Making Candy in Large Quantities

FONDANT | CREAM CARAMELS | PEANUT BRITTLE

Many candies can be made successfully at home in fairly large quantities, without any more special equipment than an extra-large kettle. Others need big beaters, large marble-top tables, or other special equipment, such as candy bars, cutters, candy hooks, batch warmers and so on, which are only worth the investment if you mean to set up a small candy factory.

If you are interested in making candies in com­paratively large quantities either for gifts for church bazaars or for sale, you will need to choose your types of candy.

Caramels are easy to cook in large batches, but are a chore to cut and wrap. Fondant is also easy to cook in a large batch but you will need a large enough slab to cool it all at once since you cannot be cream­ing three or four platters or pans at the same time.

For fudge, the beating of large quantities is the chief difficulty. Size of beater bowls will keep you from making more than the regular recipes for nougats, marshmallows and divinity. Butter crunch is best made in small quantities but several batches may be made in succession and the chocolate coating done all at once.

Hard candies are too difficult to handle to make more than a small quantity at a time unless you are simply pouring it into pans and cutting it into squares. For lollipops, candy sticks and other varieties that have to be formed, it is too difficult to keep the candy from hardening to make large-quantity cooking at­tractive.

Suggested extra equipment for the cook who wants to make a great deal of candy are a large marble slab, a large-size electric mixer, a candy hook for pulling taffy in quantity, and rubber mats and starch trays for molding fondant and jellies as well as crystallizing racks and trays for bonbons.

Sometimes caramels and nougats are difficult to remove from a pan. Useful to anyone who makes these candies are the metal, 3/4-inch candy bars, with the length cut to order. When these are set on a marble slab the candy can be poured in and the bars removed easily after it is set. The bars too, will give straight edges and sharp corners to every piece, though the cutting of the long strips into individual pieces will have to be done by hand.

Any recipe in this book may be doubled or tripled without causing too much trouble for the candy cook. Saucepan sizes will need to be at least half again as large for most double batches and more than twice as large for triple batches, particularly for candies that are boiled briskly and contain cream or milk or butter.

Included here are some special extra-large recipes for candies that can be handled in quantity.

FONDANT
5 pounds sugar, 3 1/2 cups hot water, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar,

Measure 5 pounds (10 cups) sugar into an 8-quart saucepan with 3 1/2 cups hot water and 1/2tea­spoon cream of tartar. Follow general directions for fondant (see pages 19-27). Pour out on large marble slab and work when cool. For butter creams add 1/2pound soft butter before creaming.

CREAM CARAMELS

3 pounds sugar, 6 cups warmed cream, 2 pounds light corn syrup, 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup butter     2 tablespoons vanilla

Measure into an 8-quart saucepan 3 pounds (6 cups) sugar, 2 pounds (3 cups) light corn syrup. Blend and boil to 305°, then add 3/4cup butter in pieces and 6 cups warmed cream. Cook to 246° to 250° and let stand 5 minutes, then add 1 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons vanilla. Pour into three pans, 8 by 11 inches, or between caramel bars set at 15 inches square. When set and cool remove bars and cut in squares or oblongs. For more detailed direc­tions see regular recipe for cream caramels .

PEANUT BRITTLE

3 pounds sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 2 pounds light com syrup, 6 cups salted peanuts, 1 cup hot water,      3 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla

Measure into a 6-quart saucepan 3 pounds (6 cups) sugar, 2 pounds (3 cups) light corn syrup and 1 cup hot water. Blend and boil to 280°, then add 1/4 cup butter and 6 cups salted peanuts. Continue cooking to 300°, remove from heat, add 3 teaspoons soda and stir well, then add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour thinly into five or six large buttered pans or trays and stretch and turn the candy as it cools.