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Third Day: Caramels
No. 15-CHOCOLATE CARAMELS.
Half a pint milk, one and a half ounces (or squares) of Baker's unsweetened chocolate, softened over the fire with as little water as possible; let the milk boil, then stir in the chocolate very hard, add half a pint granulated sugar and two tablespoonfuls molasses; boil until very thick, taking great care not to burn it, pour on well-buttered tins, and when partly cold cut it into small squares. No. 16-CHICAGO CARAMELS.
One cup chocolate, (measure after breaking into small lumps,) one of boiled milk, two of brown sugar, one of molasses, one tablespoonful flour and one of melted butter; boil slowly, until it will stiffen in cold water. No. 17-CoCOANUT DROPS.
Two caramel recipes from a children's cooking book, written before candy thermometers were household items. Both are workable, but they assume you know the cold-water test and will not walk away from the pan.
- The hinge: the cold-water test"until it will stiffen in cold water" in No. 16, and by implication "boil until very thick" in No. 15, point to the firm-ball stage, around 245-250F. Drop a little syrup into ice water; it should form a ball that holds its shape but still yields to pressure. Undercooked caramels never set; carried well beyond this the sweet turns progressively harder.
- Half a pint, measured dryHalf a pint of granulated sugar is a cup by volume, about 7 oz. Half a pint of milk is a cup. American recipes of this period commonly measured sugar by volume, so the cup reading is the likely one.
- Baker's unsweetened chocolateStill sold, and still what these recipes want. The recipe's own "(or squares)" shows a square was reckoned as an ounce, so the 1.5 oz in No. 15 is a square and a half; check the weight marked on whatever you buy, as bar and square sizes have changed. Do not substitute semisweet or the sugar balance collapses.
- A cup of chocolateNo. 16's "one cup chocolate, measure after breaking into small lumps" is genuinely imprecise; broken squares pack loosely, so any weight equivalent is guesswork. Fill a cup loosely and expect to adjust.
- Softening the chocolateNo. 15 directs you to soften the chocolate over the fire with as little water as possible. A bowl over barely simmering water is less likely to scorch, and scorched chocolate turns the whole batch bitter.
- Why the flourThe tablespoon of flour in the Chicago caramels acts as a thickener, and may help a batch that is slow to firm up. What else it does to the finished texture the book does not say.
- Stirring and scorchingMilk, sugar and molasses together catch quickly. Use a heavy pan, stir with a flat-edged wooden spoon that reaches the corners, and keep the heat moderate rather than low-and-forgotten.
- Pans and cutting"Well-buttered tins" means a shallow pan; an 8-inch square lined with buttered parchment is easier. Score into squares while the slab is still warm and pliable, then cut through when fully set. Note the difference in scale: No. 16 uses twice the sugar and far more molasses than No. 15, and makes a correspondingly larger batch.
- The stray heading"No. 17-Cocoanut Drops" is the start of the next recipe, cut off by the page break. Nothing is missing from the caramels.
Six Little Cooks belongs to a genre of late nineteenth-century instructional books that taught cookery to girls through a story, and here candy-making comes first: cheap, quick, and satisfying enough to hold a child's attention. That these caramels call for Baker's unsweetened chocolate by brand says something about the period. The Walter Baker company of Dorchester, Massachusetts was the dominant American chocolate maker of the century, and its cakes of plain chocolate were so ubiquitous that recipe writers used the name as a unit of measure. Molasses appears alongside the sugar for the same reason it appears throughout American home baking of the era: it was the cheaper sweetener, and it contributes the faintly bitter, slightly acidic note that keeps a milk caramel from tasting merely sweet. The name of No. 16 is not explained in the book.