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Candy for Christmas Toys, Etc
2 pounds of granulated sugar. 1 pint, or rather less, of water. 1 large teaspoonful of powdered gum arabic. 1 level teaspoonful of cream of tartar.
What survives here is a formula rather than a method: four ingredients for a clear boiled sugar that can be cast or pulled into shapes. Everything about the handling has to be supplied by the cook.
- The hinge: temperatureCandy meant to hold a molded shape and stay glassy is boiled to hard crack, 300-310F. Below about 295F it will stay tacky and slump; much above 315F it yellows and tastes scorched. Use a thermometer rather than guessing at cold-water tests.
- The water is deliberately vague"1 pint, or rather less" is about 2 cups if the book reckons in US measure, 2.5 if imperial. The looseness suggests the exact amount is not critical, since the water boils off; less water simply shortens the boil.
- Gum arabicStill sold as powdered acacia gum, in spice shops and cake-decorating suppliers. It lumps badly if thrown at hot syrup; stir it into the cold water first and let it hydrate for several minutes before the sugar goes in.
- Cream of tartarIts job is to invert part of the sucrose so the finished candy stays clear instead of turning grainy and opaque. A level teaspoon to two pounds of sugar is a generous dose by later standards, though it comes at a cost: inverted sugar attracts moisture, so the candy will be more prone to going tacky.
- Keeping it clearDo not stir once the sugar has dissolved, and wash any crystals off the sides of the pan with a wet brush. A single stray crystal will seed the whole batch.
- MoldsPeriod Christmas toys were cast in two-part metal molds, tin or pewter, clipped together. Silicone candy molds work; ordinary soft or thin plastics will not take syrup at 300F, though polycarbonate molds sold for hard candy will.
- Color and flavorThe formula gives neither. Add color at the very end, off the heat, and use oil-based flavorings rather than alcohol extracts, which flash off at this temperature.
- Yield and storageTwo pounds of sugar gives roughly 2 pounds of finished candy, enough for a few dozen small figures. Wrap them individually; boiled sugar picks up moisture from humid air and goes sticky within a day or two.
Clear molded sugar figures were a standard Christmas confection in nineteenth-century America, sold from confectioners' windows and hung on trees as ornaments to be eaten later. The tradition is most often traced to Pennsylvania German communities, where "clear toy" or barley-sugar candy was cast in tin and pewter molds shaped as animals, locomotives and Santa Claus figures, though the technique itself is simply the old European barley-sugar craft applied to novelty shapes. Gum arabic and cream of tartar appear here as they do throughout the confectionery of the period, among the standard aids to a candy that stays transparent and unbroken.