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Uncooked Candies: Knead
Ginger Creams 2 tablespoons ginger syrup Confectioners' sugar 4 tablespoons chopped preserved ginger Mix syrup from a jar of preserved ginger with two tablespoons of the chopped ginger, and add sifted confectioners' sugar until stiff enough to knead. Knead until smooth, shape in small balls, and decorate with small pieces of preserved ginger.
Lemon Creams 2 tablespoons lemon juice Few drops lemon extract Sifted confectioners' sugar Yellow color paste Mix lemon juice and extract, and add sugar slowly until stiff enough to knead, adding color paste to make a delicate yellow. Knead with the hands until smooth, roll one fourth inch thick, and cut out with a small round cutter. Maple Nut Creams 4 tablespoons maple syrup 1 cup confectioners' sugar 6 tablespoons chopped nuts Put maple syrup in a small bowl, add sifted confectioners' sugar a tablespoon at a time, stirring until smooth, and adding sufficient sugar to make candy stiff. Knead until smooth. Shape in small balls, and roll in nut meats. Frosted Nuts 1 teaspoon corn syrup 2 tablespoons boiling water Confectioners' sugar Few drops maraschino or vanilla Nuts Put corn syrup, boiling water, and one fourth cup sifted confectioners' sugar in a saucepan or bowl, and stir until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Then add another quarter cup of sugar, and beat vigorously until thick and smooth. Continue adding sugar, one fourth cup at a time, and beating between each addition of sugar, until about two cups of sugar have been used. Flavor with maraschino cordial or vanilla. This frosting should be kept at an even, lukewarm temperature while it is being made, and the saucepan or bowl should be frequently placed in a larger bowl of hot water. The beating of this frosting should continue for about twenty minutes.
Dip walnuts, filberts, Brazil nuts, or hickory nuts, one at a time, into the frosting, and remove with a fork or candy dipper to an oiled marble slab or to waxed paper.
Four variations on uncooked fondant, where sifted confectioners' sugar is kneaded into a flavored liquid until it behaves like dough. No thermometer and no boiling, but the proportions are loose and the texture depends entirely on how much sugar you work in.
- How much sugarOnly the maple creams give a figure: 4 tablespoons of syrup to about 1 cup of sifted confectioners' sugar. For the others, add sugar a little at a time until the mass stops sticking to your hands. Add it slowly; overshooting gives a dry, crumbly paste that will not hold a ball.
- Sift, and mean itConfectioners' sugar packs and lumps in the bag, and a lump will not dissolve in this small amount of cold liquid. Push it through a fine sieve before measuring or the finished creams will be gritty.
- Preserved gingerThis is stem ginger in heavy syrup, sold in jars in Asian groceries and better supermarkets; the syrup in the jar is the two tablespoons called for. Crystallized ginger is not a substitute here since it brings no syrup, though it works for the decorative pieces on top.
- Color pastePaste colors are still sold for cake decorating and are the right choice because they add almost no liquid. Use a toothpick's worth at a time; liquid supermarket coloring will loosen the fondant and force in more sugar.
- Let them dryKneaded creams are soft when made and firm up as surface moisture evaporates. Leave the shaped balls and rounds uncovered on waxed paper for several hours before boxing them, or they will slump and stick together.
- Frosted nuts: the water bath is the hingeThe frosting must stay lukewarm and fluid through the whole twenty minutes of beating. As the recipe directs, set the bowl frequently into a larger bowl of hot water and return it whenever the frosting begins to stiffen; if it cools it sets in the bowl and the nuts cannot be dipped smoothly.
- Maraschino cordialThe original means the cherry liqueur, not the syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries. Vanilla is the given alternative.
Uncooked or "kneaded" fondant belongs to a wave of home candy-making that ran through American household books in the first decades of the twentieth century, when boxed confectionery was a fashionable gift and candy-making was often taught alongside domestic science. Boiled fondant demands a thermometer, a marble slab and a feel for the soft-ball stage; these recipes sidestep all of it by using confectioners' sugar, which is milled fine enough to pass for the smooth texture of a worked fondant. Candies of this sort were commonly recommended to beginners, and the chapter heading points the same way: the whole technique is in the hands. The flavorings suggest something about the pantry of the period too — preserved ginger in syrup was a familiar imported jar, maple syrup a domestic staple, and maraschino a cordial a household might keep for flavoring rather than drinking.