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Popcorn Candies: Sugared
Red Sugared Popcorn Prepare as Sugared Popcorn, adding a little red color paste to syrup just before adding the corn.
Brown Sugared Popcorn Prepare as Sugared Pop Corn, using brown sugar instead of white. Chocolate Sugared Popcorn 2 quarts popped corn 2 tablespoons butter 2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup water 2 squares chocolate Pick over the corn, discarding all hard kernels. Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, water, and chocolate. Stir over fire until chocolate is melted and boil to 238 degrees F., or until it will form a soft ball when tried in cold water. Pour over corn, and stir until every kernel is coated with sugar. Mock Violets Popcorn Fondant Violet color paste Angelica Select large, open kernels of corn that will resemble the shape of violets. Color fondant a rich violet shade, melt it over hot water, and dip kernels of corn one at a time in the melted fondant, attach fine stems of angelica, place on paraffin paper, and leave until dry. Serve as a bonbon or use as a garnish on a bed of spun sugar around a mold of ice cream.
Popcorn Nests Make popcorn balls and shape into hollow nests. Line with fringed wax paper, and fill with salted nuts or candies for a holiday dinner table.
A cluster of variations that assume you already know the base Sugared Popcorn recipe and have fondant on hand. The chocolate version is the only fully specified one, and it is the reliable place to start.
- Chocolate squaresTwo squares means 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, the standard 1 oz square of the period. Bittersweet will work but the candy will be sweeter, since the 2 cups of brown sugar already carry the load.
- 238F is the whole recipeSoft ball stage is what makes the coating cling in a chewy shell rather than run off or shatter. Use a thermometer; the cold-water test given here is accurate but slow, and brown sugar syrup darkens fast past 240F.
- Stir off the heatPour the syrup over the corn in a large warmed bowl and keep turning until it stops flowing. If you leave it in the pan the residual heat scorches the sugar against the metal.
- Pick over the cornThe instruction to discard hard kernels is not fussiness. An unpopped kernel coated in hard candy is a broken tooth, and it is worth doing for every variation here.
- Color pastePaste colors are far more concentrated than the liquid supermarket bottles; a drop or two of paste on the end of a toothpick is a full measure. Liquid coloring in the quantity needed to tint hot syrup red will thin it noticeably.
- AngelicaCandied angelica stem is now hard to find outside specialty suppliers. Thin strips of candied citron, or green-tinted fondant rolled into stems, can stand in.
- Paraffin paperPlain wax paper. Parchment or a silicone mat works better for fondant-dipped pieces, which release cleanly once set.
- Fondant handlingMelt poured fondant over hot, not boiling, water and keep it under about 105F. Overheated fondant loses its gloss and dries dull and grainy instead of setting with a clean shell.
- YieldThe chocolate batch coats 2 quarts of popped corn, roughly six to eight servings as a party sweet. It is best eaten soon after making and goes tacky in humid weather.
Sugared popcorn belongs to a burst of American popcorn confectionery that followed the spread of commercial poppers and cheap corn in the late nineteenth century, the same current that produced molasses-coated caramel corn and the popcorn ball as a Hallowe'en and Christmas fixture. The last two entries show the decorative end of that range: Mock Violets asks the cook to sort popped kernels by shape, dip each in tinted fondant and fit it with an angelica stem, and the recipe offers it either as a bonbon or as a garnish on spun sugar around a mold of ice cream. Imitation flowers of fondant, gum paste and spun sugar were part of the confectioner's repertoire in this period.