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Milk, cream, and butter enter into the composition of many candies. Heavy cream makes a rich candy that will keep soft for a long time, and may be used either sweet or sour. When cream is not available milk and butter may be substituted, or evaporated milk may be used.
Butter should be of the best quality. Butterine or peanut oil is less expensive, and may sometimes be substituted for butter. EGGS Eggs for candy should be fresh. If whites only are required, care should be taken in separating that no particle of yolk gets into the white, as it will prevent its being beaten light and stiff. Bowl and egg beater must be absolutely clean, dry, and cool, or whites will not beat up well. Dried eggs or egg albumen are largely used in manufactured candies. FRUITS Fresh, canned, and dried fruits are used in candy-making, and add bulk and flavor, while reducing the sweetness.
Fresh fruits may be dipped in fondant, chocolate, or glace, or cooked down to a thick jelly. Canned fruits, as apricots or pineapple, are useful when fresh fruits are not obtainable, and jams, like raspberry, may be mixed with fondant for bonbon centers. Maraschino cherries are sometimes used, with their syrup, to give flavor and variety to fudge and bonbons.
Dried fruits, like raisins, dates, figs, and prunes, are cheap and nutritious. Combined with nuts or fondant they may be classed with candies and used as a dessert.
Candied fruits--such as apricots, cherries, pears, pineapple, and plums--may be prepared at home, or purchased in city grocery stores, or from dealers in confectioners' supplies. They are valuable for decoration, for centers of chocolates and bonbons, and as an ingredient of fudges and glaced fruits. Angelica is the green stem of a plant, used chiefly for its color. FLAVORINGS Extract of vanilla properly made is the pure essence of the vanilla bean dissolved in alcohol. Many vanilla extracts are made from Tonka beans, or from vanillin prepared synthetically in a laboratory. These are labeled vanilla compounds.
Extracts of lemon and orange are made by dissolving in alcohol, oil obtained from the yellow skin of the fruit.
Raspberry, strawberry, cherry, apple, pineapple, banana, and other familiar fruit-flavors constitute a class of flavoring extracts similar in character and similarly made.
Attar or otto of rose, one of the first perfumes and perhaps the most exquisite of all, is the base of true rose extract.
Ginger extract is made by steeping and filtering ground ginger roots in alcohol.
Almond oil is procured by pressing, powdering, and drying bitter almonds, allowing the mixture to ferment, and then distilling it by steam. Almond extract is the oil dissolved in alcohol.
Pistachio flavor can better be simulated in candy by using one part almond extract and two parts vanilla extract than by using pistachio extract. Peppermint oil is distilled from dried peppermint plants. Oil of wintergreen is made by distillation from the leaves of the wintergreen plant, which is found in New York and Pennsylvania.
Maple flavor is a preparation of roots and herbs used to give a maple taste to white or brown sugar candies.
All spice extracts are made either by dissolving an essential oil in alcohol or by percolating a ground bark with alcohol.
COLORINGS The varied color of candies may be due to the food materials of which they are made, or to small amounts of coloring matter added to them. Satisfactory pastes may be obtained in eight colors, in small glass jars selling for fifteen or twenty-five cents each. They are inspected and registered by the United States Government. Small amounts only are required for the delicate shades that are desirable in first-class candies. The color may be taken on the end of a toothpick and mixed directly with the candy, or be diluted with a few drops of water before being added.
GELATINE Gelatine is obtained by the treatment of skin, ligaments, and bones of young calves with boiling water. It is for sale in sheets, in shreds, or granulated. The latter is most convenient to use, but sheet gelatine is considered best for Turkish paste.