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Cocoanut Balls
Vanilla 1 cup confectioners' sugar Dromedary Cocoanut 1 tablespoon corn sirup Put the sugar into a bowl; add enough corn sirupabout one tablespoonful-to make a smooth, heavy, creamy paste, similar to a soft fondant. Flavor with vanilla, lemon or orange extract. Add to this all the cocoanut the cream will hold. Shape into balls, about the size of a walnut, roll each in cocoanut and wrap in waxed paper. For variety, a little peanut butter, almond paste, finely chopped nuts, or chopped preserved ginger may be mixed to the cocoanut and added to the cream. These are quickly made, nourishing, and easily packed for shipping.
An uncooked fondant candy that depends entirely on how much coconut the sugar paste will absorb. The ingredient list is garbled in the original printing, but the method is complete.
- The hinge: work the paste stiff, not wetOne cup of confectioners' sugar plus one tablespoon of corn syrup is barely enough liquid to bind. Add the syrup a few drops at a time toward the end; if the paste slumps, it will not hold coconut and the balls will weep.
- Dromedary cocoanutA branded package of shredded coconut. Sweetened flaked coconut from the baking aisle is the closest modern equivalent; unsweetened desiccated coconut works but gives a drier, less cohesive ball and needs slightly more syrup.
- Corn sirupLight corn syrup, unchanged in function. Glucose syrup or golden syrup will also work; honey will dominate the flavor.
- Quantities that are missingThe original never says how much coconut or vanilla. Expect roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups of shredded coconut per cup of sugar, and about 1/4 teaspoon of extract. Stop adding coconut when the mass just barely coheres under pressure.
- YieldAbout 15 to 18 walnut-sized balls from one cup of sugar. Sifting the sugar first avoids hard lumps that no amount of kneading will break down.
- Drying and storageLet the shaped balls sit uncovered an hour or two before wrapping so the surface firms. Wrapped in waxed paper in a tin they keep a week or more at room temperature; refrigeration makes the sugar sweat.
- The variationsPeanut butter and almond paste both add fat and will soften the paste noticeably, so hold back some of the syrup. Chopped preserved ginger should be blotted dry first.
This is advertising copy as much as cookery. Dromedary, a brand of the Hills Brothers Company of New York, built its early reputation on packaged dates and shredded coconut. Uncooked fondant candies like these required no thermometer, no sugar boiling and no candy-making skill. The closing note that they are "easily packed for shipping" suggests a moment when homemade sweets were often mailed, and confections were judged partly on whether they would survive the post.