Vintage Candy Recipes from the 1941 Candy Booklet: "The Candy Book"

 

 

 

 

When December started, I thought it might be fun to feature some vintage candy recipes from my collection.  I got as far as scanning a couple of the pages and then life took a different turn.  We had some unplanned things pop up and priorities changed; holiday baking and goodies took a backseat to life and of course, posting vintage recipes from an old 1941 candy booklet was so far down the priority list that it literally was off my radar.

I now have zero interest in posting this fun vintage recipe run that I had planned.  I happened to see these unused files on my laptop today and realized I should probably just post all of them here along with the images - in one post.  This way, if anyone in the universe is looking for any of these old vintage candy recipes that their grandmothers or great-grandmothers (or even great-great-grandmothers) made, they can be found.  

If you right click on the image and open it in its own browser window it will be very large and easily readable if you are having trouble reading the print in the current fit-to-page size.

Cocoa Fondant Fudge
Condensed Milk Candy
Whipped Cream Fudge
Caramel Cream Squares
Malted Milk Nut Dainty
Nut Kisses
Baked Fruit Fudge

 

Barley Sugar
Brittled Almonds
Horehound Candy
Tropical Nuggets
Ginger Bars
Stick-Jaw
Butterscotches
Almond Butter Crunch
Rice Flakes Candies

 

Fruit Creams
Gingerees
Peppermint Creams
Baltimore Layer Candy
Maple Creams
Maple Brittle
14-Minute Maple Candy
Maple Molasses Gems

 

Coconut Caramels
Coconut Drops
Coconut Dainties
Coconut Cones
Coconut Straws
Coconut Squares
Simple Cooked Marzipan
Uncooked Marzipan

 

Make Up And Use Later Marzipan
Marzipan Goodies
Golden Marzipan
Honey Glazed Cherries

 

Chocolate Fudge
White Fudge
Almond Fudge

Chocolate Maple Fudge
Sour Cream Candy
Molasses Fudge
Panocha
Maple Panocha
Coffee Panocha

Gumdrops
Pralines
Turkish Paste
Rainbow Candy

 

 

 

 

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'Knitted' Look Mitten and Hat Cut-out Sugar Cookies - with a cable knit frosting decor look

A quick photo snapped while decorating. The blue cookies were decorated like knitted cookies too.

   

Hats and Mittens - that was my 'theme' for cut out sugar cookies this year.  I still did some Christmas trees and a couple others but I was really excited about the hats and mittens this year.

You would think I would have taken a lot of great photos then, right?  Wrong.  This year, December 13th I got thrown for a 'loop' and the world got crazy busy and time got away from me.  I managed to get these cookies made and enough goodies to make up 5 huge trays this year but that's it.  

Life.  It's what happens when you are busy making other plans.

So this poor excuse for a photo is what makes it to the blog and I only am able to quickly post links to some of the items I used to make them because I literally ordered a lot of my ingredients from Amazon so I was able to simply look up my own order to see what I used.

UPDATE: 

Yesterday I remembered I had a tray of cookies in the freezer waiting to go with a family member to her co-workers!  I grabbed the tray out and quickly snapped a few pictures so at least I can say I got a few pictures of one random cookie tray in 2021!

 

 

Thoughts:  I don't love the blue knit cookies as much as I do the white knit cookies.  I debated leaving the blue mitten cookies solid, but I had plenty of icing left so I went ahead and did a gray cable knit design on them.  They are 'fine' but I think next year I might leave some solid and some knit.

Note:  I ordered my Ann Clark mitten cookie-cutter from another site as I was ordering some sanding sugars and other items from there.  Amazon does have the mitten cookie-cutter but it's a little more on Amazon than if you find it elsewhere for about $2-3.  The difference of course is you probably have to pay shipping elsewhere so in the end, Amazon is basically the same price since you probably are getting free shipping.   

*If you can't see the image links below it's because you have an ad blocker on your site that blocks some Amazon images.  Just disable your ad-blocker and refresh the page to see all the links.

