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Caramels and Nougatines: Caramel
Cocoanut Caramels To Vanilla Caramel mixture add one cup cocoanut just before pouring it into the buttered pan.
Nut Caramels To Vanilla Caramel mixture add one cup nut meats just before pouring it into the buttered pan.
Raspberry Caramels To Vanilla Caramel mixture add four teaspoons raspberry extract and rose color paste to make the right tint, before pouring it into the buttered pan. Fruit Caramels To Vanilla Caramel mixture add eight figs or three fourths cup raisins cut in pieces, just before pouring it into the buttered pan. Marshmallow Caramels To Vanilla Caramel mixture add sixteen marshmallows cut in pieces, before pouring into buttered pan.
Marshmallow Layer Caramels Prepare any recipe for caramels and pour half the mixture one fourth inch deep in a buttered pan or between candy bars. Cover with a piece of sheet marshmallow cut the same size, and pour remaining caramel mixture over the marshmallow one fourth inch deep. When firm, cut in three quarter inch cubes and wrap in wax paper.
These are variations on a base Vanilla Caramel mixture given earlier in the chapter, so nothing here works without that recipe in hand. The additions all go in off the heat, at the moment the caramel is ready to pour.
- The hinge: add off the heatThe hinge: add at the last moment -- every one of these says "just before pouring." Coconut, nuts, fruit and marshmallow all carry moisture and sugar of their own, so they are folded in only once the caramel has finished cooking, not stirred through it while it is still boiling. Let the bubbling settle for a few seconds, fold once or twice, pour.
- Cook to the right stageChewy caramels are generally taken to firm ball, about 245-250F. Much below that and the slab will be too soft to hold a cut cube; much above and it sets hard and chewy rather than tender. If the base recipe gives only a cold-water test, a thermometer is the easier check.
- CocoanutUsually the prepared shredded or desiccated coconut of the period, though freshly grated is also possible; either is drier and less sweet than modern sweetened flake. Sweetened flake will add both sugar and moisture, so expect a slightly softer set; toasting it first sharpens the flavour and drives off some water.
- Nut meatsSimply shelled nuts, usually walnuts, pecans or almonds. Warm them in a 300F oven for a few minutes before folding in, so they do not chill the caramel, and chop them coarse rather than fine.
- Four teaspoons raspberry extractA heavy dose by modern standards, possibly because period flavourings were less concentrated. Start with one teaspoon of current raspberry extract and taste the mixture before pouring.
- Rose color pasteConcentrated pink food colouring, sold in pots for confectioners. Gel paste is the direct equivalent; liquid supermarket colouring adds water and dulls the set, so use it sparingly if at all.
- Figs and raisinsSnip the hard stem ends off the figs and cut everything no larger than a pea, or the cubes will fall apart on the knife. Very dry fruit can be plumped in hot water and blotted thoroughly dry first.
- Sheet marshmallowA firm slab marshmallow, cut to size, bought in sheets by confectioners and hard to find in ordinary shops today. Large modern marshmallows sliced flat and laid edge to edge in a tight single layer are the practical stand-in; they are softer and will spread a little under the second pour.
- Candy barsNot confections but the confectioner's tool: heavy metal bars laid on an oiled marble slab to frame the caramel to an exact depth. A buttered quarter-sheet pan or a loaf pan lined with parchment does the same work.
- Cutting and yieldCutting -- cool until fully firm, several hours at room temperature, then lift the slab out and cut with a long oiled knife or a bench scraper. The wax paper wrapping the recipe calls for is not decorative; unwrapped caramels stick to each other in storage.
Caramels of this kind belong to the era when American candy making moved from the confectioner's marble slab into the domestic kitchen. The pattern here is one base mixture endlessly varied by what is folded in at the last moment, and the vocabulary gives the trade away: sheet marshmallow, color paste and candy bars were all things a professional bought by the box. Marshmallow itself had recently become cheap and reliable, having shifted in the late nineteenth century from a confection thickened with actual marsh mallow root to one built on gelatin, which is why it turns up here as a stiff sheet to be cut with scissors rather than a paste to be piped. The spelling "cocoanut" was standard in American cookbooks well into the twentieth century.