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Apple Sugar
(Germany.) Boil 1 pint of the juice of cooked apples, or as much cider with 2 pounds of sugar, until it cracks when dropped in cold water. Take out in spoonfuls, twist into sticks, dust with sugar as above, for use.
A hard-crack sugar candy flavoured with apple, from the chapter of confections. The whole recipe hangs on one temperature, and the original tells you how to find it without a thermometer.
- "Cracks when dropped in cold water"This is the hard-crack stage, 300-310F on a candy thermometer. A drop spooned into cold water should form brittle threads that snap rather than bend; anything softer will not hold a twisted stick.
- Measurements1 pint is 2 cups; 2 pounds of sugar is roughly 4 1/2 cups granulated. The ratio is high on purpose, since most of the liquid boils away and the apple contributes only flavour and a little acid.
- Juice of cooked applesSimmer apples with a little water and drain through a jelly bag or fine sieve without pressing, so the syrup stays clear. Cloudy or pulpy juice makes a dull, grainy candy.
- CiderThe recipe does not say which is meant; period usage covers both, with 'sweet cider' the usual term for the unfermented juice. Sweet (unfermented) apple cider is the sensible choice here, rather than hard cider or reconstituted concentrate with added preservatives.
- Boiling timeAllow a good half hour or more in a wide, heavy pan, though it varies with pan and heat. The syrup lingers just above the boiling point of water for a long stretch while water leaves, then climbs quickly at the end; watch it closely once it begins to rise.
- Pectin and acidApple juice brings both, and the acid helps invert some of the sugar so the candy stays glassy instead of crystallising. Do not stir once the syrup boils, and wash any sugar crystals down from the pan sides with a wet brush.
- TwistingMolten sugar at 300F causes severe burns. Pour onto an oiled marble slab or oiled sheet pan, let it firm at the edges, and work it with oiled hands only when it is cool enough to handle, or pull it with two forks.
- Yield and keepingClose to the weight of sugar you started with, since only water is lost; the number of sticks depends on how large a spoonful you take. Store in a tin between layers of waxed paper; humidity will turn the surface sticky.
The recipe belongs to a genre of nineteenth-century "apple sugar" and "cider candy" confections that turned a glut of autumn fruit into something that kept through winter. Before granulated sugar became cheap, boiling cider down was itself a way of making a sweetener; here the process is inverted, with plenty of sugar added and the apple reduced to a flavouring. The pulled-and-twisted stick shape is the standard confectioner's finish of the era, the same handling that produced barley sugar and molasses taffy, and the test of dropping syrup into cold water was a common method in kitchens where a candy thermometer was an uncommon luxury.