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Molasses Candy
2 cupfuls brown sugar 1/4 cupful molasses 5 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1/4 teaspoonful salt 1 gill water 1 teaspoonful vanilla extract Dissolve sugar in water in saucepan over fire, then add Crisco, molasses, and salt and boil until when tested in cold water it forms a hard ball, or 254° F. Now add vanilla and pour into Criscoed tin. When quite cold break into rough pieces.
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A straightforward hard-ball candy that needs only a thermometer and a steady hand. The temperature is the whole recipe.
- A gillHalf a cup, 4 fluid ounces. Enough to dissolve the sugar; the rest boils off.
- 254°F is not negotiable254°F matters -- That is within the hard-ball stage (roughly 250-265°F). A good deal under and the candy stays tacky and never breaks cleanly; well over and it moves toward brittle, with molasses browning fast. Use a digital thermometer and check it in boiling water first.
- CriscoAny solid vegetable shortening works, or unsalted butter for better flavour at a slight cost in shelf life. Five tablespoons in this quantity of sugar is what keeps the finished candy from setting up glassy.
- "Criscoed tin"A greased shallow pan — an 8-inch square or a quarter sheet. Grease it generously and have it ready before you start boiling; there is no time to prepare it afterward.
- MolassesUse unsulphured light or dark molasses, not blackstrap, which is bitter and will dominate the brown sugar.
- StirringStir until the sugar dissolves, then leave it alone apart from swirling the pan. Scrape the sides down once with a wet brush to keep stray crystals from seeding the batch.
- Pouring and breakingDo not scrape the pan bottom as you pour; that layer is often grainier. Let it cool completely, then crack it with the back of a spoon or a knife handle rather than trying to cut it.
- Yield and keepingRoughly a pound or a little more. Wrap pieces individually in wax paper and keep them airtight -- molasses candy pulls moisture from humid air and pieces can fuse together. Better not made on a wet day.
The Story of Crisco (1913) was Procter & Gamble's book-length argument for hydrogenated cottonseed oil, published a couple of years after the product launched, and its job was to prove the new shortening could do everything butter and lard did. A candy chapter served that purpose neatly: confectionery is unforgiving, and showing Crisco holding up at 254°F made the case for frying and pastry by implication. Molasses candy itself long predates the book — molasses was the cheap sweetener of the American nineteenth century, a byproduct of Caribbean sugar refining, and pulled molasses taffy was standard at candy-pulling parties, the kind of social evening built around a task that needs many hands. This version skips the pulling and simply pours and breaks, giving a hard, dark, brittle-ish slab rather than the pale aerated ribbon that comes from working the cooled mass by hand.