Old-fashioned Molasses Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the molasses over a steady fire until it reaches the soft crack stage.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water and add it when pouring the candy out to cool.
Add your chosen flavoring.
When cool enough to handle, pull the candy until it reaches the desired color.
Do not stir while boiling and keep the pot partially covered.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Provides the bulk of the candy and its dark color, flavor, and chewy sweetness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the hot molasses to release gas, lightening the candy's texture as it cools.
The step that matters
Do not stir while boiling. Stirring can agitate the syrup and encourage sugar crystals to form, which makes the candy grainy instead of smooth. Keeping the pot partially covered helps wash crystals off the sides.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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