There's not a lot in a candy cookbook that looks like a train wreck. After all, it's just supposed to be pleasing little bites of things, so the candies today are more curiosities than monstrosities. (They're more Freaks than Texas Chainsaw Massacre.)
There is nothing scary about Calico Fudge, for example.
It's peanut butter and sugar! I'd be tempted to make some right now if I weren't afraid of any recipe that referenced "soft ball stage." I'm just confused as to what makes it calico. Usually, "calico" recipes are multicolored, and this one would be monochromatic beige. I read it expecting candied fruit and discovered it's just peanut butter.
I'd never heard of Oatmeal Fudge either.
And then I realized that pouring no-bake cookies into a pan and cutting them into squares (instead of simply dropping them on waxed paper) makes them into "fudge."
Potato candies seem mildly surprising if you haven't been through very many old cookbooks, but they're so common that they must have been pretty good (or at least a passable way to use up extra mashed potatoes).
Well, good if you liked coconut.
Wait! This one's more my speed:
Yay for more peanut butter!
There are a few candies that wouldn't be so easy to make anymore. Sure, you can still find star-shaped cereal if you look hard enough....
But I imagine Galaxies were way easier to make in the '60s when Sugar Stars were a thing.
Of course, some of the recipes found new uses for gelatin, but at least a candy cookbook can't even pretend these creations are salads.
Then again, I'm not so sure. Candy Strawberries are fruit shaped, and they do have nuts in them, so maybe Ettie Belle Robinson tried to pass them off as salad once in a while.
The final recipe combines the last two trends: a new use for gelatin PLUS a product you can't buy anymore.
Sorry, everybody. No more apple gelatin means no more authentic Appletts (to maybe try to pass off as very, very small salads. They had applesauce and nuts, after all!).
I hope these candies make your Halloween Eve (or whenever you actually read this) just a little bit weirder.
Ha, I knew what you were referencing as soon as I saw the title (although I forgot how blunt Binky the clown was). I have to admit that dumping no bake cookies into a pan and calling it fudge would be a lot easier. That way, if it never set up, you could easily serve oatmeal soup.
ReplyDeleteI figured you'd get it from the title. I remember you jumping up and down and chanting "Candy, candy, candy, candy, candy!"
DeleteI remember doing that, too. Too bad we got dentist, dentist, dentist, dentist, dentist instead.
ReplyDelete