 

  You'll need your cookie cutters (mittens, hats, etc)

  Love these to swirl the royal base icing to get out air bubbles and push it into the little crevices.

  These are the clips to go on the top of your piping and icing bags to hold in the icing from squishing out the top.

   Invested in some 1 and 1.5 size tips this year!  Nice and tiny.

 

  I usually just use egg whites in my royal icing but it takes a good number of them and I didn't plan to make lemon curd or puddings to use the yolks up so I purchased more meringue powder; it's worth the investment if you don't have plans to use up the yolks from the whites used to make the icing.

 

Sprinkles!  Use whatever colors you wish.  I went with a mixture of metallic sugar sprinkles this year;  blues, silvers and white.

 

  A nice set of gel food colors.... mix and match to get the shades you like.

 

 

  Piping bags of course!

 

This is just one of the many fun shades of sugar sprinkles available.

 

 

I also made some chocolate sugar cookies using a tree shaped cookie cutter this year.  The chocolate sugar cookies are a family favorite no matter what shapes I use each year!

 

Royal Icing Recipe - posted numerous times on An American Housewife - this is just one of them.
  

 

 

 

 

 

From my Instagram... Christmas cookies are well underway and continuoously being baked, made, decorated........ #HousewifeBarbie #AnAmericanHousewife

  

An American Housewife Chit Chat:  Like most everyone, December is a busy month.  I've not bothered to update my page for many reasons; mostly because I've left many Christmas Cookie lists and links in place - which is what I and my family and friends that use my site are mostly looking for right now and using.  

I also tend to make many of the same cookies and goodies every year because everyone has their 'favorites' that I can't delete from the list!

Busy or not... baking is happening.  I post some of them on my stories on Instagram - but I don't always make an actual permanent post of them so if you don't follow me you'll miss my stories.  Not a big loss.... LOL.  But if you want to know what I'm up to, that's the best place to look!

I have made a number of items over the past 1 1/2 weeks... I've not had much time. I've got an 18 month old 'helper' as well who is a high maintenance kind of Little One - busy busy busy and has a short attention span, so that factors in to me trying to get all these cookies and goodies made!

 List so far:

Sugar Cookies - cut out and frozen, waiting on decorating day
Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Cut Out Cookies - waiting on icing and decorating
Marshmallow No Bake Fruitcake
Salted Nut Bars
No Bake Cookies
Molasses Cookies
Peanut Blossoms

Umm... I may have made one or two more, I honestly can't remember at this moment.  But, baking is happening!

The BIG TASKS are the 2 days of icing and decorating... those will be done next weekend, just before our out of town guests arrive for the holidays.

So... just a quick HELLO to my readers, letting you know I'm still around, still cooking and baking as usual. And if you need any specific recipe, be sure to enter the terms into the SEARCH bars I have on the side or at the top of the page... or by label listed to the right.  I have about 2600 recipes (?) or so, so I probably have a good one for you to use!

 

 

 

 

 

It's that time of year again! MINI THANKSGIVING DINNER CUPCAKES - it looks like turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and more but it's all candy! (Updated for 2022)

One of the most posted recipes on the site year after year... mini Thanksgiving Dinner Cupcakes.

I can't even count the number of times I've posted this awesome little Thanksgiving day dessert - seven? Eight?  They look like little plates of tiny turkey with gravy, green beans or peas (depending on what I use that year), cranberries and mashed potatoes with butter but it's really all candy!

It was probably almost twenty years ago that I started to make these... wow, time flies.

When I started to make these little Thanksgiving Cupcakes, the internet didn't really exist in any 'real' way yet.  It was invented, yet not everyone had a computer, and those that did, didn't necessarily have internet.  Even if you did have internet, there weren't that many retail stores online and buying anything online wasn't a thing yet either. 

You still had to search for ingredients locally at your grocery stores and if you were lucky, you may live in city large enough to have a cake decorating supply store.  We didn't at the time.  I went from store to store to look for things I could use and tracked down a cookie with a fancy edge here... little red sugar crystals there... Brach's Maple Nut Candies somewhere else.

