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Cocoanut Penuche
1 tablespoon butter 2 cups brown sugar ¾ cup cream or milk ¾ cup Dromedary Cocoanut 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar and cream, stir until dissolved, boil without stirring until a soft ball is formed when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, leave undisturbed until cool, then stir with a spoon, or work with a spatula, until candy begins to get sugary. Add Dromedary Cocoanut and vanilla, press into a buttered pan, and mark in squares; or push from tip of spoon upon waxed paper in small portions. If the candy gets too firm to hold its shape after Dromedary Cocoanut is added, add a few drops of cold water and stir mixture over pan of hot water.
A brown-sugar fudge in the old style, worked by hand rather than beaten with a mixer. The one thing that decides whether it sets smooth or grainy is temperature control at the cooling stage.
- The measurementsThe printed page gives three-quarters of a cup in both places: cream or milk and cocoanut. Our text matches.
- Soft ball, in numbersThe cold-water test for soft ball corresponds to 234-240F on a candy thermometer. Aim for 236-238F; brown sugar scorches readily, so use a heavy pan and moderate heat.
- Do not stir while it boilsThis is the hinge. Agitating the syrup while it is hot seeds large sugar crystals and gives gritty penuche. Leave it alone until it has cooled to about 110F, then beat.
- Cooling undisturbed"Leave undisturbed until cool" means lukewarm to the touch, not cold. Too hot and it stays soft; too cold and it sets before you can press it into the pan, which is exactly the trouble the last sentence addresses.
- Dromedary CocoanutA branded packaged shredded coconut sold by the Hills Brothers Company of New York. Any packaged flaked coconut works; an unsweetened one will taste less rich.
- Cream or milkEither works, but heavy cream gives a softer, less crumbly result. Evaporated milk, available at the time, is also a fair substitute.
- Pan and yieldAbout 1 pound of candy. An 8-inch square pan gives thin squares; a loaf pan gives a thicker block. Butter it well and score while the candy is still warm.
- StorageKeep in an airtight tin between layers of waxed paper. Penuche dries out and hardens within a few days at room temperature.
Penuche is brown-sugar fudge, and the name is generally traced to Mexican Spanish panocha or penuche, words for unrefined or coarse brown sugar; the candy is usually associated with New England. It belongs to the American fudge vogue that began in the 1890s, when the cold-water test put boiled sugar work within reach of the home cook. Its appearance here, in a promotional booklet, is straightforward commerce: Dromedary sold shredded coconut and dates, and a recipe pamphlet was a common way of teaching households to use a packaged ingredient.