Homemade Candy Recipes

Grandma's Homemade Candy Recipes Make Delicious, Old-Fashioned Candies

Like many farm families, we used our favorite homemade candy recipes to make our own candy on the cook stove after the evening's chores were done. Mom mixed the ingredients, and we all took turns stirring the bubbling pot until it was done.

Soon, the plate of freshly made candy was set on the kitchen table. Dad listened to his favorite radio program, Mom knitted, I read my comics, and we all enjoyed nibbling on the still-warm candy. It was so good!

Now, you can use the same homemade candy recipes and experience the nostalgic fun of making your own old-fashioned candies.

3 cups granulated sugar, 2 cups milk, pecans, and butter. Place 1 cup sugar in iron skillet and melt to a light brown. When melted add 1 cup milk. [Then add remaining milk and sugar.] Boil until it forms soft ball in cold water. Remove from fire, add butter and pecans, and beat thoroughly. Pour on buttered dish or oiled paper and cut in squares. Use about 1/4 pound of butter and as many pecans as desired. Be sure to cook over slow fire.

1 medium-sized potato, boiled and mashed fine; add 2 teaspoons butter, 1/4 lb coconut, 1 teaspoon vanilla, stir in 1 lb confectioners' sugar and beat until creamy. Put down in a buttered pan until hard; make 1 inch thick and pour over it 2 melted squares bitter chocolate. Put in a cold place for 2 hours and cut in squares.

Beat the whites of four small eggs to a high, firm froth, stir into it half a pound pulverized sugar, flavor with essence lemon or rose, continue to beat until very light; then drop half the size of an egg, and a little more than an inch apart, on well-buttered letter paper; lay the paper on a half-inch board and place in a hot oven; watch, and as soon as they begin to look yellowish take them out; or, beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, stirring into them very gradually two teacups powdered sugar and two tablespoons cornstarch; bake on buttered tins fifteen minutes in a warm oven, or until slightly brown. Chocolate puffs are made by adding two ounces grated chocolate mixed with the cornstarch. --Mrs. W. W. W.

Honey Candy

This simple honey candy recipe must have been a prize winner. The candy is sooooo good!

One pint of white sugar, water sufficient to dissolve it, and 4 tablespoons honey. Boil till brittle; pull white when cooling.

Cream Candy, or Panocha

This easy cream candy recipe makes a delicious, old-time panocha candy.

One cup of coarsely chopped walnuts, 2 cups of light-brown sugar, 1 cup of pulverized sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, 1 tablespoonful butter. Cook until it will form a little ball by testing it in a shallow dish of water, then remove from fire, and add the walnuts, and flavor with teaspoonful of vanilla; beat until it is creamy and turn out in buttered platter; cut in squares. This is a delicious cream candy. --Hazel Rooklidge

Cinnamon Candy Bars

If you are searching for a cinnamon candy recipe, then you will really love this one!

10 oz almond paste, white 1 egg, 5 oz confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix same as Macaroons.* Dredge a board with sugar, knead mixture slightly, and shape in a long roll. Pat, and roll one-fourth inch thick, using a rolling pin. After rolling, the piece should be four inches wide. Spread with frosting made of white of one egg and two-thirds cup confectioners’ sugar, beaten together until stiff enough to spread.

* Work together almond paste and sugar on a smooth board or marble slab. Then add whites of eggs gradually, and work until mixture is perfectly smooth. Confectioners at first use the hand, afterwards a palette knife, which is not only of use for mixing but for keeping board clean.

Maple Sugar Candy

Early cookbooks often featured homemade candy recipes that called for ingredients people could obtain locally, often on their own farm, and this delicious maple sugar candy recipe is no exception.

1 lb soft maple sugar, 1/4 cup boiling water, 3/4 cup thin cream, 2/3 cup English walnut or pecan meat, cut in pieces. Break sugar in pieces; put into a saucepan with cream and water. Bring to boiling-point, and boil until a soft ball is formed when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, beat until creamy, add nutmeat, and pour into a buttered tin. Cool slightly, and mark in squares.

Put into a suitable kettle pulverized white sugar, 4 lb; the beaten whites of 2 eggs, and the milk of 2 coconuts. Stir together, and place over the fire until you see it is thickening; then, having the meats nicely grated, put in, and watch and stir carefully, till it hardens quickly when dropped into cold water, then pour on buttered tins or marble slab. Spread out to thickness desired, and before cold mark off to suit.

Remarks. --If done with judgement and care, it is very nice. A gentleman or his wife, in the house where I room at this writing, January 1885, makes a batch of this nearly every evening, and sells it the next day to the school children. They sometimes cook it till it takes rather a yellow or brown shade, as some of the children like it better than if left entirely white. --Dr. Chase