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Hard Candies

BRITTLE candies like butterscotch, barley sugar, peppermint sticks, brittles and nougats, are cooked to 290 degrees F. or up to 330 degrees F. They should be thin and very brittle when finished.

Candies boiled to a high temperature and pulled must be handled with canvas gloves, in front of a warm oven or batch warmer. Much experience is required to successfully manipulate the syrup used in making Christmas and stick candies, and it will hardly pay the home candy maker to attempt them. Barley Sugar Drops 2 cups sugar 1 cup water Color paste 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar Flavoring extract Put sugar and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, add coloring if desired, cover, and boil three minutes. Remove cover, add cream of tartar, and boil to 300 degrees F., or until it just begins to change color. Add few drops of flavoring--peppermint, lemon, or orange extract--and drop at once on tin sheet from tip of spoon, in portions the size of a silver half dollar. Store in a tight glass jar.

Barley Sugar Sticks Prepare candy as directed in Barley Sugar Drops. Pour on tin sheet in strips four inches long and three fourths inch wide. Take up one at a time, twist, and place in covered glass jars.