I recall the year I tracked down the long green jimmie sprinkles.  I had to convince the bakery department of our local grocery store to please sell me some sprinkles as I couldn't find anything and had been to literally every store in town.  She filled a little Ziplock baggie with green jimmies, debated a few minutes on what price and sku to put on it for the cashier, and then charged me what I believe came to about $1.60 at the time.  I was so thrilled to have those sprinkles that I hoarded them for THIS and ONLY THIS baked goodie for the next few years - no one in the house was allowed to use them as I had to work so hard to track them down.

Now of course, we could (and do) order everything we need online in less than 3 minutes and delivered straight to our door.

MINI THANKSGIVING MEAL CUPCAKES

24 baked and cooled cupcakes of your choice
1 sm pkg. Brach's Maple Nut Candies
2 cans white frosting (or homemade)
1 tube Yellow decorating gel or yellow food color gel (in a little tube)
1-2 T Tiny round nonpareils - red for cranberries and/or green for peas

options: Or use red sugar crystals for cranberries or use the long skinny green jimmies and call them green beans

1/3 c (about) chocolate chips or butterscotch chips to melt for 'gravy'
A package of cookies of your choice (or homemade) to look like a plate (a pretty edge on the cookie is a nice touch)
Yellow frosting or other color besides white for the 'plate' (use some yellow food color to tint a bit of the white frosting yellow).

Bake and cool your favorite cupcake recipe. Frost each cupcake with white or tinted frosting of your choice and top each with a cookie while the frosting is soft to 'adhere' the cookie-plate to the cupcake.

Carefully frost a circle on each cookie to be your plate. 

Be sure not to frost more than 2 or 3 'plates' at  a time as you want the frosting to be soft enough to press the candy 'food' into.  

Slice the maple nut candies thin and place them on the cookie plate to be 'turkey'. 

Dab some white frosting next to it for 'mashed potatoes' followed with a little dab of yellow gel food color as 'butter'.  

Add the 'cranberries' (red colored sugar or nonpereils) and little green 'peas' or 'beans' depending on the sprinkles you use. 

Melt your butterscotch or chocolate chips and thin with a little vegetable oil. Drizzle over the 'turkey' as gravy.

 2008

2009

2010

2022 UPDATE:  apparently Brach's Maple Nut Goodies are almost impossible to find  now.  Is it one of the weird shortages we've seen recently?  I don't know!  But after looking for these goodies at Amazon, I realized the links show they aren't available.  I went to the Brach's website and they show them, but when I clicked on 'buy now' at Amazon, they were not available.  You may be able to find them at some of your local stores but Amazon does have these which might work as a substitution perhaps.  (I am going to check at Tractor Supply, Publix and Walmart in person on my next trips to the retail stores.)

Currently not available (strangely) as of November 2022 - Brachs Maple Nut Goodies Roasted Peanuts in Crunchy Toffee with Real Maple Coating, 4 Oz Pack (3 Packs)

 

 

Pillsbury Creamy Supreme White Frosting, 16-Ounce (Pack of 8)

 

 

Wilton Gel Tube.75 oz, LEMON

 

 

CK Products 3.8 Ounce Non Pareils Bottle, Red

 

 

CK Products 4 Ounce Non Pareils Bottle, Green

 

Use any cookie for the base that has a decorative edge.  Most years I ended up using the very affordable vanilla sandwich cookies sold at any grocery store; one year I used tiny lemon tartlets as it's all I could find at the time.  Here are Walkers Shortbread Rounds... 

Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread, Rounds, 5.3 oz

 

 

 

Fall: Pumpkin Time... this one is another pumpkin cake with streusel topping

  

 

 

Crumb Topping:

1/2  c almond flour 
1 T good quality coconut flour
1/4 c Swerve Brown
1/4 c butter, soft
1/4 t cinnamon

Pumpkin Cake: 

 

1 c almond flour 

1/2 c natural sweetener(s) - I use Erythritol, monk fruit and some allulose mixed

1/4 c vanilla or unflavored whey protein powder (I use Isopure)

2 T coconut flour

2 t baking powder 

1/2 t cinnamon, ginger
dash of cloves and nutmeg

1/4 t salt 

2/3 cup pumpkin puree 

2 eggs

3 T butter, melted

1 t vanilla extract 

 

Glaze

1/4 - 1/3 cup powdered sweetener(s) - I use a mixture of 2-3 I keep in a container in the pantry
1 T cream cheese (optional)

2 tablespoon cream 

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Place the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Put the eggs, pumpkin, butter and vanilla in another large bowl and mix until smooth. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Grease a small cake, bundt or springform pan that fits inside your instant pot.  

 

Pour the batter into the pan.  To make it easier to pull your pan out of the instant pot, use a long piece of aluminum foil, folded over a few times and set the pan in the middle of it, pulling the sides up and over the pan so you can 'lift' it out easily when it's done. (Or if you are lucky enough to use a 'sling' now made for lifting pans out of your instant pot, use that! I don't have one though...)

 

Sprinkle the crumb topping over the batter.  Set a trivet in a 6-quart Instant Pot and pour in 1 cup of water. Place the pan on the trivet, seal the lid, press manual cook, and set the timer for 35 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. 

 

Open lid and let cool in the instant pot for 10 minutes before removing.

Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl or processor. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake.

 

 Making the crumb topping up

  

I might add about 1/4 c chopped pecans to this next time.... 

  

In the pan...

 

Sprinkled the crumb topping on - but also you can see the foil I use as a 'handle' to lower and raise the pan into the instant cooker.  I think some people cover the whole top with foil as well - I assume to keep the excess condensation from running back onto the cake?  If you are using a springform pan, you'll want to wrap the outside of the pan with foil for sure so no water seeps in through the seams of it.

In the instant pot (or in my case, the Cosori)

  Here is a photo of it 'done' and out of the instant pot, cooling on the stove.

 

 Ready for the glaze

  

You wouldn't have to put a glaze on it if you didn't want to.

 

It's just a basic glaze - sweeteners, a little cream cheese, a bit of cream and a dash of vanilla. 

Was great with coffee - and it freezes well.

I happened to already have a small, tall cake pan with a removable bottom that fit perfectly inside my Instant Pot when I tried it.  I would test the pans you have to see if you have a small round pan, a bundt pan or any style pan that works.  A 7" round pan will usually fit inside a 6 qt. instant pot pressure cooker.  

Here are the cake pans with removable bottoms similar to the one I happened to already have on hand:

  Various sized cake pans with removable bottoms for easy 'out' and cleaning.

 

 

You can see in the photo above, I used a tiny food processor to mix my glaze.  It's part of a Cuisinart stick blender (immersion blender) set I got years ago, similar to this one that comes with other attachments.

 

Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender 

I'm fairly sure that 'way back when' I learned I could cook a cake in my instant pot from this cookbook;  Keto Instant Pot: 130+ Healthy Low-Carb Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker. I'm not completely positive as I don't have this book in my kitchen any longer so I can't check.

I had bought a few of her books when they first came out, but realized that her style of cooking and the foods her family likes are not ones my family or I really like or would use, so I gave my copies of her books to a family member who eats more of her style food than we do.   

 

 

When I made the cake the first time I think I had 3 or 4 different pumpkin cake recipes in front of me and I just mixed them up willy-nilly as every keto or low carb pumpkin cake basically has the same ingredients. It's also how I make almost any recipe; I have at minimum, three versions and I make my version based on how I 'feel' about each ingredient and the amounts. 

I thought perhaps the pumpkin cake recipe was in this one, but I just flipped through it quickly and didn't see it.  Still - it's a great baking book so I'm putting it here anyway!

 

The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking: Master All the Best Tricks for Low-Carb Baking Success