Old Fashioned Coconut Candy Recipe

Thanks to Mom's favorite old fashioned coconut candy recipes, you can enjoy the exotic, sweet taste of fresh coconut in a homemade candy.

These candies are easy to make and taste wonderful, mouthwatering, and delicious, just as they did back in Grandma's day.

For instance, the chocolate coconut creams blend the freshness of coconut and richness of chocolate to make a great tasting candy, and you'll want to make the coconut drops and fudge too.

Mom's Favorite Old Fashioned Coconut Candy Recipes

Mom's Recipe Scrapbooks (1920s)

Coconut CandyMake Grandma's Homemade Coconut Candy
(Source: ©duha127/Depositphotos.com)

Whenever Mom had pulled one of Grandma's old fashioned coconut candy recipes out of her recipe box, I knew that we were in for a special treat. You will love them too.

Coconut Fudge

1/2 envelope Knox® Sparkling Gelatin, 3 tablespoonfuls cold water, 1 cup shredded coconut, 2 cups sugar, 1 cup milk, 1/2 tablespoonful butter, 1 teaspoonful vanilla.

Soak gelatin in cold water five minutes. Put sugar and milk in saucepan, bring to boiling-point, and let boil until when tried in cold water a soft ball may be formed.

Remove from range, add soaked gelatin, butter, and vanilla. Beat until creamy, add coconut and turn into a buttered pan. —Dainty Desserts for Dainty People

Chocolate Coconut Creams

Use two pounds confectioners' sugar, one-fourth pound grated coconut, one tablespoonful vanilla, a pinch of salt, whites of three eggs (beaten very stiff).

Mix all together, and roll into small balls; let stand one-half hour; then dip into the chocolate prepared thus: One-half cake Baker's® chocolate (grated fine), two tablespoonfuls butter.

Warm the butter; mix in the chocolate. When cool dip the creams in, and set on a buttered plate to harden. —Mrs. Edward E. Powers, Recipes Tried and True

Coconut Cream Candy

Three cups white sugar, scant half cup water, 1/2 teaspoonful cream of tartar; boil 10 minutes, then add 1 cup grated coconut; beat well together and drop on white paper by the spoonful. —Hazel Rooklidge, The Times Cook Book

Coconut Candy

One coconut, 1-1/2 pounds granulated sugar. Put sugar and milk of coconut together, heat slowly until sugar is melted, then boil 5 minutes; add coconut (finely grated), boil 10 minutes longer, stir constantly to keep from burning.

Pour on buttered plates, cut in squares. Will take about 2 days to harden. Use prepared coconut when other cannot be had. —Fruit and Candies

Coconut Drops

Grate the white part of a coconut, the whites of four eggs (well beaten), one-half pound of sifted sugar. Flavor with lemon or rose water. Mix as thick as can be stirred.

Make in balls, putting them about one inch apart on paper on baking tins. Put into a quick oven (425°F); take out when they begin to look yellow. —Mrs. Fisher, Recipes Tried and True

Babette's Old Fashioned Coconut Candy Recipes

Aunt Babette's Cook Book (1889)

Chewy Coconut Caramels

Take one pint of milk, butter about the size of an egg, one coconut grated fine, three pounds of white sugar, and two teaspoonfuls of lemon extract. Boil slowly until stiff, beat to a cream, pour into shallow buttered pans and when set cut into squares.

Old Time Coconut Cones

Whip the whites of five eggs to a very stiff froth and add gradually the whole of one pound of pulverized sugar and one teaspoonful of arrowroot; last, a fresh-grated coconut, or half a pound of desiccated coconut.

Mold the mixture with your hands into small cones (flour your hands); set these far enough apart not to touch one another, upon buttered or waxed paper, in a long baking pan.

Bake in moderate oven (350°F). Be sure to prepare the coconut before you begin; lay the pieces in cold water after paring, until all is grated.

Coconut Drops

Take one pound of grated coconut, half a pound of confectioners' sugar and the stiff-beaten white of one egg. Work all together and roll in the hands into little balls. Bake on buttered tins (375°F).

Fannie Farmer's Old Fashioned Coconut Candy Recipe

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1916)

Coconut Creams

No coconut? One-half cup nutmeat, broken in pieces, may be used in place of coconut for this old fashioned coconut candy recipe from the famous Boston Cooking School.

1-1/2 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons butter, 1/2 cup milk, 1/3 cup shredded coconut, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Put butter into granite saucepan; when melted, add sugar and milk, and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Heat to boiling-point, and boil twelve minutes; remove from fire, add coconut and vanilla, and beat until creamy and mixture begins to sugar slightly around edge of saucepan. Pour at once into a buttered pan, cool slightly, and mark in squares.

Dr. Chase's Old Fashioned Coconut Candy Recipe

Dr. Chase's Receipt Book (1891)

Chewy Coconut Candies

Put into a suitable kettle pulverized white sugar, 4 pounds; 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 coconut 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

Dr. Chase (1817-1885)

Dr. Chase was a compulsive collector of reliable remedies and recipes, and through the prodigious sale of his books, his name became identified as that of a family friend in millions of homes worldwide.

My 1891 edition of Dr. Chase's recipe book is stained and well worn because my grandparents often referred to it, and it is also one of my favorites. The Old Doctor's folksy remarks and historical comments always make for delightful reading.

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