Sweets for Christmas

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 27 (Supplement)

Sweets for Christmas

Here la a list of necessaries you require to make them with:

A hair sieve; a marble slab; a seamless steel pan to hold about two and

a half quarts, and a double saucepan; a spatula; a palette knife; a wire fork and ring for dipping purposes, and a sugar thermometer.

Coconut Kisses.

Required.—One pound of loaf sugar, a quarter of a pound of desiccated co nut, three-quarters of a gill of cold water, raspberry essence and vanilla. Put the sugar and water in a pan by the fire and let the sugar dissolve slowly. Then put the lid on the pan and boil the syrup quickly to 240 degrees, or until a little of it, when dropped Into cold water, left for a second or two and taken out, will form ft firm ball like putty. Remove the pan from the fire and divide the syrup Into two. To one half add vanilla to taste, and to the other a few drops of cochineal to colour it pink and raspberry essence to flavour. Keep the two portions stirred briskly until the sugar begins to look cloudy; then stir in the coconut, dividing it equally between the two lots. Mix well, and as it begins to set, form it Into round, high heaps on a clean dish or slab, and leave until set. Vanilla Caramels. Required— Ono pound of canc sugar, one tablespoonful of honey, one level teaspoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of warm water, a small teacupful of cream, vanilla. Brush a deep tin over with good salad oil. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan on the fire and stir them all the time till they boil. To test if it is cooked enough, pour a few drops in very cold water, and if they crisp in a minute or two, it is done. Flavour it strongly with vanilla. Pour it into the tin, and when it is nearly set, cut It into crisp strips one inch wide with an oiled knife, and then cut them across into squares. Wrap eacli in a little square of oiled pr per. Fruit Creams. These may be flavoured with either lemon, orange, or raspberry, and are best made just before they are wanted, as they dry up rather. A great advantage of these sweets is that they need no cooking. Required—Twelve ounces of Iclug sugar, one orange and some yellow colouring, one lemon, Raspberry flavouring and some cochineal, a small piece of candied orange peel. Divide the sugar into three, put each division in a separate basin. Grate the orange-rind into one, the lemonrind into another. Squeeze enough orange juice on to the orange-rind to mix it into a stiff paste. Knead this paste well with your hand. If it, crumbles when you try to shape it,' add more juice, or if it is too sticky, add more sugar. Dip the end of a skewer into the yellow colouring and then into the sugar, work in the drop of colouring and, if necessary, add more. Take a small piece of the mixture in your hands, roll it into a round ball about the size of a filbert nut. As each ball is shaped, lay it on a tray lined with grease-proof paper, and gently pinch the top of the ball between your finger and thumb, so that a dent is made on each side and the sweet is more oval than round. Have ready some neat strips of the outside of the orange peel, press a little strip well flown on the top of each kind of cream directly it is shaped. Lemon Creams. Use lemon in the place of orange, but gse no colouring, and proceed just aa for orange creams. Raspberry Creams. Mix the sugar slowly and carefully with raspberry flavouring, cochineal, end cold water until the mixture is of the right stiffness, colour, and flavour. Toffee. Required.—Half a pound of butter, one and a half pounds of Demerara sugar, Three-quarters of a pound of golden syrup, a teaspoonful of lemon-juice. Put the butter into a clean pan and let it melt. Next add the sugar, golden ftyrup, lemon-juice, and a teaspoonful Of water. Boil steadily, stirring well. ■When it seems to be thickening, have ieady a cup of clean cold water. Let ft few drops of the toffee fall into the ■prater; let them remain for about four Seconds, then lift a piece out and see if It snaps off quite crisply when broken. Jf not, continue to boil until it does. When cooked enough, pour out on to buttered tins or plates, and let it remain tin cold. The fire must not be fierce and the toffee must be well stirred. Employer (to office-boy who wants ft’fternoon off for grandmother’s 'funeral): “My boy, be economical—don’t waste your grandmothers so karly in the season. Save them up for the cup-ties." Mother: “Now remember, Wilfle, there’s a ghost in that dark cupboard Where I keep tJa© birthday cake." Wilfie: “It’s funny that you never Blame the ghost when some of the cake goes—theg it’s always mer_