Creamed Fruits

Creamed fruits are made by dipping the fruits in melted fondant. Add a little water.

drop by drop, until the fondant is sufficiently thin to cover the fruit. Always melt it in a small pan standing in a pan of hot water. Stir the fondant constantly while it is melting.

Oranges, candied cherries, white grapes and nuts make very nice confections when neatly dipped.

English Walnut Creams

Work half a pound of fondant until creamy, and add, a little at a time, a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Have ready English walnuts shelled and divided in halves; take a piece of the fondant the size of a marble, roll in the hand, place it between two halves of the walnuts, press together and stand them aside to harden.

Creamed dates are simply dates with the stones removed and the spaces filled with flavored fondant.

Peppermint Drops

Boil one pound of sugar and half a pint of water for five minutes; after they begin to boil, add three drops of good oil of peppermint, or a teaspoonful of strong essence of peppermint; take the mixture from the fire, stir rapidly until it begins to have a whitish appearance, then pour it quickly into tiny greased or oiled patty-pan moulds. The drops will be ready to serve as soon as they are hard.

The mixture must be stirred sufficiently long to look white as it goes into the pans.

Chocolate Caramels

Put half a pound of grated, unsweetened chocolate, four ounces of butter, one pound of brown sugar, half a cupful of molasses, half a cupful of cream and a teaspoonful of vanilla sugar into a granite saucepan; stir the whole over a slow fire until thoroughly mixed, and then boil slowly until the mixture hardens when dropped into ice-water. Turn into greased, shallow pans and stand aside to cool. When nearly cold dip a sharp knife in olive oil, mark the caramels in squares; when cold break apart and wrap in waxed paper.

Panocha

Have ready shelled a quantity of pecan nuts. Put one pound of dark brown sugar and half a cupful of cream into a saucepan; stir over the fire until it melts and boils, and forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Take from the fire, add half a pint of pecans, stir until the sugar is granulated, and then drop it in little cakes on oiled paper.

Mexican Sugar Candy

Shell sufficient pecans to make half a pint of meats. Put a cupful of granulated sugar into an iron saucepan, stir until it melts but do not let it burn. Take from the fire and when slightly cooled add a cupful of milk, another cupful of sugar and stir the whole until, when dropped into cold water, the syrup forms a soft ball. Take from the fire, add the nuts, stir until it granulates, and turn into a shallow, greased pan. Quickly flatten it out, and when cold break into squares.