My Christmas food memory is of my grandfather. He was an amazing man, so full of spirit and fun and practical jokes. His specialty was a candy called "Daisy Cream" - boiled, cooled on a marble slab and pulled like taffy, only it "aged" to a buttery, creamy, soft butter-mint type consistency (without the mint).
He had a small cottage-type business around Christmas -people from all over the country bought small paper-lined coffee tins of the candy for $1.00.
Any time we visited, there was a pot on the stove, and another batch already pulled and cut into bite-size pieces waiting for their intricately folded waxed-paper wrappers. My brothers and I used to argue over who would get the "sucker" - grandpa would scrape the remaining syrup out of the pan and put the spoon in cold water where it would harden into a homemade lollipop.
In my grandmother's diary (which, as the only grandaughter she left to me) she stated that one year, they raised $300.00, which they sent to the convent where my aunt (their daughter) was a member. That's 300 lbs of candy, folks!
My brothers and I have recently taken to trying our hands at Daisy Cream. We have grandpa's slab - it has a crack in it just as it did when he made his candy - his original cooking pot and candy thermometer. Ours is a clumsy rendition, but I'm glad my kids are able to have the same eat-yourself-sick experience that I did growing up.
"Daisy Cream..."
That's a great story. So where's the recipe? 8~)
Daisy's Cream Candy 1) Cook until forms a hard ball in cold water
- 3 pints sugar
- 1 pint boiling water
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 3 teaspoons cream or rich milk
- Pinch salt
2) Turn out on greased marble, flavor with vanilla or cinnamon
3) Pull until begins to look creamy; cut in pieces with scissors
4) Make cream icing, and when taken from fire add coconut and drop on wax paper.