Not a drop of waterThe closing warning is serious. Steam or splashed water condensing into finished candy causes it to seize or grain. Wipe the thermometer. Note that the recipe does call for the pan to be covered for the first five minutes, then uncovered for the rest of the boil.
- Egg whites "beaten dry"Period language for stiff peaks, just short of the point where the foam looks grainy. Have them beaten and waiting before the syrup reaches temperature; pour the syrup in a thin stream against the side of the bowl.
- The marbleA cold marble or granite slab sets the coconut centers quickly and lets you roll the test ball. Waxed or parchment paper on a chilled sheet pan does the same job.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield or pan size. Expect a few dozen small coconut mounds, and enough divinity to fill a small square pan for cutting into oblongs.
Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was the oldest chocolate manufacturer in the United States, and booklets like Choice Recipes were its main advertising: recipes contributed by well-known cooking-school teachers, each one calling for a named Baker product. That is why "Dot" and "Premium No. 1" appear here as ingredients rather than as generic chocolate — the recipe is also a catalogue. Divinity itself is an American candy of the early twentieth century, its rise often attributed to the commercial availability of corn syrup, which resists crystallization and was said to make egg-white candies reliable in a home kitchen; the name's origin is not documented, though it is often said to come from tasters' remarks on the first bite. Chocolate divinity, with unsweetened chocolate beaten into the hot syrup, is one variant of the candy.