Brittle candies like butterscotch, barley sugar, peppermint sticks, brittle and nougats, are cooked to 2900 F. or up to 3300 F.

They should be thin and very brittle when finished.

Candies boiled to a high temperature and pulled must be handled with canvas gloves, in front of a warm oven or batch warmer. Much experience is required to successfully manipulate the syrup used in making Christmas and stick candies, and it will hardly pay the home candy maker to attempt them.

Barley Sugar Drops

2 cups sugar 1 cup water

Color paste

¼teaspoon cream of tartar

Flavoring extract

Put sugar and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, add coloring if desired, cover, and boil three minutes. Remove cover, add cream of tartar, and boil to 300 ° F., or until it just begins to change color. Add few drops of flavoring - peppermint, lemon, or orange extract - and drop at once on tin sheet from tip of spoon, in portions the size of a silver half dollar. Store in a tight glass jar.

Barley Sugar Sticks

Prepare candy as directed in Barley Sugar Drops. Pour on tin sheet in strips four inches long and three fourths inch wide. Take up one at a time, twist, and place in covered glass jars.

Butterscotch I

1 1/3 cups brown sugar 2 teaspoons vinegar

2/3 cup butter 2/3 cup hot water

½ tablespoon vanilla

Put sugar, vinegar, butter, and water in saucepan. Stir until ingredients are mixed, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 2900 F., or until candy becomes brittle when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, remove from fire, pour into a buttered pan, cool slightly, and mark in squares.

Butterscotch II

½ cup corn syrup

1 cups sugar

2 cup light brown sugar

½ cup butter cup cold water ½tablespoon vanilla

Put ingredients, except vanilla, in saucepan, and boil to 2880 F., or until it cracks when tried in cold water. Add vanilla, turn into buttered tin, cool slightly, and mark in squares.

Scotch Mallows

Dip marshmallows (whole or cut in halves) in Butterscotch I or II, while it is still soft. Take up with two-tuned fork, and put on buttered marble slab or tin sheet.

Butterscotch Squares

1cups light brown sugar cup corn syrup½cup water

1½ tablespoons butter ¼ teaspoon salt Oil of lemon

Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil to 2800 F., or until it cracks in cold water.

Add butter and salt, and boil to 2900 F., or until it reaches the hard crack when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, flavor with oil of lemon, and pour out between bars on slightly moistened slab, mark in squares, and break up when cold.

Butterscotch Wafers

1cups sugar cup corn syrup½cup water

1½ tablespoons butter

½ tablespoon dark molasses

¼teaspoon salt

Few drops oil of lemon

Put sugar, corn syrup, and water in saucepan, stir until dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil to 2700 F., or until it is brittle when tried in cold water. Add butter and molasses, and cook to 2800 F., or until it cracks in cold water, stirring to prevent burning. While stirring, move the spoon over every part of the bottom of the kettle.

Be careful not to stir in just one spot, thus allowing the candy to burn on the other side of the saucepan. Remove from fire, add salt, flavor with oil of lemon, and drop from tip of spoon on oiled marble slab or tin sheet in wafers the size of a quarter of a dollar.

Cream Butterscotch Balls

1 cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 cup white corn syrup

1 cup butter½cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract

Put all the ingredients, except the flavoring, in a saucepan, stir until mixed, bring to boiling point, and boil until mixture is just stiff enough to keep its shape, when a little is dropped into cold water. If it can be lifted from the water and remain in a ball when shaped with the fingers, it is done. Remove from fire, add flavoring, pour into a buttered pan, and when cool shape into small balls, and roll in powdered sugar.

The candy when removed from the fire may be dropped from the tip of a spoon on an oiled marble slab or tray, into wafers the size of a quarter of a dollar. These should be loosened with a thin-bladed knife before they have time to get hard.

Cream Butterscotch with Nuts Follow recipe for making Cream Butterscotch Balls. When candy is removed from fire, add half a cup of walnut or pecan nut meats cut in small pieces, and proceed as in Cream Butterscotch Balls.

Toffee

2 cups light brown sugar 4 teaspoons vinegar or the juice of one lemon

½ cup butter

½ cup English walnut meats

Heat sugar, butter, and vinegar or lemon juice over a moderate fire, stir till the sugar dissolves, then boil without stirring to 270° F., or until syrup forms a hard ball when tried in cold water. Pour carefully around and over the nuts which have been arranged in rows in buttered or oiled pans. When cold, cut in squares, leaving one nut in the center of each square.

Horehound Candy

½ ounce dried horehound 1 cup water

1¾ cups sugar½cup corn syrup

Put water and horehound, which may be procured of a druggist in one-ounce packages, in a saucepan and simmer half an hour. Strain through double cheesecloth; there should be half a cup of liquid. To liquid add sugar and corn syrup, and stir until mixture boils. Wash down crystals from sides of saucepan with a butter brush dipped in cold water, and boil to 2950 F., or until it is very brittle when tried in cold water. Remove at once from the fire, and pour into buttered pan one fourth inch thick, or pour between candy bars.